History of Otaku culture in Cuba II: ''Behind the mirror"

Pic: Habana Cosplay

In this post I will continue the history of the Otaku movement in Cuba. In case you find the subject interesting but didn't read the first part you can find it here:
https://steemit.com/english/@pattycosplayer/cgqme-historia-de-la-cultura-otaku-en-cuba-i-el-pais-de-las-maravillas

Lest's continue... In 2011 I joined the events organized by the groups of fans, they had around 50 attendees and were held once or twice a month. At that time those were the only spaces in which people interested in this culture could find some entertainment, information and socialize with those who shared their interests. The oldest group is DiAlFa (Project for the Dissemination of Fantastic Art and Literature ) that already had an annual event called Behique. Then appeared others like AnK Anime no Kenkyuu and KnF Konoha no Fansub. The events of these groups lasted about 5 hours, in which there were talks, drawing and cosplay contests, karaokes, digital information copy, videogames tournaments, and due to the lack of access to original marketing some assistants carried handcrafts made by them to sell or exhibit.

Pic: DiAlFa

Sometimes official events where made by Vitrina de Valonia (a library specialized in comics, sponsored by a Belgian organization) or the Japanese Culture Week and Havana Book Fair, where the Japanese Embassy was always involved. I started to attend them and I dressed in cosplay every time I went, I did more relationship with that little community, I learned more about themes related to anime and manga, creators, producers, and traditional Japanese culture.

Pic: Japan Embassy Booth at Havana Book Fair

Regarding the video games I learned the genres and consoles since I only knew some made for PC and the last console that I remembered I saw as a chil was a PS1. Since in Cuba there was no public internet, the use of offline pirated games was propagated and somehow, they created a virtual server for WoW, Warcraft and Dota, which are online co-op, allowing us to play them with bots, and in some cases play them by connecting computers to each other or in the Joven Club (government-created locals with computers and an intranet network accessible to the community). ADEC (Electronic Sports Association) appeared, another group this time focused on video games.

Pic: Jovenclub Granma

Also magazines where created by fans, that collected information and analysis of mangas, animes and creators, they showed fanarts, Japanese language, lyrics of songs, images and history of Japanese culture. Among them are Hikari Guild and Korad. But it was not only a phenomenon that happened in the capital, other provinces also had these situations, because as I said, was a natural product from the fan's needs. The oldest cases are MangaQba in Camaguey, OtakuSS in Sancti Spiritus and Tsunami Todoketai in Villa Clara with a magazine, i guess if I remember correctly was named AkibaTan.

Pic: AnK

In 2012, I started to collaborate in AnK activities, and in March I heard about the maid coffee (thematic cafés in which the servants are cosplaying) and I dared to make the proposal to do one of them so I organized my first event. Among friends we got together the food for the menu, sodas, coffee and sweets, we made the maid and butler suits, we requested a cafeteria that belonged to the place where AnK was presented monthly and they found it interesting. That day was attended by about 100 people, it was crazy, but we all worked as a team and everything got nailed. At the end of the day I remember being thanked in front of the audience by the boys of Ank and cryed of happiness, you don't imagine how gratifying it was for me to feel like part of the community and my work being appreciated.

I knew that day I would not be a mere spectator. With the friends I did the coffee with and previously used to do cosplay together I decided to create a group dedicated specifically to cosplay, to promote it so more people will join to do it and valorate it. We started by collaborating with other groups but when we gained strength and experience we did things alone or in conjunction with institutions. Among the things we did were parades, maid cafes and many contests to attract those interested to make more and better suits. We also used to met to make the costumes because we exchanged ideas and materials, since in Cuba it's very difficult to access to tutorials or materials. We gained experience that led us then to create a workshop to offer our knowledge to the amateur cosplayers and a series of conferences that we offered in a tour through several provinces of the country.

After organizing a large and varied series of events, and traveling to various provinces of the country, in 2014 we realized how big and strong the Otaku community was, and how necessary it was to create a large and well organized event. With the director of the magazine Hikari Guild, and our teams and friends, together with other groups like Ank and DiAlFa, we decided to create an annual event called the Cuban Otaku Festival. At the moment it was our greatest achievement, the University of Arts of Cuba and the Cathedra of Japanese Culture accepted to be our legal sponsors, and in September 2014 and 2015, for two days, our audience was able to witness a variety of exhibitions of drawings , comics, and crafts, contests, conferences, we even receive the organizers from the other provinces. Around 400 people attended the 1st edition and more than 1000 to the 2nd.

Around 2014 the famous ** Package** appeared, which is a digital purchase system, updated weekly with about 1TB of info downloaded from the internet and some national media. With the package many people were not only updated and began to watch anime, manga, movies and TV fantasy, science fiction and video games, but also spread more information about projects and events in the country. The Snet or the network also emerged, a series of networks, created by the same people that facilitated the communication through chats and forums, copy of information, and of course, online games, reaching almost 1000 players per server. In mid-2015, public internet and personal e-mails were added to this wave of development, the government finally gave people access to the internet, placing Wi-Fi in public places, and even though being for a limited and expensive time, this relieved many questions, closed ties and finally brought the outside world to ours.

Pic: Martinoticias

That was a very convulsive era, groups like Yoroshiku, KuroNeko Cuba Cosplay, Atarashii Sekai, Sakura, AniMat, Japan Quest, OtakuHLG, took great strength in all the country, the amount of public grew excessively, not only fans of this culture, but also curious audience. Digital magazines were done professionally, with updated info and better design, great examples of this are OtaKoi and N1cks. After the second edition of the otaku festival I decided to focus on my first project, it continues being realized and its organizers make a monthly event called Freak Zone. The Dota community DotaCuba in conjunction with the magazine ** En la Habana** created an annual tournament of Dota2 that already has two editions made, is the only one of which I have exact knowledge, but I know that in all the country were held previous tournaments.

Pic: DotaCuba

I hope you found this post very interesting. I promise to dedicate a specific post to the history of Habana Cosplay, so you can know more about our work, members and of course watch many photos.

I apologize if I gave you wrong information, I know there are things missing but it is a complicated story that I will try to pick up in detail. I must clarify that each of the projects suffered changes in their names and staff since their creation, some were dissolved and others continue to work today but I think it is too much information to name in a single post. Meanwhile those who disagree with what I wrote or have any doubt or suggestion can tell me and I will correct it.