Cuba beyond the Beach by Karen Dubinsky
Author:Karen Dubinsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Between the Lines
Telmary in concert, December 2015
Rochy — who also uses only her first name on stage — comes from a different genre than Telmary’s powerful staccato hip hop, but she too is a force of nature. She was trained as an architect and worked in that profession until she decided to make the leap into her true passion: singing. She sings in the trova tradition, has recorded three discs, and works with a wide variety of Cuban musicians. Lately, however, she’s made a name for herself as one of the voices of an impressive anti-violence campaign she spearheaded along with University of Havana historian (and another force of nature) Julio César González Pagés. Along with a number of Julio’s young University of Havana students — many of them athletes who now study the pernicious effects of their culture’s stereotypes of masculinity — Rochy now tours Cuba, speaking and singing about violence against women and girls. The campaign, called “Todas Contracorriente” (Everyone Against the Current — note the feminine form of “everyone”), has toured all over the island, seventeen cities in total. In a small country like Cuba, that’s pretty much all of them. They visited schools and community centres, using music to open public discussions about violence in general and the sexist violence of popular music in particular. As Rochy explains it, “Our idea is to raise awareness through music. Through music you can do many things to improve society, because currently some artistic creations incite violence, even unintentionally. Through music our children are getting a lot of incitement to violence and I really want musicians to consider this problem, and also I want Cuban women to gain self-esteem.”20
She has her work cut out for herself. Crime statistics — particularly for intimate crimes, such as wife abuse — are impossible to find in Cuba (and are underreported everywhere). Better health, education, and employment statistics certainly contribute to a strong sense of independence among Cuban women, which is why, perhaps, there is a common perception that violence rates are lower in Cuba than elsewhere in the region. But, anecdotally, everyone has stories. Rochy is one of a few artists trying to draw public attention to the issue. A few years earlier, for the first time on Cuban TV, a telenovela, Bajo el mismo sol (Under the Same Sun), featured a story line about an abused wife.21 Another brave feminist artist, filmmaker Marilyn Solaya, produced a powerful feature film, Vestido de Novia (His Wedding Dress), about the hard lives of transgendered Cubans, which includes a number of powerful scenes of masculine sexual brutality.
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