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A PAIR of itinerant anglers on a makeshift raft snag what appears like a drowned man floating face-down inside the Bay of Havana. While they unhook the rotting corpse, their quarry rears approximately take a bite out of one of the fishermen. The friends harpoon the paddle and cadaver for the waterfront, swearing not to tell anyone concerning their shared hallucination. But animated corpses soon are shambling through Havana's streets, feasting on human flesh and terrorizing braided fishing line knots the population. Our anglers learn what has happened when they track into CubaVision Internacional, the federal government-operate television news network, as well as the anchorman announces that "Several disturbances of interpersonal order happen to be caused by some dissident groups paid by the U.S. govt! "



The 2009 mock-horror film, Juan of the Old, is not the blatant rip-off the UK creation Shawn of the Dead that the title implies, and shows rich Cuban humor, wryly handled by director Alejandro Brugues. Cubans are very cautious not to criticize their govt overtly. But satire is rampant, and the film lampoons the government's reflexive scapegoating of the Usa government in just about every crisis.

Dependant upon the propaganda in which one subscribes, this Communist island nation is possibly a haven for gay people or even a trap to them. In the words and phrases of Steve Williamson of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Cuba is either "quite possibly the most progressive land in Latin America as regards gay rights ... or a corrupt Stalinist police status--a gulag for homosexuals, intellectuals and artists." No matter what is true, I actually have long thought that GLBT Us citizens have an interest in knowing about gay Cubans' challenges, supporting their liberation, and learning off their experience. When I had an opportunity to visit Cuba on a two-week photography quest in the fall of 2013, I was determined to discover which of the two contradictory images of Cuba was more accurate. *

I conducted some historical study to help me ask the best questions about Cuba, before making the U.S.. I managed to establish to my pleasure the following specifics that may or may not be extensively acknowledged within the U.S.:

[section] Cubans receive sex schooling from the initial grade, and that education consists of the depiction of gayness as aninnate and immutable, and morally natural characteristic. In 1986, Cuba's National Commission on Sexual intercourse Education unveiled a program on homosexuality and bisexuality as healthy and positive expressions of sexuality. Young adults I satisfied, who have evolved with this perspective, assume that very similar education transpires in the Usa

[segment] The Cuban govt provides totally free treatment to folks with AIDS, and is constantly pay their salaries after they cannot function. The World Wellness Organization verifies that Cuba's HIV illness rate of .1 percentage is around one-sixth the rate of the United States. Detractors don't argue with the WHO's statistics, but a majority of take problem with the draconian measures that included, until finally 1993, pressured quarantine of HIV-positive Cubans.

[portion] Publicly gay men and women serve in public places office and hold positions of obligation infederal government and customs, and also the arts. Given that 1975, the government's official policy in opposition to discrimination has extended to sexual orientation.



[segment] Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of current Director Raul and niece of Fidel, warrants much of the credit just for this progress. Because the Director from the Cuban Federal Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), she has overseen the change of community policy at a very personalized level.

[section] Despite these advances, gay Cubans remain subject to the individual discrimination inherent in any macho culture. Several gay Cubans maintain complex closets, like in certain parts of the United States: close friends and family may realize that someone is gay, although colleagues might not exactly.

They're very cautious when discussing Cuba's many difficulties, and they steer clear of criticizing government entities, even though [section] Many people I met are really open about being gay.

The Pay a visit to and the Performers

My assessment turned out never to be the basic project I needed hoped for. Once in Cuba, I attained a click license and interviewed a number of people, many of them gay and direct artists and musicians who were born after the Communist Revolution of 1959, and a few who were currently in their twenties and thirties by that time. I returned property humbled through the complexity of the situation, going to continue discovering all I could and to visit Cuba yet again, unburdened by such naivete.



I was timetabled to appear on October 29th at the Cuban government's Global Press Center in Havana for my press-license testing, which I necessary in order to conduct interviews with Cuban residents. On that day the United Nations General Set up voted, for the 22nd successive year, to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba as an inhumane violation of international legislation. The official I had been to see on the International Hit Center, a girl named Libertad, was inaccessible. When I showed up on the adhering to day, she apologized, explaining that her and she employees had put in the day managing the fallout from your balloting. Despite the fact that symbolic, the vote provides extreme around the world reactions every year. This time, a record 188 countries voted to condemn the embargo. Only the U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution.