Harry Potter finally hits Havana's shores
Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007 1:46 PM
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Havana, Cuba
By Mary Murray, NBC News Producer
The magic is finally here in Cuba and it didn’t take that long.
Harry Potter fans here waited just about a month before getting their hands on bootleg copies of this summer’s mania.
Pirated versions of both the book and the video are now available on the island – and can be had for just pennies.
At any Havana underground video club, 5 pesos gets you a "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" rental for the night. That's roughly 25 cents.
Diehard buffs can snap up their own bootleg flick for 50 pesos – about $2.50.
And to add to the magic here in Cuba – Harry Potter speaks Spanish.
Movie still leaves something to the imagination
At least two different pirated versions of the film are circulating on the island.
In one rendition, the boy wizard sounds like a rich kid from Venezuela.
In the other, his Spanish is heavily dusted with Bolivian slang.
Both bootlegs leave a lot to the imagination – grainy and dark, the flick sometimes fades to black right in the middle of the scene.
The audio suffers its problems too – at times it’s garbled and low.
But, that hasn’t stopped Potter’s pals in Cuba from making it one of the summer’s blockbuster films here too.
"I sell a dozen copies every day," said one hawker, who would not give his name, surreptitiously selling the movie along with a dozen other titles outside a Havana bakery.
"I just ran out." He still had a few more hours of sales before calling it a day.
A neighborhood kid I know peddled his bike to four different rental clubs before he finally found an available copy. "It made my summer," said Ariel, after watching the movie three times.
Dog-eared books making their way around town
Other aficionados are getting their Harry fix with a bootleg Spanish-language version of the young wizard’s final adventures in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
While you can’t find the 784-page book for sale in any of Havana’s 45 varied bookstores, you can spot kids on park benches or sitting along Havana’s seawall reading dog-eared copies printed on cheap copy paper.
Some downloaded the illegal copies from an on-line blog originating in Spain, allegedly translated by a fan who posted the unauthorized version of the final book just four days after its July 21 release.
Others are reading bound copies whose origins remain a mystery.
Previous Potter volumes have appeared in different countries including Venezuela and Mexico months in advance of the official Spanish release.
In past bootleg operations, pirates making a fortune from the super-selling J.K. Rowling’s series have been discovered and prosecuted for copyright theft.
But Potter’s fans here, as around the globe, give scant thought to copyright infringements.
Many will tell you that its torture waiting for the official Spanish translation.
Titled "Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte," the book won’t be released by Spain's publishing house Ediorial Salamandra until early next year.
"I could barely sleep thinking about whether Harry lived or died," said a college student who started a Harry Potter fan club at her Havana high school back when the young wizard was just learning how to fly.
