New series on Cuba will be released on the internet
A new online series on Cuba will be released in the coming days through a digital media company named VERV.Tv, aimed at the Hispanic market in the United States and which will be broadcasted on YouTube. The new production will be about the controversial issue of Cuban private entrepreneurs and how to start a business in Cuba, as well as the vicissitudes and obstacles that the Cuban government sets to them, the theme through which VERV. Tv will illustrate the followers of the online channel. Executive Producer Ken Deckinger explains that VERV.Tv will bring Hispanic public unfamiliar topics to them.
The system of private entrepreneurs in Cuba and how is emerging after 50 years is one of those interesting stories that are worth telling for Hispanics in the United States. Even for the Cubans themselves, it is still a mystery what will happen to private businesses and what paths they will take especially if a year ago the government "temporarily" closed the granting of certain licenses due to a reordering.
However, time has passed and news has not yet been released. Also, the inputs and materials to maintain the business, as well as the daily conditions’ fluctuations of the Cuban entrepreneurs will be reflected in the StartupCuba show. Perhaps even the protagonists themselves can understand the mysteries about private businesses in the Caribbean island a little bit.
Tamara Park, executive director and director of StartupCuba recalls that it was a visit to Cuba in June 2015 that inspired her to make this type of series and theme in particular. To Tamara, the artfulness of the Cuban entrepreneurs to get around the government and input obstacles totally surprised her. According to Tamara, Cubans always find a solution to the impossible and have shown incredible ability, a fact that will call the attention of American viewers.
The representatives of the new digital channel have said that the series will be broadcasted every Tuesday. There will be eight-minute episodes about the new business landscape in Cuba from taxi drivers and private mechanics, internet entrepreneurs, independent designers and artists, restaurateurs, owners of private rent homes to the fashion business itself.
StartupCuba was recorded between March and September last year, without official permission from the Cuban government. Although the producers requested a visa for journalists, they were rejected by the Cuban government. MINREX is the one that authorizes in Cuba the visas of journalists to film programs related to the largest of the Antilles, but sometimes they request information about the topics to be recorded and do not always give their approval. However, despite the censorship, StarupCuba will be released.
Paradoxically, the series has been made in a context in which more than 540,000 self-employed people live in the island in complete uncertainty, as the famous "reordering of private activity" announced by the Cuban government that has not just become official. There were also several bars and private restaurants that were closed after government searches, alleging drug consumption and trafficking. Others were seized due to supposedly money laundering.
The Castros have not stopped appealing to the old days at the beginning of the Revolution when they seized private businesses and large companies. Although the authorities know that private business is vital to re-oxygenate the country's economy, they find it difficult to accept the emergence of a new social class. Hence, from time to time, they launch their offensive under the pretext of illicit activities.
When the licenses were frozen, up to that time 2,000 of them had been granted for private restaurants and 22,000 for rooms for rent, besides starting to negotiate with important American companies such as Airbnb.
At the moment, the creators of the series remain cautious, but they are already thinking about a second season of StartupCuba. Deckinger himself recently expressed his gratitude to the Cuban people for the warmth and spirit they showed.