Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
I have spent days waiting to see if the official press is going to
publish a report, or a snippet, mentioning the fact that Miss Mariela
Castro was in Santiago de Cuba as part of the Cuban campaign against
homophobia.
Since this is not a news blog (and knowing that even if it was I do not
have the ability to cover all the developments around me) I have had to
wait.
On May 17th, the date which Cuba celebrates Farmworker Day, an enormous
fair took place in Santiago de Cuba where souvenirs, posters, and
pamphlets dealing with homophobia were distributed.
Miss Mariela Castro, with an entourage of SENESEX specialists, presided
over the activities. In the emblematic Plaza de Marte, in the general
barracks of the large baseball crowds (epitome of machismo) pamphlets
were handed out, songs were performed, and certain people who, in one
way or another, have felt excluded or singled out because of their
sexual preference had hours of escape.
However, the campaign was not mentioned in the official media. Many
people, upon seeing the diverse multitude of excited people under the
protection of the General-cum-President's daughter, watched with shocked
faces.
The key of the discord due to so much fuss seems to be that Miss Castro
(Mariela) shoots up into the air and makes allusions without properly
pointing out those who, through official procedures, committed the worst
homophobic acts in the nation's history. But it's clear that she would
have to ask the heads of her family: Why so much intolerance?
For a moment, it's as if she were accusing the flags and the origins of
so much hate towards gays and lesbians in Cuba.
I'm sharing photos of her and others which her group of body guards
allowed me to take. There was a foul mood in the air, with so many
people laughing, as if it was a fair, and shocked while "daddy's little
girl" traveled throughout the island with a slogan which people will
soon forget.
What we would have to counteract would be intolerance, of any kind of
preference whether it is sexual, nutritious, dress, economic, sport,
environmental, politics? Did I write politics? No, I must be dreaming.
Miss Castro (Mariela) would not go so far.
Photos: Luis Felipe Rojas
Translated by Raul G.
5 June 2011
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