Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme is celebrating 46 years of innovative feminist publishing. It is incredibly rewarding, this year, to release this special issue, “Cuban Women: Politics, Culture, and Revolution,”—a culmination of a long and fruitful process of Canadian-Cuban feminist dialogue and collaboration.
Since 1959, the Cuban government and people have resisted the U.S. government’s constant attack on the country’s very existence—illegal blockade, inclusion of Cuba on the state-sponsored terrorism list, and persistent interference and interventions to overturn the Revolution. As an activist and a feminist, I have been deeply impressed by the Cuban women’s strong role in the Revolution and intrigued by their daily lives in the face of these challenges.
After numerous visits to Cuba, I became involved with the Calixto Garcia Brigade where I sought to learn more, and where the vision of this collaborative journal issue took shape.
The first step in this collaboration was an ongoing dialogue among sister-editors based in Cuba and Canada to frame the journal issue and explore cross-cutting solidarity themes. Through this process, we have been able to bring together a collection of papers that explore women’s historical struggles for rights and emancipation, as well as their many accomplishments and successes in areas such as art, culture, and politics.
This CWS/cf issue will amplify Cuban women’s voices and help us understand their lives. It will draw attention to the often-overlooked past and present contributions of Cuban women to the revolutionary struggle and the broader feminist movement. And it will contribute to a better general understanding of the complex relationships among gender, politics, and culture in revolutionary contexts. This journal issue is just a beginning. In these politically charged times we need to continue the dialogue and strengthen Canadian-Cuban solidarity. Finally, Nancy Morejón will be 80 years old August 7, 2024.
We would like to dedicate her inclusion in the journal and the publication of five of her poems, to this important anniversary.
BRENDA CRANNEY, ON BEHALF OF RANU BASU, ELIANIS PÁEZ CONCEPCIÓN, ANA ISLA, LISA MAKARCHUK, VILMA PÁEZ PÉREZ, CLAUDIA PERALTA, AND AZZA ROJBI
Table of Contents
Preface by Brenda Cranney
Introduction by Ranu Basu
Movements, Memories, and Revolutionary Institutions
In-Between Spaces of Memory and Resistance: Enslaved “Macuá” women in Colonial Cuba
by Abubacar Fofana León
I Remember…Fidel Castro
by Lisa Makarchuk
The Federation of Cuban Women: The deepening of the Cuban revolutionary project
by Charles McKelvey
Portraits of Courage, Voices of Agency: Women, Revolution, and the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961
by Elena De Costa, PhD
Revolutionary Poster Women: Woman-as-Sign in the Cuban Political Poster, 1961–75
by Liuba González de Arma
Afro-Cuban Women in the Cultural Field: An Overview, 1959–2022
by Ana Belen Martín Sevillano
Power, Gender Equity, and Politics
To Be a Black Woman, a Lesbian, and an Afro-Feminist in Cuba Today
by Norma R. Guillard Limonta
The Federation of Cuban Women and Gender Equality
by Zerin Mahzabin Khan, PhD
Feminist Resistance: Action and Unity to Denounce Genocide
by Ana Isla
Isabelas, more than 20 years of LGBTIQ social activism in Cuba
by Isel Calzadilla Acosta
Cuban Female Entrepreneurship: Economic empowerment and reappraisal of the Afro aesthetic
by Susel Abad Fis
From Pen to Platform: Mariblanca Sabas Alomá or the politicization of feminist speech
by Melanie Moreau
The Families Code of Cuba: An Overview
by Elena Diaz, B. Phil., PhD & Lisa Makarchuk
Lived Experience of the Revolution
Poet Laureate Nancy Morejón, five selected poems
introduced by the guest editorial board
In Their Own Voice
by Anabel Alvarez, Anna Sanchez, Carmen Julia Guerra, Elena Diaz, and Ana Maria Batista Olano
The National Literacy Campaign in Cuba
by Yamila Fernández Domínguez
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Exhilaration, Hope and Inspiration—The 60s in Cuba Through a Canadian’s Eyes
by Lisa Makarchuk
Cuba: The Tragic Beacon of Imperfect Possibility
by Miki Kashtan
A Lifetime of Canadian-Cuban Solidarity
by Elizabeth Hill
The Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade, and how I was inspired by solidarity to travel to Cuba!
by Janine Solanki
Book Reviews
Afrocubanas: History, Thought, and Cultural Practices
reviewed by Ana Belen Martín Sevillano
Cuba, Africa and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return
reviewed by Lisa Makarchuk
We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World
reviewed by Azza Rojbi
Poetry
Getting to Know Cuba by Lisa Makarchuk
Irradiated by Marlene Kadar
Where is her home? by Pulikta Anand
In War…. by Pulikta Anand
Small Country – Big Heart by Elizabeth Hill
Upon Fidel’s Passing by Lisa Makarchuk
I did mention I could drive by Marlene Kadar
My Sisters…. by Pulikta Anand
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