Here are some comments already coming in to the Havana Journal from our news article Fanjul family bring out the lawyers to review CANE CBS tv series scripts:

“this is not a show that will show the Cuban people and all their greatness rather its going to show the culture as a money hungry killers that cant even control their own family because fighting will take over the family…..as a Cuban I and we should not be supporting this show”

and

“shut your mouth because you clearly don’t know what you are talking about I work for Viacom which if you didn’t know is the holding company for CBS NBC MVT ect. And I have see this show and it is the worst this that could happen to the Cuban people...”

and I replied:

“Here comes the Cuban exiles stifling American freedoms again.

Sue and whine and protest. That’s the vocal MINORITY of Cuban Americans.

Cane is entertainment, NOT a documentary.”

If Italian -Americans would have reacted to “THE SOPRANOS” the way some Cuban - Americans may be reacting to “CANE"… would perhaps some people been WHACKED?
Fugeddaboutit !!!!

I just posted this article Fanjul lawyers will not sue CBS … for now. I’ll bet CBS gave up creative control to the Fanjul family lawyers so they can review every line of every script.

I don’t think there is a negative view towards the show.  Most family and friends that I have spoken to share my interest in the show and its release.  I don’t think that the majority of the community is viewing this as a negative.  Most of us see this as you do, it is entertainment.

I love the fact that this is an actual topic on this forum! I’m actually looking forward to the series, somewhat in the way that one slows down to gawk at an accident on the road. I agree that it might not be good for CA’s in general (why aren’t there more Cuban actors in the show?) but it seems as if they’ve gone to some length to get dialect and accent coaches for them so at least they ‘sound’ cubiche.

Mako - 26 July 2007 01:09 PM

If Italian -Americans would have reacted to “THE SOPRANOS” the way some Cuban - Americans may be reacting to “CANE"… would perhaps some people been WHACKED?
Fugeddaboutit !!!!

At the time it came out, Italians did protest the Godfather.

I’m glad I had an opportunity to see the premier of “Cane” (with limited commercial breaks). Now, I must voice my opinion.
Alex (Smits) and “brother” Frank (Carbonell) were the central figures of the first episode. To me, it seemed that Frank resembled the role of “Sonny” from “The Godfather” because he is the family’s hothead. Since Alex is not a biological son, this was also reminiscent of “The Godfather” because the character Tom Hagan was raised with the family and educated on the family’s dime, but it did come up often through innuendo in The Godfather the tension Tom felt that he was not biologically related. Since Alex is the primary character, it will be interesting to see how his role as the head of the family, although not biologically related, will hold up.

Voiceovers were used to assist Isabel Vega with her Spanish and I thought this to be the most far-fetched compromise in preserving “Latinidad” on network television. I would have preferred to see an intelligent Latina who maintained Spanish instead of a very nice, fair skinned girl that symbolizes the “barely dark look” (a downgrade from a blonde. The only thing that is missing from her is the blonde hair). This is perpetuating an ideology that you have to be almost-anglo to be considered the wife of someone with the social standard that Alex has.

In any case, cheers to Smits and his crew for a very nice debut. It doesn’t hurt to have a true Latina-veteran like Rita Moreno as the mother of the family, either. Saludos!

I can not understand why if the serial is about a Cubanamerican family and pretty much all around their culture why they did not use cubanamerican actors. There several very good cubanamerican actors working in the states now.
I feel that the serial is not bad but is very easy to see that most of caracters are not cubans because the accent, the expressions used, etc. In my opinion I thing simplistic implying that with saying “papi” or few spanish words, the caracter would look “cuban”. Cubans are more than Rum and Salsa and that’s something that the producers should had learn in advance.