Raquel Martori – Translating Cuba

In Cuba, a Television Series Highlights the Sexist Violence That the Regime Minimizes

Sexual assaults; femicides; transphobia; pedophilia and the fear of victims to report are topics addressed in ‘ Cats, Masks, Shadows’

The series of 12 episodes follows Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence / Cubavision

14ymedio, Raquel Martori, Havana, 24 February 2025 — Sexual assaults, femicides, transphobia, pedophilia and the fear of victims to report are some of the topics addressed by the Cuban series Los Gatos, las máscaras, las sombras [Cats, Masks, Shadows], the first dramatized material that addresses these evils so directly on state television.

In an interview with EFE, its director and screenwriter, Elena Palacios, says that the vision of Cats, Masks, Shadows, whose team is almost entirely female, is “to offer a genuine look from a human point of view.”

“I tried to focus on the conflict in each story. I preferred to concentrate on a specific violence, to show it in a calm, suggested way,” she emphasizes.

Lisy, Amelia, Sandra, Chelo, Verónica and Inés personify the stories that have a common thread through Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence and the protagonist of the series.

Lisy, Amelia, Sandra, Chelo, Verónica and Inés personify the stories that have a common thread through Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence

Palacios took over the task after receiving a commission from Cubavisión. For the director and screenwriter, sexist violence “is a universal problem” that is based on “inequality or a power imbalance” that ranges from the violent – “death” – to “psychological” – micro violence and “micro continue reading

machismo.”

For the screenwriter, the comments on social networks about the series is something she considers “a success.” The favorable ones are mainly from women, but “there are also very good analyses and criticisms from men.”

In fact, Palacios believes that audiovisual products “can contribute much more than any social orientation program, campaign or theoretical event, because people enjoy fiction, and it has the power to influence emotions and make people think in a direct and deep way.”

The first episode presents the case of Lisy, a young woman who lives in fear with a violent partner. Palacios thought that the story was “dramatically exploitable” given that it takes place during the pandemic, which was “a trigger for domestic violence.”

In another episode, the character of Amelia appears, who exposes the “colonizing attitude” of a European man towards a Cuban woman. Palacios emphasizes to EFE the care she had to use with the case of a pedophile grandfather and his granddaughter: “That happens more than you might imagine.”

Chelo, says the director, is the trans woman, who in the series represents those who “face a lot of daily violence,” so her intention was to “sensitize the viewer” with “the familiar and acceptance.”

“Cats is an artistic license of mine, because I like cats. Some characters in the series have them, and that has allowed me to show that one of the first manifestations of violence is reprisals against pets or property,” Palacios points out.

The masks are related to “the image and the roles that women try to fulfill like the professional and the mother.” The psychiatrist defines the shadows as “a psychoanalytic element. It’s that dark side of human beings, things that are hidden, guarded.”

She defines the shadows as “a psychoanalytic element. It’s that dark side of human beings, things that are hidden, guarded”

But she warns that some shadows, like those of the abusers, are “more dangerous,” especially when they reach their “worst moment” in the series. The sixth episode will be broadcast this Sunday in Cuba.

Cats, Masks, Shadows arrives on Cuban television at a time when sexist violence has been placed at the center of discussion on networks and, although at a slower pace, in official circles and media.

The Government has declared “zero tolerance” for gender violence and has launched the No More campaign, focused on the prevention and response to aggression against women. However, feminist associations still insist that not enough is being done, and they denounce, among other things, the lack of a comprehensive law against sexist violence.

Last year, according to the registries of the independent activists of Alas Tensas, Yo Sí Te Creo and this newspaper, a total of 54 femicides were recorded, mostly committed by the partners or former romantic partners of the victims.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Clothes, Cocktails and Music: A Cuban Entrepreneur Against the Crisis and Covid

Izaguirre laments the high prices in her store, but explains that she does not have the capacity or the resources to increase her production. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Raquel Martor, Havana, 8 June 2022 — Cuban Loypa Izaguirre, with her small business in Old Havana that offers designer clothes, cocktails and music, is an example of the new generation of young entrepreneurs that is emerging on the island despite the crisis and the pandemic.

The 33-year-old has been promoting the Color Café fashion workshop and café since 2018, a multidisciplinary and modern space installed in a remodeled 1900 premises, an establishment that has just reopened after two years of forced closure due to restrictions to counteract covid-19.

“Every day there is a new challenge that changes your perspective and you have to face it,” Izaguirre tells Efe in an interview. The young woman, who declares herself self-taught, acknowledges that there are plenty of problems in Cuba, but she believes that the “positive vibe” must be maintained with the philosophy that “no doesn’t exist.”

Despite the paralysis caused by the pandemic, Izaguirre chose not to stay home. “We couldn’t stop sewing,” she stresses. Although she was forced to close Color Café and materials were missing, she searched among her friends for fabrics, thread, buttons and other recyclable materials to make masks and clothes.

Then, when steps could be taken towards normality, she reopened and called her employees with a “we start again.” continue reading

The lack of some food in her café-bar, as a result of the shortage of basic products that the Island has suffered for months, was remedied with “a healthy proposal that has been well received by customers.”

She brought fabrics and remnants from abroad, which have been turned into small purses, bags and other wardrobe accessories. Skirts, blouses, dresses and clothes that fit various sizes make up the “comfortable and fresh” proposal of this Havana company, one of the more than 3,600 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved in recent months.

