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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