Accounts of gays getting their asses pounded by the Castro regime (pardon the pun), have been written in Emilio Bejel, "Gay Cuban Nation." Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001. 257 pp. and Allen Young, "Gays Under the Cuban Revolution." San Francisco: Grey Fox Press, 1981. 112 pp.
That's why so many of them left in the Mariel boatlift.

Mother's hairdresser from happier days in Havana, Damodar Garma, now deceased, like us left Cuba very early after the revolution "triumphed." We saw him again a few years later, in the States. He was once again living happily, in San Francisco. He told my mother he would always be grateful to be living in the United States. "I have never been harassed here as I was in Cuba, under Batista and under Fidel...I love the United States."

If Mr. Garma is aware of this travesty going on in Havana, surely he's doing 360 deg wheelies in his grave...

Well, it makes sense to me. They are just creating the conditions for raul Caligula kagasstro to come out of the closet and be crowned Queen of Cuba, with the hope to rule after kagasstro is finally gone. Or maybe he wants to be nice and chummy with New Orlean's mayor, Ray Nagin.

Thanks for linking again, Val.

When I read the title of your blogpost, I knew that that's why I love Cubanos -- no sugarcoating, just straight-up talk.

Mariconeria en La Habana

And the sad thing, is that I know the Cubans in Cuba have exactly the same plain-spokenness.

How, how I wonder, have they tolerated SO MANY YEARS OF COMEMIERDITUDE as what you have to endure under Communism?

Cheers,
Victoria

Alberto,
True that gays were harassed in Cuba prior to 1959, similar to the harassment they received in the U.S. at the time, but they were never previously singled out for imprisonment in labor camps for their condition. The UMAP camps were a creation of the Castro regime to turn maricones into machos. The documentary "Conducta Impropia" by Néstor Almendros and Orlando Jiménez-Leal, and its script by the same name, published by Editorial Playor in 1984, gives a detailed account of these events. Some of the gay men interviewed in the film described how they were forced to watch porno films daily to change their sexuality. Let's not forget Fidel Castro's homophobia when on June 18, 2003, he responded to a radio prank call by Enrique Santos of WXDJ-FM Miami, calling him a maricón and a mariconzón. Such language from a "world leader."

If Raul does wind up being Cuba's Caligula, may he meet his end as quickly as the unbalanced Little Boots did. Or better yet, quicker.

You are entirely correct, De La Cova, and I did not mean to give the impression there was the same degree of mistreatment under Batista as under Castro. What I recall is that Mr. Garma complained about being harassed by the Policia Nacional under Batista, yet he never expressed any regrets about not having left Cuba at that time; despite occassional harassment, he was left alone to practice his trade and apparently was moderately prosperous, something which would not have continued under kagaSStro. Obviously he saw that things under kagaSStro were going to be even worse, and he decided to get out while the getting out was still good.

He would be appalled at the hypocrisy of it all, where he to be aware of this Gay Film Festival in Havana.

Does castro still have those 'AIDS camps' he used to isolate people with AIDS on? I always thought that idea of his was despicable.

I actually referred in my post to the "Sanatoria" for AIDS patients, AM.

Excerpt:

Late-1980s, early 1990s - Mass detention of Cubans infected with the AIDS virus, HIV. They were put into what amounted to hospital concentration camps, hidden from Cuban society, who were kept in the dark about these dying people. Many dissidents infected themselves with the AIDS virus in PROTEST over the treatment of some of their disappearing friends and colleagues. These included many artists, especially roqueros, hard rock musicians.

According to a few links I was able to uncover, those sanatoria (which were nothing but concentration camps for "deviants" and "contra-revolucionarios"), they have been closed since the mid-90s.

But one link, from The Gay and Lesbian Humanists, made it quite clear that it was not out of a pang of conscience that struck Castro. No.

It was just because he couldn't afford to keep them running.

Cheers,
Victoria

A potemkin film festival.

I'm sure they will show "Before Night Falls" or won't they?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247196/

"Let's not forget Fidel Castro's homophobia when on June 18, 2003, he responded to a radio prank call by Enrique Santos of WXDJ-FM Miami, calling him a maricón and a mariconzón. Such language from a "world leader.""

Do you have a link to a transcript, de la Cova? I would love to read that. That sort of thing doesn't get much play here in SoCal. I do remember the prank call another Miami station made to Mini-Me a couple of years ago. That was hilarious!

The recording of the prank call by Enrique Santos can be found on the following page
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/fidel.htm
Then click on
Audio of Prank Telephone Call to Fidel Castro (June 18, 2003)

Thanks, de la Cova. I'll try to get a recording of that, and get a Spanish-speaking buddy to translate (I live in SoCal, but I do better in German than Spanish- sheesh!).

I just read that- there was a transcript. That is a work of beauty. I like to think that put a twist in El Chilito's day. I also think that Prof. Fernandez needs to stop being such a hand-wringer, and that the FCC needs to step off. Thanks again, de la Cova.

The prank was great! I agree that the situation there is bleak for the people but.... I also beleive in moving on ,leaving the past. I was born in Cuba 12-28-1958 castro took over in 1-1-1959. It has been 46 years of the Castro regime and no change. I moved on, My parents that left Cuba in their 30's moved on , My family nor i would even think of going to that place. I would not visit Cuba nor would my family. If Cubans in Miami concentrated on a positive solution instead of dwelling in the past and lioving in a buble of what was maybe something would happem. look up in any govermental figure on the estimated millions of dollars that are sent to Cuba by Cubans in the U.S. alone. That is adding to a problem, Cubans are keeping Cuba going.Why do you think there are are so many dollar stores set up by the goverment? Cubans receiving money from the US or abroad can openly purchase goods for a very inflated price, those dollars do not flow to the black market but instead go back to the regime to go on with its horrible deeds.
As to gays in Cuba they were descriminated then and are now.I can say a few things about gay cubans..there are more than you think.
As the old joke goes "what is the difference between a straight Cuban and a Gay Cuban? A few Cuba libres!!!
I sound cold but as many families that I have tried to and helped as new arrivals from Cuba, many are ungreatful , lazy , and just have become a victim of the system in Cuba.
Many expect and want what Cubans in the U.S. have without thinking that it took over 30 years of hard work to get to the place they are know.
Thanks for hearing me bitch. West Coast Cubans and South Eastcoast Cubans are night and day. Miami has over 8 talk political talk radio stations 24/7.
its time to let go of the past and concentrate on a positivwe resolution to the problem at hand.
Thanks,
sonofacuban

sonofacuban,

I respect your opinions, I really do. However, I dont necessarily think that we "miami cubans" are holding on to the past. We are holding on and struggling for Cuba's future. And perhaps many of the new arrivals you have been acquainted with are lazy and ungrateful and whatnot, but I have also witnessed the exact opposite.

To reach that positive resolution you speak of, it is imperative to NOT let go of the past, as the best teacher is history.

My parents will never return to Cuba, nor will many of the parents of those that comment and read this blog. I may never return to live in Cuba either, but something in me yearns to see and experience the place of my birth, to visit my grandfather's grave, to walk down the streets where my parents courted.

Perhaps the handle which you have chosen says it all for you: "sonofacuban", however misplaced it is as you yourself stated you were born in Cuba. That makes you more than the son of a Cuban, that makes you a Cuban.