"You must understand that we are very different in Cuba," insisted Gabriel Molina Franchossi, director of Gramma newspaper, the official organ of the communist party in Cuba. "To Afro-Cubans, big lips and big backsides are objects of beauty. To us, such images represent the feminine ideal." Afro Cubans also seem naive. Cubans are fond of saying that Fidel Castro abolished racism when he came into power 40 years ago, as though this can be accomplished by a simple decree. What they really mean, of course, is that Castro outlawed discrimination And again, who am I to say he hasn't? In the United States, discrimination didn't become illegal until the mid-60s when Congress passed a series of civil rights laws effecting voting rights, equal employment, and fair housing. By 1968, Richard Nixon was ending a wave of white backlash into power and the process of undermining those gains began. Blacks appear to have had a different experience in Cuba, where better than 40 percent of the population is either Black or mestizo (mixed) and where a fair percentage of those who are considered "white" acknowledge some degree of African or mestizo blood in their heritage. "We in Cuba are not so easily categorized as in the United States," said Reynaldo Calviac Lafferte, director of the International Press Center. He pointed to a wall in his office. "In the same family, there are some who are as white as that wall." Then he slapped his patent leathers. "And there are some who are as black as my shoes. For us, race is not an issue like it is for you."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
A discussion and information mailing list for the RSLP funded CASBAH project, Caribbean Studies - Black and Asian History. The project aims to identify and map national research resources for Caribbean Studies and the history of Black and Asian people in Britain.
"Estudou-se a mortalidade materna segundo a raca das mulheres que residem no Estado do Parana e que morreram entre os anos de 1993 e 1998. O objetivo foi analisar as causas de mortes segundo raca e variaveis socio-economicas, buscando evidenciar a situacao da mulher negra. A populacao foi composta por 956 casos de obitos maternos que fazem parte do Banco de Dados do Comite Estadual de Morte Materna responsavel pela coleta das informacoes." (Author)
