Analysis Of ' I Am Cuba ' And ' The Rehabilitation Of Prostitutes '

One Marielito remarked on his venture to the United States, “Well, if I’m looking back 30 years ago, the decision of just leaving the country, getting to the embassy, I think it’s that it was a blessing of having the opportunity to leave the country, and especially to come here directly to the US. We didn’t have no hopes to come here. And I think that I have a wonderful family, many opportunities throughout my life.” The American Promise, in the ideal sense became a tangible and practical element within society for exiles, as it made clear the goals and aspirations of the exile community. Exiles seem to share similar sentiments in not wanting to return to Cuba, amidst the history of suppression, oppression, and hardships. “I’m super grateful to this country. I’m grateful to everything. I mean, this is my life. There’s no way I’d go back. Even if anybody would tell me, here, you got your house back in Cuba, I would never go back.” This sentiment summarizes and represents the mindsets of many exiles, at their time of expedition to America, and

Sterk establishes her point of view about importance of general study of culture by provoking the essential human quality of compassion. She does so by describing the prostitutes as not alien and showing fine human qualities. Their habitual formations and mental qualities are like other ordinary humans. She emphasizes this theme by highlighting a poem written by a prostitute. The whole purpose of this initial exercise is to create consideration among readers about the lives and activities of prostitutes.

From April 15 to October 31 in 1980, over 125,000 Cuban migrants arrived in the United States. Family members from America ferried relatives and institutionalized Cubans from the Cuban port of Mariel, in what was soon coined the Mariel Boatlift. Mirta Ojito, one of these ‘Marielitos’, as they soon were termed, grew up to write “Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus”. In this text, the author provides a historic account of events leading up to the Mariel Boatlift, narratives from important figures surrounding the event, and a personal narrative describing the struggle of her family to gain freedom from the socialist dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Throughout the story of the years preceding the boatlift and the influence that living in Cuba held on her life, Ojito describes the positive and negative elements of the both the political climate and personal life on the communist island which led to her eventual emigration to the United States.

Claire E. Sterk, the author of the article of “Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of Aids”

Cuba is merely one example of a society. Juan Cabrera is simply an ordinary example of an individual. What The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera by J. Joaquin Fraxedas bring to light is the extraordinary effects of stepping outside the comfort zone of following the expectations of those that lead our governments. Although the situation was unlike our own it highlights what could very well could have

The effects of the Cuban Revolution on women’s lives and gender relations in Cuba from 1959 to 1990 include that some say women have not reached equality yet with men, women gained more opportunities for themselves, economy and politics, and also how women still had responsibility for children and home, not men.

Prostitution, also referred to as “the oldest profession,” has always been a controversial and challenging social issue. It is practiced in many different forms including: call girls, convention prostitutes, apartment prostitutes, hotel prostitutes, house prostitutes, bar girls, streetwalkers, and parking lot lizards (). Civilizations such as the Samarians, and countries including Morocco and parts of India engaged in a form of prostitution known as temple prostitution. Temple prostitution is based on the belief that “generative activity of human beings possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the fertility of nature” (Clarkson). In other civilizations, such as the Roman and Byzantine Empires, prostitution was looked upon as less of a religious ceremony, and more of a sin practiced by “women of evil life” (ProCon.org). Today those differentiating view are still present in modern society, but there are also new ideologies surrounding the everlasting presence of prostitution. This Essay will use the Symbolic Interactionism Theory to identify those new ideologies, and evaluate the meaning of prostitution within three relationship: the husband and wife, the Call girl and client, and the Pimp and the sex trafficking victim.

The Effects of the Cuban Revolution on Women’s lives and Gender relations in Cuba from 1959 to 1990

The readings for this week consisted of the second half of Conceiving Cuba by Elise Andaya (2014). This half of the book focused on abortion, gendered work and surviving through migration (Andaya, 2014). Overall, Andaya (2014) focuses less on reproductive health and women than one would expect, and instead provides more of a critique of the shortcomings of the socialist revolution in Cuba. These critiques get in the way of Andaya’s (2014) narrative and ultimately detract from the discussion of reproductive health in Cuba.

