From Utopian Enclave to Zombified Island: Disaster Capitalism and the Reassertion of Cuban Identity in Alejandro Brugués’ Juan of the Dead

• Main Author: Park, Jungwon
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Caribbean culture; disaster capitalism; post-Special Period Cuba; tropicality; utopian enclave; Zombie
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss45/11
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Cuba, expected with the 1959 revolution to become a utopian enclave in Latin America and beyond, has undergone political and economic hardships since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, known as the Special Period. However, what has been the fate of this country, which remains one of the most isolated and disconnected in the world, in the twenty-first century? Cuba’s first zombie comedy film, Juan of the Dead (dir. Alejandro Brugués, 2011), depicts the nation’s dystopian present and uncertain future through social criticism, political satire, and burlesque humor. This essay argues that the film’s cannibalistic, infectious zombies allegorize the traumatic experience of disaster capitalism. Coined by Naomi Klein, the term “disaster capitalism” encapsulates how the global system exploits disasters as opportunities to expand its territory and promote free-market logic. While criticizing the ineptitude and incompetence of the Castro regime, Juan of the Dead seeks to reveal the national trauma perpetuated by external threats. Notably, the film ends not with the triumph of the zombies but rather with scenes of ordinary Cubans who have survived the zombie onslaught and now must grapple with the aftermath of the catastrophe while attempting to preserve their dignity and sense of humor. By incorporating marginalized Caribbean cultural and celebrating stigmatized tropicality, the film presents alternative forms of national identity and community that are neither confined within the former state-centered socialist society nor submerged in the sea of global capitalism.