https://socialistaction.org/2017/02/01/mariela-castros-lgbt-revolution/
Mariela Castro and Cuba’s LGBT revolution
/ 3 days ago
jan-2017-marielaBy ANN MONTAGUE
“Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution,” directed by Jon Albert
and Sual Landau. Cuban producer Roberto Chile. An HBO Documentary
Production.
This just released film follows Mariela Castro and Cuban LGBT activists
as they travel through rural towns to engage with Cubans about the
upcoming International Day Against Homophobia on May 17, 1990.
They travel to the region of Matanzas, the small towns of San Pablo de
Yao and Ciego de Avila, and a farm in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
There are also more recent interviews with lesbians, gay men, and
transgender Cubans and their families throughout the island. The film
begins and ends with the 2013 Day Against Homophobia marches, which
illustrates how far the movement has come.
In the beginning, the film explains that Mariela Castro is the daughter
of Raul Castro and the niece of Fidel Castro. But it fails to mention
the more important fact that she is very much the daughter of Vilma
Espin, who was a Cuban revolutionary, feminist, and president of the
Federation of Cuban Women from 1960 until her death in 2007. Mariela
likes to say that she is a Castro by accident of birth. When she is
asked about marriage equality for Cuba, she says that when her father
tells her she is going too fast, she reminds him that her mother
supported gay marriage in the 1980s.
Mariela is the director of CENESEX (Cuban Center For Sex Education),
which she describes as “running outreach programs to the community to
change minds and fight prejudice. We also offer classes and health
services.”
The film does not pull any punches about the shameful history of Cuba’s
revolutionary government’s treatment of LGBT persons. “Public displays
of homosexuality, performance of homosexual acts, association with
homosexuals” were forbidden for decades. In addition, thousands of gay
men were sent to forced labor camps, which were euphemistically called
“Military Units To Aid Production” (UMAP).
The film interviews one gay man who describes his experience and films a
support group of survivors of the camps who talk about their encounters
with Mariela Castro and say they deserve an apology. She apologizes and
says, “We must remember so that it will never happen again.”
A lot of the stories are universal experiences of family rejection,
acceptance, and mere tolerance. What makes the film compelling is the
Cuban context. The factory workers who accept their co-worker, the
factory manager who discriminates against a lesbian worker, the first
Cuban to experience female to male sex reassignment surgery with Mariela
Castro at his bedside, LGBT baseball games, and lesbian farmers living
openly in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where the revolution began.
Mariela Castro is an elected member of Cuba’s Parliament (Asamblea del
Poder Popular). There is interesting footage of her testifying for the
inclusion of transgender rights in Cuba’s Labor Code. When it was not
included, she votes “no.” She says, “I cannot support humiliation and
suffering and the denial of human rights.”
The film ends at the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana, where the first Gala
Against Homophobia and Transphobia is being televised. Mariela says with
a smile, “This is the first year that the festivities are being
televised. Change takes time. We will continue fighting.”
This documentary is definitely worth seeing for LGBT people, but also
anyone interested in the changes happening in Cuba. While the focus is
on the LGBT experience in Cuba, it also gives us a close look at a Cuban
leader and activist whom U.S. officials have rarely allowed to visit the
United States.
Photo: Mariela Castro is in center, wearing the hat.
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February 1, 2017 in LGBT rights.
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