Nagel vs. de Avila

I believe Dr. Sven Nagel to be the hero of La Habanera. First I will explain why I think that Don Pedro is not the hero. Don Pedro’s character development is important in this regard. When we first see Don Pedro, he is a dashing hero riding in on a horse and saving the two European women from being involved in a fracas between some unruly ‘natives.’ Later, Don Pedro rather presumptuously advances on Astree when she drops the fan, and can in this light be seen as a version of the stereotypical sexualized non-white man, although only slightly so. Also, he does decorously realize his mistake. After the film jumps forward ten years, we see him in a furious rage, tearing Astree’s clothes, just because Astree wants to raise Juan in her European cultural tradition. I believe to a large part of the German audience would seem quite reasonable, since to many of them the European culture was ‘superior.’ Don Pedro becomes an even more villainous character when he threatens to take Juan away from Astree. As the film continues, we find that Don Pedro has deliberately prevented the Puerto Rico Fever from being cured in order to make money, and finally that he has actively destroyed the cure created by Dr. Nagel. Thus, Don Pedro is presented in the beginning of the film as being a species of hero, only to fall farther and farther into villainy until it finally gets the better of him.

Dr. Nagel, on the other hand, is the protagonist. Not only does he go to Puerto Rico to save it from the scourge of Puerto Rico Fever, but he exposes himself to harm in order to do so in the scene that shows him sneaking around the fever infested and guarded wharf area. He also agrees to try to get Astree to come back to Sweden. Although this is partly done because of his personal longing for her, he is still essentially saving the ‘helpless’ Astree, imprisoned by Don Pedro, the damsel in distress so to speak. Additionally, he is somewhat of a father figure to Juan in the scene with the sled, something Don Pedro with his stern manner of speaking to Juan, and lack of appearances in the same scene, was not. Indeed, with Juan’s complexion Sven looks more like his father than Don Pedro.