Race, Class and Gender
Did Hope Come to the People Sheltered in Regla?
Yusimí Rodríguez Journalist Havana, Cuba
I visited for the first time the shelter at Máximo Gómez 27, Regla, in March 2015. By that time, Kirenia, a 32-year-old female, had spent 5 years there along with her mother, Santa. They are deemed a social case since
1993, when the police took them out of the shack built by Santa in the courtyard of his mother-in-law’ s house, even though " as far as I know, there is no eviction in Cuba," as she said in my first interview.
Shelter entrance at Máximo Gómez 27, Regla
They slept outdoors and then in another shack improvised by neighbors with boards, zinc sheets and linens. During that time, the familiar Cuban ration card was not available for them. They got it after staying three years in the shelter. Kirenia told me so: " At the Shelter’ s
Provincial Directorate, I was told that the competent provincial authority did not assign any ration card to social cases; I went to this authority and got the same answer. Then I went to the People ' s Power Provincial Assembly and delivered a letter to its legal
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