El Paquete 1: Cuba's clandestine hard drive + My autumn recs
Is this just cultural appropriation? And my suggests for when you want to feel October-y but you've watched Hocus Pocus too many times
This is a list of my recommendations to watch / read / listen to this month, but first I need to talk about Cuba.
Cuba is the most unique place I’ve ever traveled. The gorgeous people and their difficult history. The crumbling buildings. The family restaurants run out of living rooms called paladars. So many rich details to write about, and I did. My trip came together on Christmas Eve 2015, and I arrived in Havana the eve of New Year’s Eve, so I had little time to build expectations. Doesn’t matter. Even if I’d been prepping the trip for months I’d still have been blown away.
And the thing that shook me the most? A hard drive.
El Paquete Semanal ("The Weekly Package") is basically an underground hard drive that’s the primary source of entertainment for millions of Cubans. Because the government controls their media and very few households have access to Internet, El Paquete is entertainment as a form of rebellion. Art as defiance.
The travel essay I wrote about that trip, “We Were Almost Hoteliers,” published in print and online by FLAUNT magazine, is about a scam, and santería, and my boyfriend at the time getting hit by a car, and being in Havana the first month Cuba got the Internet. Of all the potent threads of that piece, it’s probably El Paquete that’s stayed with me the most. An excerpt of an excerpt:
This is how the Paquete works: During the week, different “experts” gather content for their respective verticals: music, film, TV, Netflix, awards shows, magazines, classifieds, and so on. The content comes from various sources: high speed Internet for the few who have it, bootlegged copies, friends in Miami. At any given time, three to five Paquetes will be in circulation in Havana, produced by different people but assembled the same way: On Thursdays, all the content aggregators gather in one location (obviously, sending big files via email is not an option) to upload their bounty to a single hard drive: El Paquete.
What strikes such a nerve for me is the entrepreneurship of El Paquete, the hustle. The human desire to consume culture, even when it’s illegal, even when it’s dangerous. There’s a very long list of what makes living under a communist dictatorship in Cuba different from living in America. But perhaps the lack of access to media and entertainment is easier for us to wrap our heads around than total governmental control of travel, income, medicine … everything.
When I started this Substack, I knew I wanted to send an occasional recommended reading / viewing digest. Inspired by The Marginalian (and how often I get asked for book and movie recs), I had an Aha! moment: I’ll call this digest my El Paquete. In the same way they gather the best weekly content to share, I’ll put together my culture list and name it in honor of El Paquete Semanal. How cute! How cool!
Cue inner voice of the Privilege Police. Those admonishing whistleblowers who already had box seats in the theater of my mind, but stole the lead in 2020, that year we (who were wake enough to listen) got sent to our rooms to think about what we had done (for the last several centuries).
The dialogue went something like this:
Privilege Police: Really? You’re co-opting the name of something born from a system of oppression to recommend the latest HBO Max show on your cute little blog thing?
Erin: But I want to honor El Paquete. I don’t want to offend, it’s coming from the goodness of my heart!
Privilege Police: Yeah, because you’re safe. It’s easy to have “good intentions” when you don’t live in a country where expressing your opinion could mean imprisonment and torture.
Erin: So you’re saying I’m committing cultural appropriation AND I’m rubbing my liberty in the face of those I thought I was honoring?
Privilege Police: That’s for you to decide. I’m just flagging the obvious.
Erin: Shit.
So, what to do? To be honest, I usually avoid conflict or open myself up to criticism. Some writing I’ve published in the past unexpectedly put me on blast as a target for “everything that’s wrong with pretty white girls” and it made me gun shy. But now I say — fuck it. I will fail upwards and be the first to turn the lens of scrutiny on myself.
And so, does my intention to call this occasional digest El Paquete as a reminder of how lucky Americans are to have freedom of speech and freedom of information make it okay? Or am I appropriating as cluelessly as a Coachella bro in a war bonnet?
What do you think?
