A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education

Mariela Castro Espn

Cuban Studies, Volume 42, 2011, pp. 23-34 (Article)
Published by University of Pittsburgh Press
DOI: 10.1353/cub.2011.0015
For additional information about this article
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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cub/summary/v042/42.espin.html
23
MARI ELA CAS TRO ES P N
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education
ABSTRACT
Initiatives in the eld of sexology and sex education in prerevolutionary Cuba are barely
known, as continuity between those experiences and the work carried out during the
years following the 1959 revolution have not been researched. The founding of the
Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), however, must be considered the product of a long
process of political maturity on the part of Cuban women during the rst half of the
twentieth century, and in the broader context of the FMC, the developments in the elds
of sexology and sex education over the past fty years also must be considered. Drawing
on FMC archival holdings, this article sets out a periodization of the four main stages of
the revolutionary period of institutionalizing sex education in Cuba, as well as its main
challenges.
RESUMEN
Las iniciativas en el campo de la sexologa y la educacin sexual en la Cuba prerevolu-
cionaria apenas son conocidas, ya que no se ha investigado continuidades entre aquellas
experiencias y el esfuerzo llevado a cabo en los aos posteriores a la revolucin de 1959.
Sin embargo, hay que ver la fundacin de la Federacin de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC)
como el producto de un largo proceso de madurez por parte de las mujeres cubanas
durante la primera mitad del siglo xx, y en el contexto mas amplio de la FMC tambin
hay que ver los acontecimientos en los campos de la sexologa y la educacin sexual de
los ltimos cincuenta aos. Basado en materiales de archivo de la FMC, este artculo
esboza una periodizacin de cuatro etapas principales en el perodo revolucionario en la
institucionalizacin de la educacin sexual en Cuba, a la vez que seala sus mayores
desaos.
Initiatives in the eld of sexology and sex education in prerevolutionary Cuba
are barely known, as continuity between those experiences and the work car-
ried out during the early years of the Cuban Revolution have not been re-
searched. However, what is currently referred to as the Moncada Program and
its references to the problems faced by women may be identied as the main
bases of the revolutionary process.
Fidel Castro denounced the double exploitation of women in prerevolu-
tionary Cuba, because of gender and social class, in his self-defense plea at the
trial for the July 1953 attack on the Moncada garrison. Written while he was in
24 : Mariela Castro Espn
jail and published subsequently as History Will Absolve Me,
1
the plea became a
political platform and blueprint for changing womens lives.
In 1959, womens organizations in the countrywith different histories,
views, and capacities for actionexpressed their readiness to be involved in
social, economic, political, and cultural change.
2
In September, a Cuban com-
mission was set up for the purpose of attending in November the rst Latin
American Womens Congress in Santiago de Chile, organized by the Womens
International Democratic Federation (WIDF). This helped forge links between
Cuba and leftist world struggles for equal rights for women. The Congress of
Cuban Women for Latin American Liberation was created in the months that
followed, to provide functional support for unifying the different organizations
and calling on women to take part in the tasks organized in support of the
revolution and to carry out the agreements adopted in Santiago de Chile. This
in turn provided the window in which to begin planning the structure and
functioning of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), set up in August 1960.
The FMC joined WIDF that same year, occupying one of the vice presidencies.
The founding of the FMC must be considered a product of the long experi-
ence of political maturity of Cuban women during the rst half of the twentieth
century and their understanding that the Revolution offered them the chance
to raise their human dignity.
3
At the same time, the concept of a comprehen-
sive approach to development began to emerge, one that was not limited solely
to economic growth but that also integrated aspects of social, political, and
cultural transformation in each specic moment of the revolutionary process.
Accordingly, state social policy embraced various social programs, whose
greatest impact was felt in education, health care, welfare, and security, with a
special emphasis on children, youth, and women.
4
In the context of the broader social process, which has been a constant of
the past fty years, what follows periodizes the four main stages of institu-
tionalizing sex education and signals its main challenges. The focus is on the
problems of women as social subjects, in the context of work carried out by the
FMC and the gradual incorporation of sex education, drawing on FMC archival
holdings.
5
Chronologically, the stages are 19591975 (womens rights and
reproductive health), 19761989 (sex education, social policy, and structure),
19902003 (theory, methodology, and gender praxis), and 20032009 (sex
education and sexual diversity).
First Stage, 19591975: Womens Rights and Reproductive Health
The rst stage, from 1959 to 1975, was characterized essentially by the focus
on equal rights for women and the promotion of their reproductive health, and
it was closely linked with the creation and development of the FMC.
6
Orga-
nized in a large network of voluntary activism, women carried out many initia-
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education : 25
tives that later became the policies, laws, and responsibilities of the new institu-
tions created. It is important to highlight some of the processes that gave rise to
the rst moves to introduce sex education.
The efforts to organize the new National Public Health System (NPHS)
revealed the sharp divides of social class, gender, race, geographical space, and
other social circumstances, in the context of a shortage of medical and nursing
personnel.
7
This posed the need to identify social actors in the community in
the battle against transmittable diseases, acute diarrheal diseases, and maternal
death. Health authorities early on sought the support of mass organizations
such as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), the National
Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), and the FMC for tasks such as immun-
ization campaigns, which was how sector integration with mass organizations
began.
