Granma. Trombones from Havana

In the 60th year of the revolution, four young Cubans search for traces of history: Daniel, whose grandfather Faustino Pérez became the first minister for nationalization of property after the revolution, still has a catalog from an auction where confiscated berets and seaside villas were sold. Software programmer Christian traces his grandfather’s path to the Angolan civil war, and Milagro, a history student, tries to understand why the revolution that enabled her to study barely allows her to earn a living when she becomes a professor. Diana is a musician whose grandfather was once one of the founding members of the Orquesta Maravillas de Florida.

These young Cubans embark on a journey through time, telling the stories of their families over multiple generations and intertwining them with the contemporary sociopolitical questions of a country that is undergoing change. With this intent, they are making Cuba’s history their own in order to keep writing it.

In the company of composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, and with four trombones, they engage in a revolutionary music practice: learning to do something together that they never would have thought possible before.