Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez
The Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal,
Iceland, Argentina, they all got ahead of us, as did even Spain itself,
that country of espadrilles and tambourines that our grandparents
described as timid and old-fashioned. Gay marriage is also a reality in
several jurisdictions in the United States and in Mexico City, home of
those movies with sombrero-wearing, pistol-toting cowboys. In just a few
decades, modernity has left us behind, without a leg to stand on, facing
too much prejudice, too much stuffiness. When did we Cubans become
prudish and old-fashioned? What were our reasons or intentions for not
joining the twenty-first century?
To the "anthropological damage" from being a society barely connected to
the new communications networks, with a poor political culture and an
almost childish inexperience in matters of civic expression, we must add
the lack of evolution over the last fifty years in accepting
differences. But there are always individuals who force a nation to
quicken its pace, hike up its skirts and climb on the bandwagon of
history. In this case their names are Wendy and Ignacio, who were not
satisfied with the dawdling of the National Assembly in evaluating the
legalization of same sex marriage. She, the push and pull of all the
discrimination; he, harassed by homophobia and ideological intolerance.
Wendy, managing a genital reassignment surgery through CENESEX*;
Ignacio, with his political ideas provoking Mariela Castro to fire his
fiancee from her job at an institution that claims to ensure the
acceptance of plurality.
Although what will happen this coming Saturday, August 13, is not
legally considered a "gay wedding," nevertheless it is the closest we
have come. Wendy has an identity card with a female name, but it will be
difficult for the bureaucrats to understand why her birth certificate
says "male." They will both sign a document — before a notary — and
leave the Wedding Palace as man and wife. They will return to their
little house in the Playa neighborhood, conscious that they have set an
important precedent, one that has given us a lesson, a jolt, a burst of
energy. And it will fall to those of us who will witness this legal
union, especially this servant who will act as matron of honor, to thank
Wendy and Ignacio. Because for one afternoon, for one brief afternoon,
they will have placed our country into the third millennium, into the
desired time of "now."
The wedding of Wendy and Ignacio will be this coming Saturday,
August 3, 2011, at 3:00 PM in the Vibora neighborhood Wedding Palace at
Maia Rodríguez and Patrocinio streets, telephone +537-640-7004.
Anyone who would like to go is invited: friends, acquaintances,
curious neighbors, stigmatizers and discriminators of all kinds,
official paparazzi, self-employed photographers, bloggers, independent
journalists, CENESEX workers — Mariela Castro included — foreign and
national press, homosexuals, gays, lesbians, transsexuals and
heterosexuals. The doors will also open to people who think that now is
the time for Cuba to open itself to modernity and modernity to open
itself to Cuba, including — why not? — those who would vote, in an
actual parliament, against these types of unions. In short, it will be a
good opportunity for the tolerant, the intolerant, the political police
and those they pursue every day, the silenced and those who applaud,
those who hold to the letter of the Gospels and those who have no creed,
to witness this moment with Wendy and Ignacio who overcame so many
obstacles, among them having been born in a country wedded to the past.
Translator's note:
CENESEX is the National Center for Sex Education, run by Mariela Castro,
Raul's daughter.
11 August 2011
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