LavenderRed_Cubabook

The performers play many other important roles in their community. They include a
cook in a cafeteria for mechanics, a dentist, a baker, a dressmaker, a soldier just returned
from an internationalist mission in Angola, a carpenter, a nurse, a horse trainer, a professor
of Spanish literature and a professor of military topography.
These worker-sponsored drag shows in turn have been a fulcrum to lift consciousness
about cross-dressing and male-bodied femininity and same-sex love. The process of
change is apparent.
One young girl child of a cross-dressing performer, unequivocal and eloquent, told the
interviewer: “I love my father with my life. I don’t want anyone to be disrespectful to him.
He’s what he is. He wants to be that way, and he’s a person and people have the right to
live as they wish.”
The child’s parent, a drag performer, said, “I never deceived my kids. I tried to help
them adapt to how things were, to how I felt—I never disguised myself as a ‘man’—to
know me as I am, to accept my friends. They need their own lives. My world is my world.
But I don’t want them to be estranged from who their father is and the work he does.”
The pain in some families was palpable. One mother said when she found out her son
was gay, “I felt real bad. Like all mothers, one wants the best for your children. We know
he chose a difficult path … but in reality, it’s not out of this world. … [H]e’s my son and
I would give my life for him.”
A young man who says he is gay but not ready to do cross-dress performance said, “I
have a fabulous family. They know all about me. They’ve known about me for 10 years
and I’m 27. My family is exquisite. Up to now I haven’t had problems. At first it was rough
but once they realized it was my path, they accepted it and my friends, with their virtues
and defects.”
His father, working in the background, is asked, “What do you think of your son?”
The father answers, “No one’s better. I couldn’t ask for a better son. I’m grateful and
proud he’s my son. He’s a good kid. He hasn’t got any problems. He’s A-1. Better than me
and I’m his father.”
After those words tumble out, the father and son hug each other.
The local doctor summed up, “The transvestite phenomenon marks a new era with perspectives
for the union of humanity in love and mutual respect between human beings.”
Fifi stressed, “I think this type of work should go on all over the country, because of
the respect, pride and responsibility with which they work. If the nation accepts these
cultural workers, these workers for the society, as we did here in La Güinera, we’ll be
successful as a nation.”
Fifi concluded, “I think that our kids will grow up according to what we teach them.
We have to explain the variety of life-styles in the world. They have to choose among
them. If our kids get used to seeing men in drag, they’ll see it as normal. We’ll explain
what a transvestite is and that child will choose a path to which their education leads and
we’ll create ‘the new man.’ Besides the new man will be brought up completely without
any taboos!”
76 Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba