Filmmaker Gloria Rolando is working on a new documentary-fiction project, “Mi Guerra (My War),” that looks at the role Black U.S. soldiers — once known as Buffalo Soldiers — played in Cuba during the 1898 war for independence from Spain.
“Mi Guerra” won’t just feature recreations of battle scenes, Rolando said; it will use dramatizations, archival photographs, newspapers, music, voiceover, and footage shot at historic sites in Cuba to evoke the memory of Black U.S. soldiers who fought on Cuban soil.
“It’s going to be a mix — that’s why it’s documentary-fiction. Throughout the research process, the team worked at the Cuban National Library’s archives, compiling documents and photos from that era — which also exist here in Cuba — as well as from publications and periodicals. Our actors are sort of representing the voices of those times and will be reminiscing. And the texts will be read aloud on screen.
“It’s a challenge, it’s a challenge to try to tell this story,” she concedes: “It’s a project with very, very, very few resources. How can academic institutions, cultural organizations, or the international community help? Well, we’re trying to find a way to receive funds to welcome help.”
Gloria Rolando has spent over 40 years telling stories about Black communities. Based in Havana, she is a director, screenwriter, and the founder of the independent film group, Imágenes del Caribe. Some of her past works include “Oggún: An Eternal Presence,” “My Footsteps in Baraguá,” “Eyes Of The Rainbow: a documentary film with Assata Shakur,” “1912: Breaking the Silence,” and “Hermanas de Corazón” films that have traced Yoruba spirituality, Anglophone Caribbean migration, Assata Shakur’s life in Cuba, the 1912 massacre of thousands of the Black Cubans who had created the Independent Party of Color, and the Black nuns from Baltimore whose schools educated generations of Cuban girls.
She wants “Mi Guerra” to be a film that shows the Buffalo Soldiers’ role in Cuba as part of a broader Black internationalist tradition — spanning both sides of the Florida Straits. Filming is already underway, and Rolando is looking for support to help finish the film. She said the fiction portion, filmed with actors on a set meant to suggest a Southern cabin, is complete. Information about the period was drawn from African American newspapers, memoirs, and other historical sources. Now, her production team needs to travel from Havana to Eastern Cuba to film the original war sites and gather images from provincial archives, churches, and communities.
Rolando’s team needs to be able to pay for transportation, fuel, hard drives, and post-production costs, including editing, music, sound, subtitles, and recorded narration. They are currently looking to raise $5,000 for fuel so the crew can reach Las Guásimas, El Caney, San Juan Hill, and other locations in the former Oriente province. “Everyone knows the problems in Cuba today,” Rolando told the AmNews. “We have a very critical situation with fuel, with petroleum. To move through the areas where the war took place, we need transportation with gasoline, with diesel, and that is extremely expensive.”
Rolando says that when she researched her film “1912: Breaking the Silence,” she came across references to the Buffalo Soldiers. “Why? Because, well, to tell the story of how Black Cubans were part of the Liberation Army, we had to tell about the American presence in the War of ’98, which included Black soldiers. I think that was the first time I came into contact with that history … Why did these soldiers want to come to Cuba? What was their motivation? What happened to them during the war? What about their mobilization? And also, after they returned, what happened to them? Were they recognized?”
In the war for America
The Buffalo Soldiers came together in 1866: after Black men fought in the Civil War, Congress segregated them into Black regiments in the Regular Army. They formed the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry, and served on the U.S. Western frontier, protecting mail routes and infrastructure.
In 1898, after the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor and the United States declared war on Spain, nearly 3,000 Black regulars were sent to Cuba. The Buffalo Soldiers fought under intense fire in major battles at Las Guásimas, El Caney, and San Juan Heights near Santiago de Cuba. They helped secure the U.S. victory in Cuba.
Rolando sees “Mi Guerra” as a story of Afro Cuban and African American connection, of Black people seeing one another across empire, language, and geography. “It is not only important to tell a story of the past,” she said, “but also to tell a story of the present and, why not, also a story of the future.”
Rolando hopes “Mi Guerra” will circulate in universities, museums, festivals, theaters, and cultural organizations that promote African American studies, Cuba, and the African diaspora. “What we are doing is a tribute to that history of the past written by our ancestors,” she said. “It deserves to be continued and respected.”
To contact Gloria Rolando and Imágenes del Caribe, email her at gloriavictoriarolando@gmail.com.
