Watching Puerto Rican movies: La Gran Fiesta (1985)

Back in the 80s I vividly remember my mother mentioning the words “La Gran Fiesta”. I can’t remember if it was exactly in 1985 when the film was released. That would make me three years old. Or if it was a few years later, still in the 80s because my memories of these words are a blur. The way she said them, with pride, enunciating each word as fancy as she could. I saw the film for the first time last night.

For decades I thought the move had been nominated for and Oscar and even won, but a quick google search revealed last night that that wasn’t even close. The film hadn’t even been nominated.

It’s set in 1942 in the middle of the Second World War. A group of wealthy Puerto Ricans have one last celebration before transferring the Antiguo Casino to the US Navy. Lots of secrets and family drama, etc.

Shocking to remember how Puerto Rico had a US appointed governor as mentioned in the film. They also speak briefly of a senator called Luis Muñoz Marín who we all know became Puerto Rico’s first elected governor in 1949, 50 years after the US made the Island a territory.

Beyond the politics and history, I was touched by the nostalgia the public must have felt watching the film. There is a lot of music from the 1940s. I imagine grandparents watching the film remembering “aquellos tiempos” like my grandma used to say. Those times in the past.

Now the 1980s are 40 years ago. It’s the 40th Anniversary of She-ra, the Carebears, the Golden Girls, and so on. Think of anything you love from 1985. We are lucky that we can find so many people online celebrating these milestones. A replica of the original Rainbow Brite was just released. (I have my original doll from’83 sitting in my closet.) Young people love the music, film and TV and feel sorry they were “born too late”. It’s soothing to my generation to be able to relieve countless pop culture memories.

But our grandparents (all of mine have passed away) only had their memories. Nobody was celebrating or re-releasing the things they loved from the Puerto Rico of the 1940s. Ture, there were plenty of horrors that happened that decade, but for them, that was their youth.