That’s the declaration of a Cuban prostitute in the documentary that is linked here. It’s 18 minutes and it’s in Spanish only but you’ll get the picture even if you don’t speak Spanish. Imagine your daughter having sex with an old man for a few bucks or some jeans or a lipstick. Imagine an entire system set up just facilitate these sort of transactions. Imagine a government that would create such a system simply so that its caudillo can say that he “never gave in to imperialism.” It’s no wonder that almost every Cuban aspires to join the “imperialists” in the “empire” and leave the worker’s paradise behind.
Warning nudity and strong language in the clip.
H/T to Fantomas
Henry,
One of the many great ironies (not to mention tragedies)is the fact that one of the rationales for castro’s revolution was to rid Cuba of the stain of being America’s brothel.
Well I suppose castro succeeded. Its now Canada’s and Eurpoe’s brothel.
Of all the evils castro has visited on his people, his total destruction of an advanced culture and ecomomy still blow me away to this day. Not to mention of course his political oppression.
How many decades will it take to bring Cuba out of this dark age?
Watching this, I’m reminded of somethingthat a Havana writer said in the German documentary “Habana: Nuevo Arte de Hacer Ruinas”… Something to the effect of…
“Un edificio se puede caer en ruinas. Un barrio se puede convertir en ruinas. Pero cuando una cuidad entera, cuando una capital entera está en ruinas… las ruinas se estás HACIENDO.”
It’s as true of the people as it is of the buildings. When an entire society (from the prostitutes to the doormen to the cabdriver) are all members of a network of sex tourism, there is a driving force behind it all. And there’s only one direction it makes sense to point the finger.
se están*
Cuba was never “America’s brothel.” There was no more prostitution in Habana than in any other comparable city in other countries. However, it was nothing to Castro and his crowd to sling vile mud at Cuban women and portray them as just so many whores because that suited his agenda.
The history of prostitution in Cuba is very well-documented by Amir Valle in “Jineteras” which has been published by Planeta Publishing. This book is an edited-down version of “Habana Babilonia” which everyone in Cuba seems to have read, illegally.
One thing that pisses me off about this other than the obvious is that Ive receieved a couple emails from vicarious fidelistas, cubans that live in the states but love fidel claiming the video to be a fake. Im so sick of the fucking fidel rat ass mother fucking mouthpieces.
I came across an editorial just the other day on a Cuba site; it was a “feel good” write up supposedely explaining to an outraged tourist that the 16 year old Cubanita “romanticizing” in the hotel pool with a 60 something European was not any fault of the Cuban government, but because the girl comes from a low class family. (I paraphrase) All that bad publicity about sex tourism and trafficking must be hurting business. Friggin low life scum.
Asombra,
If the “America’s brothel” comment offended you I’m sorry. My intent was sympathy with the current situation in Cuba, not condemnation of pre-1959 Cuba.
But that pre- 1959 perception of Cuba as a mafia controlled, gambling, whorehouse was exploited by fidel and others. I cannot make that up.
Crap to be sure, as everyone who posts here knows whaever Cuba was pre-1959, sure as hell isn’t as horrid as the dictatoship has made it today.
More to Val’s point about the video allegedly being faked, didn’t castro himself recently say that Cuba had the most educated prostitutes in the world?
Also, I’m sure there are more informed people than myself on the subject, but hasn’t recent interviews with Cuban men on the island given a picture of marriage age Cuban women wanting little to do with Cuban men? The goal is to “hook up” with tourists to get money in the short run and hopefully a ticket out of the freaking “socialist paradise” in the long run.
So like Val I cannot believe the video was faked, and my knowledge of Spanish is two years in a Philly area Catholic Boys high school. (taught by a Cuban priest who got kicked out of Cuba and who used to tell us boys some pretty amazing stories of pre and post revolution Cuba, such as “Super Hombre” years before the Godfather II, and the jackhammering of statues and crucifixes after 1959 as described in “Waiting for Snow in Havana”)
The impact of current day prostitution in Cuba has to rip at the fabric of any culture.
Coming here and to other sites like The Real Cuba has shown me the cost to the Cuban culture as much as the more well known political and economic oppression on the regime.
Thanks for that chance to learn more.