A new landmark film from Cuba will have its U.S. premiere in early November in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, Calif. “In the Wrong Body” (“En el Cuerpo Equivocado”), produced in 2010, in Spanish with English subtitles, was directed by Marilyn Solaya.
The film—which debuted in Cuban theaters last year—tells the moving story of Mavi Susel, the first transgender person in Cuba to receive a sex reassignment operation, in 1988. The premieres, in San Francisco (Nov. 3), Los Angeles (Nov. 9), and Long Beach, Calif. (Nov. 12), plan to feature appearances by Mavi Susel and Marilyn Solaya.
This unique film documents the personal struggle of Cuban Mavi Susel for full gender expression through sex reassignment surgery. It also provides a broader picture of the education and development of a scientific understanding of homophobia and its history, and the application of principles of true equality and democracy in socialist Cuba.
The growing national discussion in Cuba, promoting inclusion and respect for diversity, has been led by Cuba’s National Sex Education Center (CENESEX). Over many years, the institute has developed programs to educate and support the issue of equality for LGBT people in Cuba and everywhere.
While capitalism depends on division and discrimination, manifested daily by racism, sexism and homophobia, the underlying economic and social tasks of building socialism create the basis for cooperation and unity throughout the Cuban population as a whole.
Inclusion and struggling against any form of discrimination serves to strengthen socialism. It promotes increased production in industry and agriculture that benefit all the people, and builds unity against imperialist efforts to undermine and destroy socialism.
The elimination of centuries-old remnants of feudalism and capitalism, such as the oppression of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered people, does not go away overnight in any society.
Early socialist thinkers such as Magnus Hirshfeld, who founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Berlin in 1897, the first advocacy group for lesbian and gay rights, showed early on that all things in society are reflective of the material realities of the moment, including LGBT oppression.
The honest portrayal of Mavi Susel’s life, who in her youth had to deal with violent attacks, prejudice and discrimination, shows that sadly such brutality and prejudice does not disappear without a struggle.
Socialism creates conditions to eliminate backwardness
But the film shows that socialism as in Cuba, unlike capitalism, is constantly creating the conditions to eliminate the discrimination and backwardness inherited from previous class societies.
In fact, it was socialist Cuba’s leaders Fidel Castro and Vilma Espín, founder of the Federation of Cuban Women, who helped Mavi with support for her journey. Today, with the leading role provided by CENESEX and other Cuban organizations, there is a broader campaign aimed at raising the consciousness of the population in Cuba with the goal of overcoming the holdovers from the past.
In the United States, homophobia, anti-woman bigotry and racism are promoted non-stop in the U.S. corporate media, where ultra right-wing bigots are given full access to television and the capitalist electoral process to deny fundamental rights—to LGBT people or immigrants, just two examples.
Cuba is conducting ongoing education and using popular culture to bring the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism to the people for discussion.
Whereas a militant LGBT rights movement is crucial to fighting the bigotry fostered by the capitalists, the process in Cuba involves nurturing a growing mass consciousness about the need for a deeper understanding of LGBT issues.
While more than 49 million people in the United States—including LGBT people—are denied the most fundamental right to health care, in Cuba every individual has the right to full and free medical care. Since 2007, sex-reassignment operations were resumed and some 16 operations have been conducted, all free of charge. More are in process.
Washington tries to exploit LGBT issue
Since Cuba’s revolutionary victory in 1959, the U.S. imperialist ruling class has constantly sought ways to undermine the revolution, with blockade and sabotage. Now, in a more concerted way to try to foment division inside Cuban society, Washington is pouring millions of dollars into subversive programs inside Cuba.
These funds are used to bribe counterrevolutionary individuals and tiny groups on the island and in Miami, to try to demonize Cuba in every way possible, through false accusations and claims of human rights abuse.
The aim of U.S. imperialism is to create a pretext for continued hostile policies.
While turning a blind eye to the extreme violence and institutional discrimination that LGBT people face in the United States, Washington is claiming to care about LGBT people in Cuba.
On June 16, a U.S. State Dept. memorandum proposed $300,000 to, among other things, “… strengthen the capacity of grassroots LGBT organizations to register in Cuba as recognized non-governmental organizations.”
The memorandum frames its objectives as promoting “democracy,” a euphemism that has signified genocidal wars on Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The U.S. funds are a blatant attempt at interference in Cuba’s internal affairs. A recent Wikileaks cable exposure of a U.S. Interests Section memo dated June 15, 2009, reveals U.S. funding for a so-called “independent” LGBT group in Cuba, whose purpose has been to denounce CENESEX and make outrageous unsubstantiated claims against Cuba.
The Obama administration has intensified Washington’s effort to distort the truth about Cuba among LGBT people in the United States. This escalation is cause for alarm requiring increased awareness and defense of Cuba by anti-imperialist and progressive activists.
Recent National Days Against Homophobia, including LGBT pride public activities and celebrations of cultural contributions of openly gay, lesbian, bi and transgender artists and other workers, are important examples of this great and historic process.
Mariela Castro Espin on homophobia
In a recent speech, Mariela Castro Espin, director of CENESEX and president of the Organizing Committee of the Cuban Day Against Homophobia 2011, called upon everyone to rally together against homophobia and fight for diversity throughout society. Her speech was dedicated to the Cuban Five, political prisoners in the United States:
“Homophobia is a relatively new term describing and synthesizing aversion, hatred, fear, prejudice and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersexual people. However, its roots are old and it does not differ from other forms of discrimination that have tainted with suffering the human existence in our planet.
“These ways of relating originated within societies whose economies were based on the exploitation of human beings and their social organization rests on the control of power by a small minority …
“The experience of more than two decades of work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, from the scientific and humanistic perspective of CENESEX, allows us to ascertain that if society does not establish policies dedicated to the attention of such realities, these people will be permanent victims of different forms of violence along their lives. The most common forms go from verbal aggression and exclusion from their family circle to physical abuse, murder and penalization in 76 countries, including the death penalty in [five] of them. This is one of the reasons for Cuba’s commitment to the international movement against the penalization of the LGBT population and for the ‘depathologization’ of transexuality.
“Our appeal is to find out why we human beings are unimaginably diverse. Let’s not waste time. The simple fact of existing demands the need to create respectful ways of coexistence. Historical enquiries, dialogue, meditation and citizen participation contribute to finding the origin of the beliefs imposed to establish inequalities, from the oldest mechanisms of domination created by humankind.
“In the context of the emancipating process of the Cuban Revolution, we invite society at large to take part in the development of an educative strategy and welfare campaign for the respect for a free sexual orientation and gender identity as an exercise of social justice and equity.”
“In the Wrong Body,” produced in Cuba, is another important step in this process. It is also a tool for activists in the United States to help defend Cuba against hostility and aggression from Washington and Wall Street.
For more information on the San Francisco premiere visit https://www.liberationnews.org/branches/sf/events/in-the-wrong-body-en-el.html
