International Salsa Magazine Januaryr 2015

International Salsa Magazine Dic 2014 19

been a resident on the island that I had to admit to myself that I along with many of us who supported the ldquoRevolutionrdquo from abroad had been sadly misled

El Instituto del Desarollo de la Salud - the Institute for Health Development where I lived and studied on the outskirts of Havana was attended exclusively by Cuban Latin American and Catalan medical profes-sionals I was not only the sole native English speaker there I was also the only student who was not a citi-zen of the larger Spanish-Speaking Diaspora I arrived speaking very little Spanish but will always be grate-ful to my fellow students- many of whom were quite fluent in English- for refusing to speak to me in my na-tive tongue thus fueling the need for me to rapidly develop a firm command of the language which they knew would open up a whole new world to me Af-ter a few months I had no problem performing ad-equately in Spanish as a graduate student of Interna-tional Health at the WHO (World Health Organization) accredited institution However I was already a com-mitted anthropologist so unlike most other foreign students who were confined for the most part to the Isla de la Juventud- The Isle of Youth I quickly became a ldquomulata Cubanardquo- a Cuban mixed-race woman In fact so much so that members of the notorious and feared Seguridad del Estado- State Security appara-tus would regularly attempt to block my entrance to social spaces reserved exclusively for foreigners such as hotels restaurants and shops ldquoiquestA doacutende vas mu-lata - ldquo Where do you think yoursquore going mulatardquo was the constant interrogatory which I grew all too accus-tomed to having to confront while lighter- skinned foreigners breezed pass with impunity Despite my clearly foreign- accented Spanish State Security agents often remained convinced that I was sim-ply feigning the latter in order to sneak into foreign spaces and be able to ldquojinetearrdquo- pick up foreign men The attitudes of these representatives of the State who were clearly following instructions from above also reflected the common Cuban stereotype of dark-skinned women as primarily sexual objects and even potential prostitutes- and so I invariably was forced to produce my passport

I soon learned that had I not been considerably pro-tected by my foreign passport life for me as a mulata in

Cuba would have been very different Jaws would rou-tinely drop when I informed doubting white Cubans that I was a Stanford graduate had travelled the world and was not from an under-privileged background As the ldquoRevolutionrdquo continuously bombarded the popu-lation with images of dogs attacking black protesters in Alabama and Mississippi along with of lynchings many Cubans believed that these kinds of events were still routine and actually occurred throughout the US They were incredulous that I had attended only the best private schools from nursery school and primary schools in Kingston on to a prestigious international boarding school in the UK I still remember the mula-to musician Tomasito Valdez accomplished member of the legendary Orquesta Aragoacuten telling me during a Carnaval (Carnival) Celebration at the Trocha in San-tiago de Cuba that it filled him with pride to see mula-tas like myself ldquotan bien preparadas y profesionalesrdquo- so well- educated and professional

The first time that I heard the sound of African drums in the distance as I lay one night in my dorm at the Instituto de Desarollo de la Salud- Institute for Health Development-in Arroyo Naranjo and told my fellow Cuban students that I would love to go and see who was actually creating these hypnotic rhythms then I was hastily warned to forget about doing anything of the sort as only delincuentes- criminals- and enemies of the Revolution played that kind of music At the time Santeriacutea was essentially illegal and the commu-nities and persons who participated in this creolized African faith were both stigmatized and routinely ha-rassed

When I noticed that her adoring Cuban fans could only listen to Celiarsquos music clandestinely they explained to me that Fidel had branded her a terrible egoist and worse a contra-revolucionaria- a counter-revolution-ary However even many Cubans who were faithful to the principles of the ldquoRevolutionaryrdquo process seemed to see no contradiction between being both socialists and also celebrating the indigenous culture and mu-sic of their country Castro and his virtually lily- white eacutelite vanguardia- vanguard including then Minister of Culture Armando Hart made it clear that ldquoculturardquo- culture- was synonymous with only European culture and further mainly with the cultural expressions of

By Gayle McGarrity drgmcgarrityhotmailcom Gayle McGarrity