¡GAY CUBA!

"A Slight Thaw in Cuban-American Relations"
by David Pitts

"Racism in Cuba and the Failure of the American Left"
by Sidney Brinkley

"Havana in the 90s: No Longer Choosing Between Thieves and Faggots"
by Amaury Fernandez Lopez

"Prisoner in Paradise: An Interview with Assata Shakur"
by Evelyn C. White

The Queens of Cuba

The Issue of Race in Love and Sex

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"I, myself don't have any phobia against homosexuals. I've never felt that phobia and I've never promoted or supported policies against homosexuals...I've always had a more rational approach, considering [homosexuality] to be one of the natural aspects and tendencies of human beings and should be respected...I am absolutely opposed to any form of repression, contempt, scorn or discrimination with regard to homosexuals."
-Fidel Castro, in "Face To Face With Fidel Castro" by Tomás Borge Ocean Press, 1992

"Listen to what people say but watch what they do."
-unknown

Gay Cuba Then and Now:
A Talk with Gisela Arandia Covarrubia

by Sidney Brinkley

In 1965 Castro's Cuba conducted one of the most brutal anti-Gay purges in modern times. Years of anti-Gay rhetoric culminated in the establishment of the Military Units for the Aid of Production (UMAP), forced labor camps where male homosexuals, and others considered "counter revolutionary," were rounded up, imprisoned and used as slaves. There was an immediate outcry from the world community but Castro ignored it. However, by 1967 international protest had grown to the point it could no longer be ignored and Castro made plans to close the camps, after forcing the prisoners to complete that year's sugar cane harvest.

Gisela Arandia Covarrubia is an author and researcher on issues of race and society. She is affiliated with UNEAC, the Cuban Union of Artists and Writers. She manages the UNEAC end of the Concha Mocoyu Yoruba Cultural Center, an innovative project which brought foreign funding down to the neighborhood level in Havana in order to support a critically needed self-apprenticeship of the African roots. She has lectured extensively in the United States on a variety of topics that include: the future of race relations in Cuba, Black women in Cuba and the presence of Afro-Cubans in the mass media.

"UMAP was for the different," Gisela said, speaking through an interpreter in our 1994 interview. "The 'different' were homosexuals. The 'different' were Black Cubans who adopted the Afro hair style. The 'different' were White Cuban men who let their hair grow long and looked like hippies. They would be stopped by the police and asked 'What are you protesting?' Cuban society of the 1960's and 1970's was an isolated society. There was an irrational campaign against ideological diversity."

Gisela feels it's wrong to place the entire blame for UMAP, and the treatment of homosexuals, on the government. "The guilt is not just on the government," she said. "It was a social consensus. The homosexual was seen as a threat to the family and people wanted to remove that threat. In Cuban society many people would rather see their child dead than Gay. A campaign such as UMAP could not have occurred without the social consensus."

Nothing in the recent American experience of film compares to the impact the film "Strawberry and Chocolate" had on Cuban society. The 1993 film is widely credited with changing negative perceptions of Gays in Cuba. The movie is based on a short story by Cuban author Senel Paz. Set in the 1970's it deals with a variety of issues but one of the main themes concerns the development of a friendship between two men: an older, openly Gay man and a homophobic young member of the Communist party.

"Before the movie came out intellectuals didn't think the film would change society," Gisela said. "But it did. After the film many people felt Gays should be given some space. Out of the blue it became chic to be homosexual in Cuba. However, while the movie lead us to a new level of tolerance, the double standard didn't change. To criticize political intolerance the film used the homosexual issue but the film also dealt with the issues of women and the issues of Blacks, but the audience didn't get that. Gisela says, that while there is still Anti-Gay sentiment, it is not the worse of the prejudices. "Homophobia has been overt before and after the revolution due to the homophobic tradition of Spanish and Caribbean culture but the people that face the most discrimination in Cuba are Blacks, women and religious groups. Racial prejudice is more subtle for women. Often, they're not conscious they're being discriminated against. But discrimination against women is actually worse than that against Blacks. That is the reason their issues were not picked up in film but "Strawberry and Chocolate" is a step forward towards diversity."

"I don't think the UMAP camps will happen again but policy is not defined by me," said Luis Alberto Nortario, an official with the Union of Young Communists (UJC). The UJC sets the ideological tone for the country and has a major influence on Cuban internal policy. However, it's the negative possibilities that hinge on that "but" that can't be ignored. Cuba does have a history of "purges" followed by a period of relative calm, followed by another purge. The reality is that at any time Gays could once again be considered "counter revolutionary."

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Buy the Video "Strawberry and Chocolate" (1993) directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea at Amazon.com
Check out books about Cuba at Amazon.com
Buy "Machos, Maricones and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality" by Ian Lumsden
Buy "Between Race and Empire: African Americans and Cubans Before the Cuban Revolution" ed. Lisa Brock, etal.


"A Slight Thaw in Cuban-American Relations"
by David Pitts


"Racism in Cuba and the Failure of the American Left"
by Sidney Brinkley


"Havana in the 1990s:
No Longer Choosing Between Thieves and Faggots"
by Amaury Fernandez Lopez

"Prisoner in Paradise: An Interview with Assata Shakur
by Evelyn C. White

The Queens of Cuba

The Issue of Race in Love and Sex
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