These extravagant women were revered by their generation, and according to the Cuban foreign minister in 1958, Andrés Vargas Gómez, "She was a sacred creature and it was her right to have precedence in all things." While the number of professional women in Cuba grew throughout the first half of the twentieth century (lawyers, doctors, businesswomen, journalists, teachers, and musicians), the huge discrepancy between them and the average Cuban woman was not shrinking. The view of women as pura o putas existed, and equality was a long way away. According to Lois M. Smith and Alfred Padula, the long-term deficit of women in times of slavery played a significant role in the construction of sexual relations in Cuba (p 9). During slavery in Cuba, there were very few slave women, and white women only represented ten percent of the Cuban population.

However if the goal of criminalization is to end prostitution, it is clearly not yielding the desired results. Making the act of selling sex illegal actually causes the sex workers to go further underground, making them more vulnerable to police and poor working conditions. It creates a culture permitting violence against sex workers. In countries such as China, Cambodia and Vietnam where prostitution is also illegal, sex workers are detained in facilities for ‘rehabilitation’ or ‘re-education through labor’. The approach of these facilities is to punish sex workers for engaging in behavior that is regarded as a

As these aspects of life in Cuba were of prime concern, the effects of the revolution came to achieve this objective. This is shown in “Reflections on the Cuban Revolution” as the author, Gary Prevost, provides statistics that states, “Cuba has an average of one teacher for every forty-five inhabitants, and its literacy rate of 96.4 percent is one of the highest in Latin America” (Prevost 138). Also, health care is a primary issue in Cuba and has come to be an example to third world countries, “with more than 260 hospitals and 420 clinics” (Prevost 138). These grounds show how much Cuba has developed and advanced as a community. Because the revolutionaries had set a plan and were determined to improve Cuba socially, the strategy was a success and went into effect after the revolution.

Watching Mikhail Kalatozov’s film I am Cuba (1967) is a moving cinematic experience. In the beginning, the film portrays a stereotypical Cuba through a carefree party on the rooftop and the contrasting scenes of the prostitute’s destitute village and the glamorous casino. The film depicts how Cuba moves from a repressed country to an epicenter of revolution through four vignettes in which each builds momentum to the next and an overall narrator that bridges the stories. The film narrates a movement starting with how the oppressive capitalists exploit Cuba and push the people over the edge. In the second half, the Cuban people move from passivity to actions, shown by a university protest and a villager joining the militia in a revolution to overthrow the corrupt regime. Among the vignettes, Enrique’s leadership in the university student protest stands out the most. Complemented by the shift in the camera’s perspective of space in relation to characters, it is a crucial turning point where the plot changes from the focus on a powerless individual to a vision depicting the power of collective action.

Ancient civilisations did not condemn prostitution as sinful, but within the course of events over the past century, the view in most societies has changed to deem the act to the contrary (Thio p 214). To define prostitution as a deviance one must take into consideration the dynamics to which it applies. In correspondence with the Interactionist Perspective, Anleu observes how it is not the act of prostitution but how people identify it that makes it deviant .

One of the oldest known jobs in history is Prostitution, otherwise known as the sex labor industry. It is a major part of our society as an illegitimate source of income and employment. The prohibition of Prostitution creates a larger number of issues in society. Before, prostitution was a more individual decision, where countless women picked it as a last resort in emergencies; whereas now these women are coerced into the industry and experience abuse, murder, etc. The involvement and trauma prostitutes experience results in mental disorders. Furthermore, I investigate how the prohibition of prostitution has greater drawbacks on our society and introduce three policies that may help resolve the social issue within sex workers. Some policies I believe will provide the most benefits are first, the legalization of prostitution, second, enforcing and strengthening the law enforcement for human trafficking, and third, development of availability of medical resources.