VIDEO REVIEW : A Glimpse of Today’s Cuba With Message : Media: Despite the obvious propaganda, ‘Hands Off Cuba Video Summit’ at Centro Cultural de la Raza provides insight into Castro’s country.

Before labeling the “Hands Off Cuba Video Summit” collection of Cuban videos currently showing at the Centro Cultural de la Raza as blatant pro-Castro propaganda, it’s important to remember Radio Marti.

The United States government has been broadcasting Radio Marti to Cuba since 1985, beaming idyllic images of the United States to the island nation in what some would argue is a clear attempt to rally Cubans against Fidel Castro.

The Cold War lives on, a battle of propaganda and images.

“Hands Off Cuba Video Summit” organizers say they are simply presenting an alternative to the propaganda about Cuba presented by the United States. The videos from Cuban television and Cuban filmmakers in the show represent an attempt to break down the stereotypes of Cuban life shared by many Americans.

They are screened in a small room in the Centro, with about 10 chairs placed in front of a TV monitor and VCR. Pro-Cuba literature is spread out on a nearby table, including a book of Che Guevara’s philosophy.

The presentation was put together by locals Cathy Scott, CheChe Martinez, DeeDee Halleck, Andrea Adleman and Colin Jessop, and presented by the San Diego Media Access Center, with funding help from the city of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and Deep Dish TV, a group committed to bringing alternative videos to American television.

Many of the pieces are the type of pro-Castro indoctrination videos that Americans expect to see in a Communist country, where most of the media are strictly controlled by the government. In one video, Nelson Mandela’s visit to Cuba is glamorized. Castro hugs the South African leader and adoring Cubans cheer him. Black activists, including an exiled Black Panther leader, emphasize how Cuba has been involved with the black freedom movement around the world, and that Cuba has shown far more “solidarity” than the United States.

In another video, Castro is seen visiting a day care center, playing with children and chastising a manager for using expensive paint.

It’s easy to label such a scene as worthless propaganda. But the images are starkly similar to those presented when Vice President Dan Quayle recently visited an elementary school, or when presidential candidate Michael Dukakis drove around on a tank during the 1988 election campaign.

Unarguably, there is a paranoid edge to much of the “Hands Off” presentation. “Compare any Saturday evening children’s program on NBC (owned by those who make the weapons that would be used to invade Cuba) with any episode from “Cuando Yo Sea Grande” (a Cuban children’s show). Which program is devoted to the rights of all children to a world of peace and justice?” reads one portion of a press release on the series.

But it would be unfair to toss aside the presentation as nothing more than a socialist diatribe.

Most of the videos presented are not so overtly political. They are culled from Cuban television and from Cuban filmmakers. Most look similar to the rough videos seen on American cable public access channels.

They are interesting only in context of their origin, the fact that they come from modern Cuba. Some will find it surprising that this type of work is produced in a society viewed as oppressive and lacking culture.

In fact, the series presents signs that there is a growing video movement in Cuba, although it is clearly in a fledgling stage, given the quality of the work here.

There are examples of work being produced by computer animation companies and the radical work of students at San Antonio de los Banos, a school for film and TV founded in part by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

One student chronicles the fight to save so-called revolutionary art, art that is not for the mainstream. Students are seen protesting at a public meeting, wearing gas masks.

“Art is only one step away from the graveyard,” reads one mural, which could have easily been placed in San Diego, not Havana.

Americans, who equate socialism with the closed Russian society of Stalin, don’t expect to see dissension in Cuba, or any signs of public discontent. One video chronicles the gay community in Cuba. The subjects of the video easily acknowledge harassment by the police and admit they would not be openly gay in Cuban society, an impressive sign of honesty.

One of the most entertaining selections is an excerpt from “Los Abuelos se Rebelan” (“The Grandparents Rebel”), a lighthearted soap opera making fun of rationing and poor living conditions in Cuba. With a wacky tone similar to many American sitcoms, the children in the family seem well-grounded compared to the out-of-control adults.

The most touching piece is an excerpt from a children’s television series, “Cuando Yo Sea Grande.” Without dialogue, children re-create the story of Don Quixote.

Several of the videos presented are examples of the camcorder revolution, which are becoming part of everyday life in Cuba, albeit in a different fashion than in the United States. Most individuals still can’t afford them, but many organizations use them for informational purposes, according to DeeDee Halleck, one of the event organizers.

In one, a woman is shown working with herbs; in another, produced by an agricultural group, a farmer frolics with his cows.

The tapes are rudimentary and simplistic--maybe even laughable--but taken in context they reveal a human side of the Cuban culture that is often missing from the rhetoric that flows from both sides.

* “Hands Off Cuba Video Summit” screens continuously at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, 12 to 5 p.m., through Sunday. Admission is free. For information, call 235-6135.