How far would a person go to escape oppression? One group of Cuban punk rock teens in the ‘90s deliberately injected themselves with HIV in order to live more freely.
Their story is loosely told in “Los Frikis,” or “The Freaks,” a drama in theaters Dec. 25, starring Adria Arjona, Héctor Medina and newcomer Eros de la Puente. Written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, creators of “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” the Spanish-language film begins with the following message:
“In 1961, Fidel Castro outlawed rock music in Cuba. For decades, only the boldest performers played ‘the music of the enemy’ in secret. The most extreme members of this movement became known as Los Frikis.”
Inspired by true events, “Los Frikis” tells the coming-of-age story of Gustavo (de la Puente), who idolizes his older brother Paco (Medina) and his rock music-loving friends. Poor and starving during a period of scarcity in Cuba, Paco and his friends inject themselves with HIV so they can be sent to a government-run sanitarium where they can have full meals, freedom and listen to and play rock ’n’ roll.
“(There) they experience freedom and joy and a full belly for the first time in their lifetime,” Arjona tells TODAY.com. “It’s a joyful, beautiful ride of these two brothers coming together. It’s a coming-of-age story. It’s funny, and it’s incredibly, incredibly heartbreaking as well.”
Miller, along with producer Phil Lord and actors Adria Arjona, Héctor Medina and Eros de la Puente, break down the incredible story of resilience and endurance told in “Los Frikis.”
A harrowing time in Cuba
In 1989, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s economy took a turn for the worse. The country entered its decadeslong depression known as the “Special Period,” when food and fuel shortages affected the population.
“Los Frikis” shows the struggles that many people faced at that time and the extreme measures they took to survive. Early on there’s a scene where Paco makes his brother catch and kill a cat so they can eat it. Gustavo doesn’t have the stomach to do it.
“You have to learn how to take care of yourself, OK!” Paco sternly tells his brother. “Wake up! We live in Cuba!”
A 1989 New York Times article wrote about “starvation in Cuba,” where it said “cats and dogs there, and even iguanas and snakes, have been eaten.”
At the same time, as the AIDS epidemic spread in the ’80s, HIV testing began in Cuba in 1986, according to The New York Times. Cuba took strict measures to combat the spread by frequently testing people for HIV and offering free basic health care, as well as forcing people who tested positive to quarantine in the sanitariums.
The self-infected Frikis knew that if they were sent to the sanitariums they would be provided with food, shelter and the freedom to listen and play their music.
“The thing that we were trying to do was make sure that it wasn’t sensationalizing (people injecting themselves with HIV) and presenting what was happening in a matter of fact, letting the story tell you what was going on without trying to push it,” producer Chris Miller tells TODAY.com. “Because what really happened is so outrageous, you don’t need to do anything extra to make it seem outrageous. So it was really about trying to underplay it as much as possible.”
While the sanitariums kept people infected with the disease away from their families, people formed lifelong friendships and the places kept the spread to a minimum.
According to a 2007 study, Cuba had one of the world’s smallest HIV epidemics. Its infection rate was 0.1 %, the lowest HIV prevalence in the Caribbean, per the study. In 2015, Cuba became the first country to receive validation from the World Health Organization that it had eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
Who were ‘Los Frikis’?
Los Frikis were a group of punk rockers who rejected communist Cuba, loved rock music (which was banned by Fidel Castro) and the rock ‘n’ roll style. They also were outcasts, many of whom were of the LGBTQ community.
Niurka Fuentes’ late husband, Papo La Bala, was one of the first Frikis, and injected himself with the virus. She told Vice in 2017, “He knew that he would meet other people like him in there, the police would leave him alone, and he would be able to live his life in peace.”
Papo La Bala was quoted as saying, per the metal music magazine Metal Hammer, “I gave myself AIDS — and many others like me — because we were the most persecuted class in the entire country. The police fell hardest on us. All the laws were against us. It was a level of discrimination completely without democracy.”
Another Friki, Yoandra Cardoso, also told Vice, “You could hear rock ‘n’ roll and heavy metal coming from every house. When the sanatorium first opened, it was 100 percent Frikis … we were all here together.”
At the time, there wasn’t much information about HIV and AIDS. Cuba would seek cures and treatment. Patients at sanitariums could volunteer to be the test subjects, which is depicted in “Los Frikis.”
“I think it was very important for this movie to make sure that people know how desperate you actually have to be in order to make that choice,” de la Puente, who was born in Cuba, tells TODAY.com.
Growing up in Cuba, Medina was very aware of the Frikis and even knew some of them.
“I spoke with a drummer who was in a band in Cuba,” the 35-year-old says in Spanish about his research. “He told me about his friendships, that period, how they would try to find phone cords to use as guitar strings … It was very interesting how they would find ways to play music.”
He also spoke with a medical professional who worked at Los Cocos, a sanitarium southwest of Havana, who recalled seeing his patient-turned-friends die of AIDS.
The message behind ‘Los Frikis’
Producer Phil Lord wanted the movie to speak of the current moment but go beyond politics.
“We wanted it to be something universal about how you find your freedom, who you find it with, how you stay together under adversity, how families carry on in adverse circumstances,” the Cuban American filmmaker tells TODAY.com. “(It’s) the story of these two brothers… it was going to be funny and warm, even though, ostensibly, the topic is devastating.”
Producer Chris Miller adds that the movie is about “finding hope in a hopeless situation.”
For the actors, de la Puente says that what resonates with audiences is “el espíritu Friki.”
“The Freaky spirit, the spirit of rebellion that the film shows, to sit in a reality that is not enough,” he says. “The spirit of, ‘I will get out and I will do what I want because I deserve it. I want to find happiness, I want to find friendship and connections.’”