{"id":252944,"date":"2022-05-16T13:43:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T17:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=252944"},"modified":"2022-05-16T13:51:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T17:51:57","slug":"mariela-castro-we-cannot-be-naive-in-the-face-of-fundamentalisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/mariela-castro-we-cannot-be-naive-in-the-face-of-fundamentalisms\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariela Castro: \u201cWe cannot be naive in the face of fundamentalisms\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week the 15th edition of the Cuban Days against Homophobia and Transphobia <\/span>began in Havana<\/span><\/a>. The event, which once again has in-person activities \u2015 among them, the traditional conga through Havana\u2019s Vedado district, scheduled for this Saturday, if it is not suspended due to the tragic <\/span>events at the Saratoga Hotel<\/span><\/a> \u2015 after two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, is taking place just days after the official conclusion of the popular consultation process on the draft of the new <\/span>Family Code<\/span><\/a>, which is now entering a key stage for its definitive draft and its possible approval in a referendum by the Cuban population.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a significant moment for the island \u2015 also marked by the economic crisis, progress against COVID-19, the echoes of last July\u2019s protests and the growing migratory wave \u2015, in which fundamental rights and extensive and inclusive approaches are being settled regarding the realities and family dynamics of today\u2019s Cuba, contemplated in the legislative proposal, but stigmas and prejudices long rooted in Cuban society also emerge, or rather, are exacerbated, and conflicting visions are confronted, and on antagonistic occasions, about society itself and the family institution in the country, and life in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a reality that cannot be ignored or underestimated, with ideological and even political implications, and that, even though it gains greater visibility in this scenario, it goes beyond the process related to the Family Code and points directly to the future of the country, according to Mariela Castro Esp\u00edn, director of the <\/span>National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX)<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something much deeper, much broader, and with important contradictions,\u201d Castro Esp\u00edn responded to <\/span>OnCuba<\/b> during the inaugural press conference of the Days against Homophobia and Transphobia. In her opinion, this is part of a \u201cdangerous\u201d international context, from whose resonances the island does not escape, and in which, in tune with \u201chegemonic interests of the great power groups,\u201d \u201cprejudices and fundamentalist, retrograde positions are strengthened, which one believed should already be overcome and should not return, but that, even so, are reintroduced and installed with tremendous force in all issues, including those related to sexuality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the specialist, in these times the world is going through \u201clike a medieval period of modernity,\u201d in which these positions and prejudices have managed to escalate to the political level in several nations and have accelerated the polarization of their societies and also on a global scale. \u201cWhat is happening is something tremendous,\u201d she affirmed. \u201cThere are countries where fundamentalist positions have managed to position themselves, for example, on aspects related to the rights of LGTBIQ+ people, on which progress had already been made, and suddenly proposals from politicians and conservative groups who are trying to remove those rights start being seen. Also, on the voluntary intervention of pregnancy, to prevent it from being legally approved or to promote its prohibition where there is already a regulation in this regard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In this sense, she considered \u201cterrible\u201d the possibility that the <\/span>Supreme Court of the United States reverse this right<\/span><\/a> in the northern nation, and, with it, reverse \u201cso many years of fighting for civil liberties.\u201d The director of CENESEX compared these setbacks to a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and regretted that women are once again \u201chostages of the most conservative positions\u201d and of \u201cpolitical tricks\u201d to \u201cdeny them rights and conquests for which social, progressive movements have historically fought.\u201d From her perspective, \u201cpreventing women from being able to decide on their bodies, from being able to fully exercise their rights, is the continuation of the historical policy of misogyny from the exploitative patriarchy\u201d and the expression of \u201can arbitrary exercise of power\u201d on them.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, she warned that \u201cjust as these retrograde, obscurantist thoughts begin to position themselves in some places, they also radiate to others. And in Cuba we have to be alert, active to prevent these tendencies, these fundamentalisms from taking a stand, which are not only religious, they are also political, ideological, and they are there, trying to see what terrain they manage to conquer. We cannot be naive in that sense. It really is a very dangerous moment for humanity, and we have to be aware of it, also in our country. We have to defend everything that for so many years we have been conquering and working for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Where is politics played?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n