The UMAP, las Unidas Milar Ayuda a la Producción, were forced-work agricultural labor mps operated by the Cuban ernment durg the mid-1960s the east-central provce of Camagüey. The current amic lerature on the UMAP mps has exclively taken to acunt homosexual terne’ experienc and has characterized the mps solely as an stance of genr policg. This paper will argue: 1) the UMAP was an tegral ponent of the Cuban Revolutn’s larger enomic, social, and polil goals, 2) the experienc of the diverse gamut of UMAP terne nnot be generalized to a sgle, ncentratn-mp narrative, and 3) although gay men certaly endured horrific treatment at the mps, Jehovah’s Wns were the victims of the worst btaly at the UMAP.
Contents:
- GAY PRI CRACKDOWN: 4 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT LGBTQ RIGHTS CUBA
- FIL CASTRO TAK BLAME FOR PERSECUTN OF CUBAN GAYS
- FIL CASTRO PUT GAY MEN LABOR CAMPS. HIS NIECE MARIELA IS LEADG CUBA’S LGBTQ REVOLUTN.
GAY PRI CRACKDOWN: 4 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT LGBTQ RIGHTS CUBA
By Jo Ellis Pre-revolutnary Cuba was no paradise for gays and lbians. There were gay bars where homosexual men uld meet, but to be a marine (faggot) was to be a social outst. Laws ma illegal to be gay and police targeted homosexuals * homosexuality cuban revolution *
The First Perd ends 1979 bee this year marks a shift the ernment’s treatment of gays through the ernment’s extensn of rights to LGBTQ+ dividuals by removg the regnn of homosexualy as a crime om the Cuban penal . Os, a Lat Amerin lerature historian, c the work of Simo, a playwright and novelist, and Garcia Ramos, a poet, to argue that pre-revolutnary arts and lerature Cuba exhibed “openly or discreetly homosexual liftyl” (2002, 92). Also, Arguell and Rich expla that homosexual sire the pre-revolutnary era was directed toward illegal and profable markets, such as the “Havana unrworld, ” where homoerotic experienc were bought and sold (1984, 686).
Arguell and Rich also tail how employment opportuni and social prsur often ed homosexual and heterosexual Cubans alike to offer their homoerotic servic to markets such as the Havana unrworld, where men of the Cuban bourgeoisie would purchase homoerotic servic (1984, 687). While Arguell’ and Rich’s acunt of the pre-revolutnary gay Cuban liftyle is characterized by the exploatn of homosexuals, the thors also argue that the velopment of profable markets like the Havana unrworld created a superficial tolerance of Cuban gays. However, the begng of the Cuban Revolutn 1959 saw further velopment the enomy, which motivated the elimatn of markets like the Havana unrworld and led to a greater prence of homophobia Cuban society (Arguell and Rich 1984, 688).
FIL CASTRO TAK BLAME FOR PERSECUTN OF CUBAN GAYS
Lours Arguell, B. Ruby Rich, Homosexualy, Homophobia, and Revolutn: Not toward an Unrstandg of the Cuban Lbian and Gay Male Experience, Part I, Signs, Vol. 9, No. 4, The Lbian Issue (Summer, 1984), pp. 683-699 * homosexuality cuban revolution *
Guerra, a profsor of Cuban and Caribbean History, explas that 1965, the UMAPs were tablished and dividuals such as Jehovah’s Wns, Seventh Day Adventists, Catholic prits and mastream Prottant preachers, artists, tellectuals and polil opponents were imprisoned along wh self-intified, closeted, and spected gays (2010, 268).
In the mps, gays and other dividuals nsired as unsirabl by the Cuban ernment were forced to perform work on sugar lands and other labor as well until 1968 when Fil Castro was nvced to close the mps bee of the nmnatns of other revolutnary figur, such as Haye Santamaria and Carlos Franqui (Guerra 2010, 268).
FIL CASTRO PUT GAY MEN LABOR CAMPS. HIS NIECE MARIELA IS LEADG CUBA’S LGBTQ REVOLUTN.
Rafael Os, Gays and the Cuban Revolutn: The Case of Realdo Arenas, Lat Amerin Perspectiv, Vol. 29, No. 2, Genr, Sexualy, and Same-Sex Dire Lat Ameri (Mar., 2002), pp. 78-98 * homosexuality cuban revolution *
Although the Cuban ernment eventually eed the gays and other dividuals om the UMAPs, the fact that the ernment had forced gays and other dividuals to the mps to perform forced labor monstrat an act of harsh opprsn om the Cuban ernment toward LGBTQ+ dividuals. Afterward, Arguell and Rich dite that 1971 a msage om Cuba’s First Natnal Congrs monstrat the first documented stance where homosexualy was addrsed as a medil and psychologil matter rather than a crimal one (1984, 693).
This remarkable acunt of gays Cuba lks the treatment of male homosexualy unr Castro wh prejudic and prenceptns prevalent Cuban society bef... * homosexuality cuban revolution *
However, this perspective of homosexualy as a medil and psychologil matter proposed that homosexualy was a ntamatn, which motivated the Cuban ernment to attempt to rce “fectn” by whdrawg gays om tn and creatg schools such as the Centre for Special Edutn where “feme” and “at-risk” boys raised by sgle mothers were ted separately om the rt of the populatn (Arguell and Rich 1984, 693; Guerra 2010, 274). The Cuban ernment’s promotn of the view of homosexualy as a ntamatn, followed by the ernment’s removal of gays om schools and the creatn of schools where boys who were supposedly vulnerable for “fectn” were forced to study exhibs further acts of opprsn om the Cuban ernment toward LGBTQ+ dividuals.
In 1971 as well, a law was ma that prevented gays om workg jobs where they uld impact youth and 1974, another law proclaimed that “public ostentatn” of homosexualy was offensive (Guerra 2010, 269). As Maher, an Assistant Dean for Profsnal Edutn, dit, was not until 1979 that the Cuban ernment removed s regnn of homosexualy as a crime om the Cuban penal , yet an dividual uld still go to prison for three to ne months for exhibg homosexual activy public (2007, 5).