There are not too many images of Latin American women in the North American press. When I first explained to people that I was taking a semester off from graduate school in the spring of 1999 to do six months of documentary work on women’s grass roots activism in Central and South America, I got incredulous responses like, “There are women ACTIVISTS in Latin America?!”
Yup, there are. Writer Amanda Scioscia and I did work in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, where we saw distinct forms of feminism and activism.
It was during this trip that I started to hear a different perspective on what was happening in Cuba. Reproductive rights activists, especially, pointed to the advances of women in revolutionary Cuba. Women spoke highly of the Federation of Cuban women, revolutionary attitudes toward the sexes and the Cuban medical system.
I had never really heard this perspective before. Cuba is the dark island, shrouded in mystery. What was the truth?
So, about a year after the first trip, I landed in Havana alone one night, with a small list of contacts in my pocket. I went there to photograph what women’s lives are like, what choices they are making about their lives. These photos are some of the women I met.
Another Look at Cuba
Cuba: Our Sisters to the South
Launch Slideshow:
Cuba: Our Sisters to the South »
Other Slideshows from Latin America:
Cuban Divas
- Host
Lizette Vila - Filmmaker
Gloria Rolando - Cubana Rap
Instinto - Poet
Carilda Olivar Labra - Santería Priestess
Emília Machado - Exiled Activist
Assata Shakur
Dispatches
- Another Look at Cuba
Cuba: Our Sisters to the South - Hook, Line and Pinker
Wetting a Line in Cuba
Your Pilgrimage
- Trip Guide: Cuba
Practicalities, Packing, & our Fave Books, Flicks, Music
Timeline
From the Shoots
- cuba: Paradox Found
- india: Holy Cow
- new zealand: Stroppy Sheilas & Mana Wahines
- iran: Behind Closed Cha-dors