Here’s one step toward respectfully sharing something from another culture— including their photographs and writing, not just mine. From The Pirate Book:
…when the phenomena of El Paquete started, the real preoccupation of the government wasn’t the artistic quality of its content, but politics; they didn’t want it to be used for spreading information against the government. This USB package was spontaneous, unpredictable, and impossible to control. Of course it quickly became illegal; if you were caught selling it, you could go to prison or the government could confiscate your computer. But some other methods to stop El Paquete were also tested. One example was the creation of a direct rival: the authorities made their own Paquete named Maletín or Mochila, which means a “bag” or “backpack” in English. Inside, instead of US blockbusters, you could find classical movies and music and educational materials. Actually, people found it very boring and nobody liked it, so this anti-Paquete system was a total failure. And of course it was just as pirated as the clandestine one: the government did not pay for its contents either; it was all “stolen.”
In any event, I still want to share my picks for autumn reading and watching, whatever the title will be. So please let me know what you think, for the titling of future digests.
Oh, one more thing! I received this lovely Planet Granat recommendation from fellow Substacker Jen at jackrabbit studios and it made me feel like this could really be something. Community support is the water that makes the idea garden grow.
If you know anyone who’d enjoy the types of conversation we’re having here, or you just want to support my writing, please share my newsletter with the button below. Hearts!
When You Want To Get In The Autumn Mood But You've Watched "Hocus Pocus" Too Many Times — Do This Instead:
READ:
It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers by Colin Nissan — The perennial viral essay about fall, originally published in McSweeney’s in 2009. I’ve read it a dozen times and I still giggle. Extra points for all the foul language.
The Spiral Dance by Starhawk — Before there was #WitchTok, there was Starhawk. This book was my entry point to earth based spirituality, a path I study as seriously as Buddhism and Judaism. October is the season of commodifying mysticism, of the tired trope that witches are old hags with broomsticks and warts. First published in 1979, The Spiral Dance is a must-read for anyone interested in learning the history of ancient Neopagan beliefs and ecofeminism. The non-Disney, non-Puritanical version, based in fact. An excerpt:
In Witchcraft, power is another word for energy, the subtle current of forces that shape reality. A powerful person is one who draws energy into the group. The ability to channel power depends on personal integrity, courage, and wholeness. It cannot be assumed, inherited, appointed, or taken for granted, and it does not confer the right to control another. Power from within develops from the ability to control ourselves, to face our own fears and limitations, to keep commitments, and to be honest. The sources of inner power are unlimited.
WATCH:
Being There — This 1979 classic from director Hal Ashby, with a screenplay from Jerzy Kosinski (who also write the original novel), “is in its own way, a horror film, a testament to how easily the public can be fooled by a little window dressing and a few idiots with even the most basic understanding of life.” It’s a satire on how people project their needs onto others without really paying attention beyond their own narcissism, and that’s pretty scary. Man, that description barely captures the brilliance of this comedy masterpiece. The story is a precursor to Rain Man and Forrest Gump, and I’d argue even the visual styles of Mike Mills and Adam McKay. Bookending a decade of Hal Ashby’s brilliance (Harold and Maude was 1971), Being There is a revelation. So is Hal Ashby’s look:
It Follows — Terrifying, original, and even thought-provoking, this breakout hit from 2014 is so clever and so well shot, without the usual gore of slasher films, you’ll be hiding under the covers and wanting to watch it again.
Yellowjackets — Just the best television out there. The actresses, the 90s, the horror, the comedy, the masterful writing … hurry up and watch if you haven’t, season two soon cometh.
Autumn In New York — No don’t do that.
LISTEN:
Fever Dream — This is actually a book by Samanta Schweblin, it was assigned for my MFA in Creative Writing that started this past summer, but I had so much to read in such a short amount of time I listened to it on audiobook instead. At 1.5 speed. The best bad idea ever. This book is SO SCARY. Basically this weird little boy is whispering the story into the narrator’s ear. She’s in a hospital bed, can’t move, and doesn’t remember what happened to her. Until the kid leads her with dread and panic with his whispers to the events that transpired. Shudder. It’s been adapted into a Spanish language Netflix film, but seriously, listen to it.
This interview with Stevie Nicks where she says how much she loves witches, then says she isn’t one — Not buying it.
Okay that’s it for now!! Send me all your thoughts!! Love you bye!