Izaguirre laments the high prices in her store, but explains that she does not have the capacity or the resources to increase his production.

“The fabrics are expensive, the workshop is small and I have to pay my employees well (15 in total) so that they feel stimulated to work every day and make an effort to make quality garments,” she summarizes.

Among her clientele there are foreign women living in Havana, although Cuban women also frequent her store, and she tries to favor them with “adjusted prices,” and those who are looking for “custom-made” men’s shirts have joined.

White, red and blue, ruffles, flowing skirts, and stylistic references inspired by the 40s and 50s prevail in the designs. Her commitment is based on “pleasing customers, who understand the importance of coming to a workshop and making clothes.”

An example of her way of facing challenges was her first individual catwalk, just a few days ago in Havana, which was not overshadowed despite a monumental downpour and the still persistent fears about covid in public spaces.

“All of us who worked on it knew each other and we were willing for the job to come out, for that catwalk to be done, totally inclusive,” she says.

Her new collection, “Seasons,” brings together 30 pieces with color, elegance, classic style, daring and a mixture of cultures, conceived for plus size women, the elderly and girls, exhibited on models of the traditional type, of various races and gender.

Izaguirre explains that in Cuba there are currently those who are torn between staying in the country and trying to carry out a project there and those who choose to migrate.

“My decision has been to stay with the perspective of opening up with my Cuban, tropical style and touch, with a design and added value that I believe would make it possible to project myself abroad, and we will try,” she says.

As part of its identity, the brand has a logo that resembles a coffee pot — “a symbol of Cuban identity” — but it is really the idealized silhouette of a woman, explains this entrepreneur.

The young woman is satisfied with the results she is achieving. “They have accepted us, we have positioned ourselves, they recognize the quality and the work we are doing,” she says.

The project, she adds, is “sustainable” because she is convinced of “always finding a solution” with “creativity and human capital,” although she admits that she would like to have more resources.

His look is “to the future” to leave a mark: “That people remember me as a girl who created something beautiful and that is my feeling and what I put into what I do.”

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The Good Friday Way of the Cross Returns to Havana After Two Years of the Pandemic

The Good Friday procession of the Cross passes through a street in Old Havana. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Raquel Martori, Havana | 16 April 2022: The Good Friday Stations of the Cross once again returned to the streets of Havana after two years of isolation for Cuban Catholics due to the crisis generated by the covid-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of people of all ages — most of them adults — joined the procession that started from the parish of Cristo del Buen Viaje, a church in the historic center of the Cuban capital, to walk the path of the 14 stations that marked the passage the religious act, which represents the death of Jesus.

At the exit of the procession, the vicar general and chancellor of the Archdiocese of Havana, Ramón Suárez Polcari, urged the faithful to “remain firm in faith and good work.”

A group of believers carried the images of Jesus of Nazareth — carrying his cross and crowned with thorns — and the Virgin Mary of Sorrows through the narrow alleys of the oldest and most popular area of Havana.

The Virgin Mary of Sorrows is carried through the narrow alleys of the oldest and most popular area of Havana. (EFE)

The procession – presided over by the Cardinal and Archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad García, brought together priests, nuns, deacons and faithful, accompanied by a car with a speaker, from which songs were broadcast. continue reading

But also prayers for Cuba, with voices in favor of solidarity, forgiveness, faith, respect for values, reconciliation, overcoming divisions, as well as for those who must ensure the common good and particularly those most in need.

Residents and onlookers watched the Stations of the Cross standing at the doors of their homes, on the sidewalks or from the tops of balconies and rooftops over more than a kilometer, with the penultimate stop at the imposing Havana Cathedral and ending at the rhythm of a funeral march in the church of the Holy Angel.

The procession also attracted the eyes of numerous tourists who walked through the area most frequented by tourists in Havana.

Ana María Martínez, arriving early at the Buen Viaje temple of which she is practically a neighbor, said that she was moved “by a great faith, because I will always have it.” According to what she told Efe, she has been left without a family: her only sister died from covid and her nephews live in the United States.

“I have great hope that life will return to the way it was before, although we continue to suffer from this disease. There are many people who have not lost faith and today I have come to ask God to help me,” she said.

A few meters away, Adrián Rodríguez, a 27-year-old who supported the organization of the Stations of the Cross, considered it “very important” that it could be carried out because it gives hope to “move forward,” after the country’s economic situation had deteriorated, which in his opinion “has had repercussions at the community level with the increase in faith,” although it has also triggered emigration.

In 2012, the then Pope Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to Cuba, during which he asked the then president of the island, Raúl Castro, to restore the commemoration of Good Friday as a holiday, which had been suspended for almost half a century.

That year and the next, the Cuban government declared Good Friday an “exceptional” holiday in consideration of the Pope’s request and since 2014 has considered that Christian date as official in the island’s calendar.

In Cuba, with more than 11.2 million inhabitants, it is estimated that 60% of the population is Catholic, according to the number of people baptized on the island.

The relations between the Catholic Churches and the Government experienced tensions at the beginning of the revolution in 1959, and for years later the ups and downs continued until the beginning of the 1990s, when there was a transition to a relaxation, especially since the historic visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998, which was followed by that of Benedict XVI and the current Pontiff Francis.

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