Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 19

Animando Sonrisas
[Inspiring Smiles]:
A Socio-Cultural Project in “Deep Cuba”

class and gender in Cuba and the world

Reynaldo Bragado Network of Independent Libraries
Havana, Cuba

L

a Tropical, La Manteca, Indalla, Comunidad Los Palacios, Tumba Siete,
Casablanca, El Palenque, Palo Seco, all
of them in Havana, are some of those undefined
spaces that inhabit the city’s underbelly. They are
fragments of “South Havana” in which people
survive in extreme circumstances. There are a
limitless number of settlements that appear nowhere in the official statistics of the Physical
Planning Institute or the official Plan of the City
of Havana.
Why? Because those in power disdain the diversity within them, those different ‘Others,’ not
only because of their skin color, but also because
of their territorial condition (they are undocumented settlers).
The law of the land in each one of these places is
being the strongest, toughest, bravest—and most
machista. As a lifestyle, it is defended. People
dance away their sorrows with plain old rhumbas,
but they also live with ‘fire’: life tends to be
tougher than anyone might imagine. This is a part
of the country’s image that does not appear in the
tourist catalogs at European agencies that target
Cuba as a destination.
In these places, the entire burden for economically sustaining a family falls on women. It is they
who strive to do this day by day. Some earn a living cleaning the houses of the nouveau riche; others braid the hair of Nordic tourists in the area
near the National Capitol; yet others sell clothing
and personal hygiene products in the doorways of
Havana’s most central commercial plazas, or
walk miles to sell a few cleaning items. It’s a long

way to the Vedado (a central neighborhood) from
areas like Juanelo, Dolores, Cocosolo or El Calvario. Others sell their bodies at different prices
for tourists and natives, at whatever price, to be
able to support themselves and their infants. A
vast majority of these women heads of household
are black.
Marginality, poverty, and social exclusion and
vulnerability are key elements not only in their
quality of life, but also in their emotional and psychological development.
The tragedy of the children
Cuban society is being denied the possibility of
reproducing itself well; these phenomena are
overwhelming from infancy on. It is a complex
and sensitive subject, given there is raw social inequality everywhere one looks, in every corner.
Recent rapid changes have brought about a metamorphosis in the structure of opportunities.
The poor quality of life for children and young
people has become anchored, taken root in peripheral areas, places marked by extreme crowding, bad living conditions, domestic violence, and
a form of naturalized violence that is colorblind.
Members of the Animando Sonrisas [Inspiring
Smiles] independent project of the Reinaldo
Bragado Network of Independent Libraries have
gone to these communities to offer help and empowerment by offering the children knowledge
and values. The pedagogy of extreme punishment
to which these children are exposed violates all
the rights as humans. It causes the reproduction of
violence among them as natural.

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