Source: WTL© digital photograph (2008) of the table placemat (slightly cropped) taken on site in Guatemala City.
The article (translation WTL):
The Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro yesterday stated it was "a huge responsibility and a dream" to have premiered the film Che in Cuba, and he pointed out that after playing the legendary Cuban-Argentinian revolutionary he "respected him more as a historical figure and a serious person."
"I learned quite a lot from Che. I discovered how much he was aware of much injustice due to his knowledge of Latin American history. There are many things about that I am completely in favor of and that I understand," he said in a press conference in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, secondary site of the 30th International Festival of New Latin American Film.
Del Toro was accompanied by popular actors such as Rodrigo Santoro (Brazil), who played Raúl Castro; Santiago Cabrera (Chile), who played Camilo Cienfuegos; and the Cubans Luis Alberto García and Vladimir Curz, who also took part in the film, and Del Toro said that "the dream was to finish the film and to show it to the Cuban people, whose reaction has been very moving. It's like crossing the finishing line."
Both Del Toro and others in the cast showed this film to the American director Steven Sodeerbergh on Saturday in the Yara Theatre,where it was cheered by local viewers.
Soderbergh was not able to travel to La Habana due to his work commitments, Santoro told his writer.
Answering a question posed by Granma, Del Toro, 41, who won an Oscar for best actor in 2001 for his role in Traffic, expressed the opinion that what he most admires in the figure of Che is his determination, and he emphasized the fact that he did work in the film to win any awards.
Del Toro, who this year won the prize for the best male actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his interpretation of Che, which was produced in two parts, titled "The Argentinian" and "The Guerrilla," expressed his desire for this film to add to the understanding around the world of the dimension of this renowned revolutionary and the reality of Latin America.
After the ceremony, the actor Rodrigo Santoro told Granma that "it was a great honor and a very large responsibility to play the role of Raúl Castro, since he is a very important person for the Revolution and the people of Cuba."
Concerning the preparation for bringing the character to life he added that he spent two months in Cuba last year meeting historians, visiting museums, hiking in the Sierra Maestra, and reading the sections of Raúl's diary dealing with rebel fighting. He added that he would like to meet him personally in order to hear his opinion about his work in this film that was also shown yesterday in the Karl Marx Theatre.
As for the producer Álvaro Longoria, of Morena Films, one of the enterprises that financed the film, he said that he delivered 20 copies to the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfico (ICAIC) for distribution throughout the Island.