JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Archives


BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Archives

BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Archives


BRITISH-IRISH-POETS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Home

BRITISH-IRISH-POETS Home

BRITISH-IRISH-POETS  2001

BRITISH-IRISH-POETS 2001

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: 68

From:

Candice Ward <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Candice Ward <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 22 Feb 2001 01:04:21 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (102 lines)

Thanks. Given what you say about the periodic roundups, along with Wilson's
having been told about the current prison-rehab program by both a cab driver
and a govt. official, she could simply have had the bad luck to hit town in
the wake of one. And maybe it wasn't such bad luck if it made her look
beyond a cultural phenomenon as conspicuous as you indicate this one is.

Do you know anything about the "animationists" she describes as the new
breed of tourist-hotel "entertainment" workers? I'd never heard of them, and
the term itself sounds like something spawned by an online translation
generator. I couldn't tell from the article what sorts of entertainment
these animationists actually provide--escort service? stand-up comedy? beach
blanket bingo?

Candice


on 2/21/01 10:43 PM, Mark Weiss at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Yup, you're right--my emphasis last night was a bit off (so was I, and it's
> a while since I read the article). Her account is more balanced than most,
> and her obvious emotional struggle with her admiration for some of what she
> found was actually quite moving. But it's really hard for anyone to miss
> seeing the prostitutes entirely, not because there are so mant but because
> they tend to hang out in the dark galleries at the beginning of Calle
> O'Reilly, the main drag of Old Havana and its entertainment center. Altho
> it's entirely possible that as a woman she wasn't as comfortable walking
> dark streets at night as I was, despite Havana's amazing safety. And of
> course she wasn't being propositioned.
>
> I should have mentioned that the casual relationships I describe occur as
> easily between Cuban men and foreign women. And between Cubans and Cubans.
> It's a pretty seductive place.
>
> At 09:01 PM 2/21/2001 -0500, Candice Ward wrote:
>> Well, it's impossible to say how "hard" she looked, but as a journalist
>> who'd gone there to research that particular phenomenon, I'd guess she
>> looked as hard as she could and then fell back on the tried-and-true default
>> measure of writing _that_ story instead. You're really commenting on what
>> she found, though, as different from what you found, and even if your visits
>> occurred at the exact same time, what a female professional journalist could
>> find of or about prostitutes anywhere would likely differ to some extent
>> from what a male tourist could find--or be found by--don't you think?
>>
>> I also thought the article more balanced than you did, apparently, and I
>> know from my Cuban friends that Wilson got quite a lot of it right. If she
>> interpreted things darkly on account of her own exile status, it was far
>> from the darkest interpretation I've read by one or another member of the
>> exile community. Those accounts should be read skeptically, I agree, just
>> the counterpart idolatrous, cult-of-Cuba accounts should be, as they're
>> equally propagandistic. But Wilson's article is more complex than such
>> accounts, and I was particularly interested in her empathetic response to
>> the ambivalence among the Cubans she talked to and was able to identify with
>> in spite of being an exile herself, which is widely believed in the US to be
>> virtually free of such ambivalence. (Yeah, right--as if life were ever that
>> simple!)
>>
>> Candice
>>
>>
>> on 2/21/01 3:38 PM, Mark Weiss at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>
>>> I read the article when it came out. She didn't look very hard. As an exile
>>> she struggles mightily with the overwhelming evidence that some aspects of
>>> Cuban life have been enormously improved under Castro, which is not to say
>>> that there isn't plenty wrong, and she tends to put the darkest possible
>>> interpretation on what she sees. As one yound architect from an
>>> impoverished background told me, attitudes towards the regime tend to be
>>> related to whether one has been a winner or a loser as a reult. His wife's
>>> family were wealthy landowners who lost a great deal. His mother was a
>>> widowed washerwoman. They had met at a university he wouldn't have been
>>> able to attend before the revolution, and he certainly wouldn't have been
>>> allowed to date, let alone marry, her.
>>>
>>> There were in the early days of the Castro regime extreme and not very
>>> friendly efforts to end prostitution in the manner you describe, which was
>>> seen as a particularly degrading form of capitalism. Given Cuban mores, it
>>> was also largely for the service of tourists. Until the end of the Soviet
>>> connection and the deprivation that has followed there were only sporadic
>>> attempts to control prostitution, which had largely disappeared as an
>>> economoc strategy. Since 1992, however, there has been a resurgence of
>>> prostitution, altho very little of it is on the industrial scale of the
>>> Batista regime and its predecessors, and there are sporadic roundups, as in
>>> the US. But on any night of any week one will trip over prostitutes on the
>>> malecon, at the edge of the old city, and in certain of the bars. One can
>>> also arrange for a woman to appear at one's place of residence (hotels are
>>> more problematic: the lobbies are full of eyes. But there's no shortage of
>>> places to close the deal).
>>>
>>> Far more common are the readily-available casual liaisons of indeterminate
>>> length that she describes, involving gift-giving, restaurant meals and
>>> dancing. The many women who engage in this have day jobs that have nothing
>>> to do with the entertainment of foreigners, but those jobs supply few
>>> luxuries under the present economic conditions. The relationships range
>>> from the friendly to the profoundly passionate, rather like sexual liaisons
>>> in Cuban society at large. To a degree, and rather haphasardly, the
>>> government tries to discourage these liaisons for reasons of public health
>>> and to discourage a possible drift towards prostitution, but there are also
>>> political motives.
>>>
>>> The ceiba is considered by santeria practicioners the most powerful of
> trees.

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager