Thanks to Life!

After Years of Enduring Injustice, Cuba’s AIDS Community Is Gaining Support
by Julia Cooke

Condoms are customarily used on one body part for a few specific activities. But on a recent night in Old Havana, they played a different role.

Juan Daniel Sánchez, a volunteer at the Old Havana Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention Center, had designed a series of seven outfits made of condoms for a fashion show. The inventions that shimmied down the makeshift runway were the crowning glory of the Center’s first monthly “Peña Cultural Gracias a la Vida” (Thanks to Life Cultural Gathering), one of a series of new cultural events aimed at spreading the word about prevention while strengthening the community around those living with HIV/AIDS.
“If we’d had colored condoms, it would have been prettier,” Sánchez said. “We’re limited by what we can get our hands on here.”

Notwithstanding their monochromatic tones, the condom dresses were a hit. Over 100 attendees turned out for the event. The night’s lineup included a flamenco singer belting renditions of Cuban classics, comedy skits about infidelities, a short lecture on transmission, an informal chat with a sexologist, and interviews with local celebrities.

The event was one of a series of cultural programs organized by the prevention center. Such festivities have gained momentum thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers spearheading the efforts. The lineup includes gallery exhibits, literary and film discussions, an annual art festival, and monthly cultural gatherings.

At the monthly Literary Tea, discussion revolves around an invited speaker. A poet, essayist, novelist, or critic gives a talk, and then a Center staff member leads a discussion and a round of “Literary Bingo.”
When it began a year ago, the small group met in the Old Havana Prevention Center’s headquarters in a cramped but centrally-located downtown building. Now, with more than sixty regular attendees, the tea has been forced to move into a larger, adjacent building.

Video-debates follow a similar format. A film is carefully chosen by the center’s staff and other members of the community to walk the line between polemic and divisive. After its projection, volunteers encourage viewers to discuss the film.

“Some attendees are recently diagnosed, so we don’t want to alienate them,” said Asterio Lafargué Duran, the center’s coordinator of people living with HIV/AIDS for Old Havana. “We want to inspire discussion, but not distance.”

The event of the year is “ExpoVida” (ExpoLife), a fifteen-day art festival that will take place this year in the first two weeks of 2007. The event gathers artists, musicians, and theater types for two
weeks of open mike nights, performances, and exhibits.

The programs are funded by Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health and the United Nations Global Fund. “The state supports us with snacks, with spaces, and they get us what we need in terms of audiovisual equipment,” explained Jose Manuel Tinón, who has volunteered with the prevention center since 1993. The UN funds buy fliers, T-shirts, and other necessities.

While the programs have all sprung up on the municipal level, their organizers have big plans.
“I want this sort of program to be nationwide,” said Tinón. “A traveling condom fashion show, local events. Where there is serious and continuous work happening, prestige follows. That’s what’ll happen here.”

Since the first case of HIV was diagnosed in Cuba in 1986, the country has kept its infection rate at 0.05 percent. While its educational programs have been lauded, Cuba’s sanatoriums and quarantines have generated criticism.

Tinón refers to the involuntary internment at state-run sanatoriums as “a mistake.” At forty-five years-old, he fell into the generation of Cubans living with HIV/AIDS that was herded into sanatoriums, at times against their will.

He convinced the state to allow him to live independently with the help of his family in the early 1990s. The fight galvanized his resolve to improve the quality of life of others living with HIV/AIDS, and he has since worked at the Old Havana Prevention Center.

The center’s staff is positive about the direction in which Cuba’s support for the community is headed. Tinón calls the current effort “well-organized. There are few who get lost along the way. I’m a volunteer, so I can speak freely. There have been few failures.”

The day after the center’s first cultural gathering, its creators were satisfied. They have already begun to plan subsequent installations, all of which will use unusual tactics to spread consciousness of the importance of safe sex.

The condom dresses may not make a comeback, but their message will reappear in future programs. “I’m not trying to suggest that people should actually wear condoms as clothing,” said Sánchez with a laugh. “I just want to underline the importance of protection.”

Julia Cooke is a freelance arts and culture journalist based in Mexico City. Contact her by e-mail at julia.cooke@gmail.com.

December 2006