1959 was one of the most defining years in Cuba's development. When Castro overthrew Batista and took over the government as the leader of the free people, he assumed full control of the government. However, his policies encompassed a variety of issues including economics, education, agriculture, immigration, and social desire. Castro focused a large amount of his energy on redefining Cuba's identity by introducing different policies to transform the social setting of the country. He expected the public to clearly separate themselves into distinguishable groups and to focus on choosing one identity. This gave way to a very identitarian discourse that dictated the policies in Cuba. The Cuban government focused on repressing desire in the public …show more content…
For many years after the revolution, homosexuality was frowned upon and was taboo in Cuban politics. The government, led by Castro, used Ernesto Guevara's idea from his piece Man and Socialism of the "new man (Cuba Reader Guevara 370)" as a political tool to push forth laws that restricted the rights of homosexuals in the country. For example, when enrolling for the army, gay men were not allowed to fight and were often assigned to Military Units to Aid Protection (UMAP) to carry out agricultural work. As Arenas points out in Homosexuality, Creativity, Dissidence, men who identified themselves as gay were often ordered to disrupt their regular lives and go to "re-education camps" to rid them of their desire to partake in homosexual acts (Cuban Reader Arenas 406). Although Castro claimed to rid Cuba of all colonial influence, he made no action to destroy the homophobia that was ever-present in Spanish colonized Cuba. The anti-sodomy laws left over from Spanish colonial times that criminalized sodomy and homosexual acts were never repealed after the revolution. It took another twenty years before the government made any movement toward abolishing these programs and laws. Castro actively separated those who practiced homosexuality from the public and tried very hard to stamp down their desires. He claimed that practicing homosexuality was harmful to the image of the revolution because it did not augment the machismo …show more content…
Some often frequented gay lovers in the cities and slowly increased the awareness of homosexuality in Cuba as they marched around the country. As Reinaldo Arenas states in his piece Homosexuality, Creativity, Dissidence, "many of the soldiers who marched, rifle in hand and with martial expressions, came to our rooms after the parades to cuddle up naked, and show their real selves (Cuban Reader Arenas 407)." This dissidence in the army was revolutionary. Essentially, these soldiers had families back home and were partaking in homosexual acts. Thus, they could neither be classified as straight soldiers or homosexual men. The uncertainty of identity that came with bisexual men was dangerous and could almost be seen as a protest against the stringency of the revolution. In a way, these homosexual acts were a revolution. A statement. During this time, when the country itself was essentially redefining itself, the people had to take on clearly defined identities. Revolutionary or not? Intellectual or not? Farmer or not? Homosexual or not? The revolution asked people to choose clearly defined identities. In this black or white view, the emergence of an individual with multifaceted desires was highly confusing and transformational. This desire that appeared in prostitution and homosexuality had ascended past just sexual wishes