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Acorazado: The day the Mexican rafter arrived in Cuba

Araceli Calva Translated by Cindy Hawes

At a press conference Thursday, Curiel added, “What does a bodyguard dream about? Having a bodyguard himself? What does a housekeeper dream about? Having a housekeeper who cleans her house? What I mean is, we don’t want a world of equals, we want to be above someone else. If you’re not getting stepped on, then you want to step on another person. For that reason, we can’t get ahead and that is what the film is all about.”

In Acorazado, the actor Silverio Palacios plays the part of a person with his same name, who wants to conquer the American dream. Encouraged by an old friend, he decides to build a raft to go to Miami, but because of bad weather and a broken compass he ends up in Cuba where he requests political asylum.

“The idea of this film came about in about 15 minutes,” he said. “Alejandro Lozano and I were at a Film Festival in Havana, when I said: one day Mexican rafters will be coming to Cuba. It was a joke, but friends and other close acquaintances advised us to use this idea and develop it into a film.”

Curiel added that when he finally decided to make the film, it only took him a month to write the screenplay, and the positive feedback motivated him to go ahead with the project.
 
He pointed out that he wrote the character for Silverio Palacios, which is also the namesake of the protagonist of the story.
 
“The character is more important than the name, which I think is marvelous. The name itself seems to signify [a person with] tremendous aspirations, like those of this man,” he said.

Palacios said giving life to this character was a very gratifying experience – it was like taking your clothes off in front of a mirror and acknowledging your faults, but also your virtues.

“A trip like this person takes is an introspective journey, to the depths of any Mexican. It is in our nature to have expectations that are out of reach, which can be something as trivial as winning the World Cup,” he said.

Palacios also reflected on the Mexican dream  -- of those who aspire to reach the first world and join NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association) but who are not ready to compete.  “Silverio Palacios – the character – is not prepared to exercise his much-longed-for freedom.”