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INT.A0DUCT ION THIS BOOK is a gay Canadian's attempt to come to terms with the Cuban revolutionary process and the place ofhomosexuals within it. To understand the pages that follow the reader needs to know my own viewpoint and preconceptions. Therefore this introduction serves to introduce the author as well as the subject. Postrevolutionary Cuba has at various times filled me with hope and admiration, exasperation and frustration, anger and despair. I have admired the social changes that have benefited countless Cubans, and I have been outraged by the Castro regime's authoritarian treatment of some of its citizens, including friends of mine, who have been jailed, forced into exile, or cowed in their daily lives. I have marveled at the formulation and implementation ofprograms that the rest of Latin America cries out for. Yet I have also been exasperated by the regime's bureaucratic nature and disgusted by its dogmatic imposition ofpolicies that were foredoomed to failure and that inevitably brought hardships to ordinary Cubans. Along with many Cubans I have loved and hated Fidel Castro, a "bad daddy" if ever there was one. I have always empathized with the Cuban people -surely among the warmest and most generous people in the world-who do not deserve the hardships that have been imposed upon them, particularly by the u.s. economic blockade. My first visit to Cuba was in 1965, when I spent six months there doing research for my Ph.D. thesis. It was an intellectually and politically stimulating time, one that was full ofoptimism about the future ofCuba. I stayed in a run-down hotel in Old Havana, eating my meals with fellow students in the university canteen-chiefly rice and beans. Although I enjoyed a few privileges, mostly derived from a press card that I had engineered before leaving Canada, I lived much more simply than the majority offoreign residents in Cuba, almost all of whom were working on contracts that afforded them far better lifestyles than most Cubans enjoyed. I believe that I had more CopyrightefJ. Material XII Introduction exposure to the day-to-day life of ordinary Cubans than most other foreigners at the time. Since I tried to be open-minded, not restricting my contacts with any Cubans because ofpolitical preconceptions, I had friends and acquaintances who ranged from sararnpionados (so revolutionary that they appeared to have come out in red spots as if they had measles) to gusanos who could hardly wait to "worm" their way off the island. I never tried to disguise my friendships and kept a copious diary of my daily experiences and feelings. The government must have been aware of me, because at the time there were very few foreigners living independently in Havana, but my freedom to do as I wished, provided that I respected Cuban laws, was never questioned (nor in subsequent visits). I wandered freely around Havana, spent much time in private homes, and traveled from Pinar del RIO in the west to Santiago in the east. At times, I was only a stone's throw from Fidel Castro, which was not all that unusual in those times given that he would crop up at the most unexpected times and places. I also had the privilege of hearing him deliver his eloquent and rational speeches-primers on the problems facing Cuba and underdeveloped countries in general. Nobody who accuses him of being a ranting, demagogical maniac can possibly have heard him speak to and interact with the Cuban people. At the time I was sexually repressed and had not yet come out. This no doubt was the primary explanation for my unawareness of the travails that had intensified for Cuban homosexuals since the 1959 revolution. The leftist political and intellectual circles in which I moved before going to Cuba were oblivious to sexual politics and to the significance of homosexual oppression. Queers, ladies, and Negroes were still in their place. The black liberation movement had only just begun, and it would be several years before it would be joined by that of women and gays. Over the years, I returned frequently to Cuba to keep abreast of the revolution. I also traveled extensively in Latin America, drawn there by my political and academic interest in its society and politics, as well as by a personal attraction that stemmed from having been raised in Argentina. After coming out, I also became more interested , academically and personally, in gay politics. My participation in the gay...

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