The Afro-Cuban Revolution

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Cuba’s citizenship has had to take their own independent measures to establish a more equal society despite having a government that claims that everyone is equal. The Cuban government might promote a progressive social agenda but has often failed to properly address social and economic discrimination. Cuban citizens have utilized various methods to resist the state’s claims and present real solutions to the socioeconomic ills that affect Cuban society. Discussion of race and blackness in particular, was a topic that the Cuban Revolution and its leaders refuse to fully address. The concept of a racially unified Cuba serves as the central component of the formation of the nation. Discussing race is perceived by the Cuban state as hostile or …show more content…
Betancourt argued that the Cuban Revolution did not mean the eradication of race. Instead, Betancourt states that the Cuban government’s apprehensiveness towards the issue negatively impacted national integration . More directly, Betancourt also criticized the lack of black representation in the new leadership and made a call for a national black social movement. After 1960, Afro-Cuban organizations became viewed as hostile or anti-revolutionary due to the importance they placed on racial issues. Despite their large presence, Afro-Cuban organizations were closed down or assimilated into social organs for the socialist state. Afro-Cuban intellectuals and their movements shed light on how racism persisted under a revolutionary government and provided mulattoes and blacks the space required to address issues that could not be held in the mainstream discourse …show more content…
For many homosexuals and social critics, homophobia is not only a cultural or social component but a social ill that is institutionalized as well. During the early 1960s, the Young Communist League became a place where many young men would engage in homosexual acts in order to present their masculinity. Mobility has become a way for homosexuals to cope with the homophobia that exists in revolutionary Cuba. Tomas Gutierrez Alea’s 1993 film “Strawberry and Chocolate”, an iconic take on Cuban homosexual experience and discrimination presents emigration as a way to escape Cuban homophobia. The Mariel boat lift also presented homosexuals an opportunity to leave Cuba and move to the United States. Their movement was an active rejection of the state, since the Marielitos were considered by the state as the “unwanted” and anti-revolutionary. Homosexuality itself also served as a way for heterosexuals to resist the Cuban state as many attempted to classify themselves as gay in order to get onto the boat. Additionally, since homosexuals that leave Cuba tend to criticize the Cuban government through exposing the homophobia that seeps through its institutions their legitimacy is often questioned by the island population. The countryside has historically been a space of resistance away from the city-based government. Sexuality is much more
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