The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights

Gay Space in Havana

Gay Space in Havana Scott Larson F  homosexuals have been viewed as social undesirables in revolutionary Cuba,₁ and even today certain aspects of homosexual behavior can be construed as criminal.² In the past, those who were found “guilty” of being gay were ostracized, stripped of their jobs or social positions, and at times even imprisoned or sent to forced-labor camps.³ Such treatment ultimately led thousands of Cuban gays to flee the country. No longer officially demonized for their sexual orientation, homosexuals in Cuba are ostensibly free to live as they wish, and an estimated  percent to  percent of the country’s . million inhabitants are gay.⁴ Still, the gay community in Cuba is more tolerated than accepted, and a powerful cultural tradition of machismo contributes to an overall environment of male homosexual marginalization. Consider the words of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, whose  film Fresa y chocolate focused international attention on the issue of repression and discrimination of homosexuals in contemporary Cuba: Even today, it’s still there at the social level—I won’t say the official level, but at the social and individual levels. The macho tradition of our country, as in many other, especially 334 Latin American, countries, is very strong, and the rejection of homosexuals is visible in all of them (Chanan , ). Yet within that environment, male homosexuals in Cuba’s capital city, Havana, have managed to claim a number of the city’s public places as spaces of their own. It is through these spaces—where homosexuals meet to socialize, make new acquaintances , and exchange information—that the community has gained a share of societal visibility and viability. This study aims to explore the role space plays in the lives of Havana’s homosexuals , to investigate how gay-tolerant spaces there are constructed, defined, and defended . It focuses on three main geographic spaces: Calle , also known as La Rampa, in Vedado, where a string of bars and cafés functions as a magnet for gays; a stretch of the Malecón, the broad avenue that runs along Havana’s oceanfront, where gays gather to socialize at night; and Parque Central in La Habana Vieja, a traditional meeting point for homosexuals that continues to serve as a prime, modern-day homosexual cruising spot. Together these spaces form part of what has come to be known in Havana as “el mundo bajo,” literally “the lower world.” Why Homosexual Space? Why Havana? Contemporary Cuba and its ever-evolving, ever-controversial relationship with the outside world remain fertile areas of interest, particularly in regard to political freedoms , social constraints, and human rights.Within that context, much attention has already has been focused on the lives of homosexuals in Cuba, in large part because a significant number of immigrant gay artists, writers, and filmmakers have contributed their stories to the voluminous and oft-politicized discourse on life on the communist island. At the same time, a plethora of geographic research has investigated the general issue of homosexuality and space in relation to society, especially as it relates to the creation of gay or socially marginalized space and the role that process plays in the formation of group identity (Elder ; Knopp ; Mitchell ; Rothenberg ; Myslik ; Valentine ; Visser ). Yet as a number of researchers have pointed out, the bulk of the body of work on homosexuals and space revolves around North American and European experiences, particularly urban ones. As a result, in the past, when geographers studied sexuality and space, there was “a total lack of questions focusing on how sexualities are constructed and negotiated in peripheral economies”(Visser , ), and a bias toward “categorizations informed by Anglo-industrialized experience” (Elder , ). It is within this context that Havana’s homosexual community offers particularly compelling insight into how socially marginalized groups can and do claim a certain Gay Space in Havana / 335 degree of visibility and acceptance, even within a largely restrictive society, through the use of physical space. While Havana itself is one of Latin America’s least densely populated major cities, with , people per square kilometer, perpetual subdivision of houses and apartments has left families crowded into tiny spaces. In addition, in many cases throughout the city, family living arrangements are fluid, with various relatives and friends —often unemployed and officially not allowed to live in Havana—bedding down in whatever space is available in already-compact apartments and houses. Such cramped and often dismal...