8
Participating in health and educational programs together with the CDRs
and the ANAP, the FMC began to address two of the main issues affecting the
health and lives of women: premature aging, especially in rural areas, due to
an excessive number of pregnancies and deliveries resulting from both a lack of
knowledge and the means to plan their lives and their families and a high
index of women who resorted to high risk abortions.
9
Between 1959 and
1965, the estimated rate of maternal mortality per 10,000 live births was 120.
10
The rst national congress of the FMC, in 1962, supported the institu-
tionalization of abortion, under medical supervision, as a service offered by the
NPHS. As of 1965, abortion was offered free of charge in hospitals, with
womens consent, for the purpose of preserving womens lives and ensuring
their right to decide over their own bodies; only illegal abortions remain pun-
ishable by law. Between 1965 and 1967, maternal mortality decreased by half,
which is attributable to the institutionalization of abortions, now performed in
medical facilities, and to the new policy that eventually gave rise to national
programs for family planning and sex education. The right to abortion, consid-
ered integral to reproductive human rights, became one of womens basic
human rights, although a major concern was that the practice of abortion be
considered only an extreme option and not a regular fertility-regulation con-
traceptive method.
11
Underlying the situation of women having many children, pregnancies,
and abortions was the limited view of womens social worth, which was gener-
ally reduced to their reproductive function. This clashed with the array of
social, political, and economic activities of the revolutionary process in which
women were being urged to become involved, such as the implementation of
the agrarian and urban reforms, the nationalization of the education system, and
the creation of the Rural Medical Service.
12
Gradually, the FMC began to make an impact, changing the objective and
subjective conditions that led women to resort to abortion. Publication of the
26 : Mariela Castro Espn
monthly magazine Mujeres, as of 1961, with a circulation of more than 270,000
copies, was, in the words of one of its founders, the ideal vehicle with which the
Federation commenced the task of sex education. Using the section Health
Debates as reference, debates were held in every delegation . . . and women
asked nurses and doctors in this eld of knowledge to guide the meetings. This
aroused much interest in both the female and male population of various ages.
13
Topics dealt with feminine and masculine reproductive organs and their func-
tions, hygiene, health during pregnancy, nutrition, contraceptive use, and the
right to an abortion as a safe and free public health-care service.
The FMC enlisted the collaboration of health professionals, among them
the leading Cuban gynecologist and obstetrician Celestino lvarez Lajon-
chere,
14
and a multidisciplinary and multisectoral working group was created,
coordinated by the FMC. The groups main function was the drafting and imple-
mentation of the National Sex Education Policy and Program (ProNES) and the
National Sex Education Working Group (GNTES) in 1972. That year, the FMC,
supported by Mujeres magazine, offered a second cycle in sex education.
15
The second national congress of the FMC, in 1974, was framed in a
broader process of mass discussion of new legislation, including the Family
Code (on which there was heated debate throughout that year), and of an
educational strategy in response to womens demand regarding the need for sex
education for children.
16
One of the recommendations agreed on at the con-
gress was to work with the Ministries of Health and Education to draft mate-
rials and plans to meet this demand; these were embodied in two resolutions
adopted at the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), in 1975:
On the Training of Children and Youth and On the Full Exercise of Wom-
ens Equality.
17
Second Stage, 19761989: Sex Education, Social Policy, and Structure
The second stage saw the development of ProNES, with the economic and
political support of the state and government, although in schools a biological
approach prevailed, and in the public health-care system, the approach that was
mainly preventive. The Standing Committee on Equal Rights of Women, Chil-
dren, and Youth was established in 1976, shortly after the creation of Cubas
Parliament, the National Assembly of Peoples Power. In 1977, GNTES ac-
quired legal status, attached to the Standing Committee, and its activities in-
cluded the training of sex education extension workers selected from among
doctors, teachers, psychologists, health ofcials, and specialists; the FMC; the
education sector; and youth organizations at national and territorial levels.
The ProNES sex education policy, coordinated by GNTES, focused on the
younger generations, women, and the family; it was decided that the Ministries
of Education and Health, together with the FMC and the Young Communist
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education : 27
League (Unin de Jvenes Comunistas, UJC) would be jointly responsible for
developing a sex education program. The rst sex education seminar, in 1976,
sponsored by the UN Population Fund, brought together delegates from na-
tional and international institutions and organizations. The implementation of
sex education policy followed, with the creation of provincial and municipal
sex education commissions. As a result of a study conducted jointly by the
Enrique Jos Varona Pedagogical University and GNTES, the Ministry of Edu-
cation included some elements of sex education as part of the biology syllabus
offered in secondary education, although not without resistance from within the
ministry.
In 1979, a GNTES multidisciplinary group was set up, comprising special-
ists in the care of transsexual persons, and the group adopted internationally
approved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures,
18
which were incorporated as
services offered free of charge by the NPHS, along with courses to train sex
therapists. A sex education training program was organized for ofcials from
the Ministry of Education, as well as for directors and vice directors from the
different education levels. In 1980, sex education was introduced in teacher-
training colleges and universities and in day-care-training centers, as an op-
tional subject or as cross-sectional content; media coverage was extended to
adolescents and youths with the publication of Muchachas magazine, in which
sex education was discussed in its column Hablemos francamente.
The 1980s saw the third and fourth national congresses of the FMC, whose
documents and resolutions reected the advances and concerns regarding sex
education, concerns that successive congresses of the UJC also addressed. The
Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for the Study of Sexuality (Sociedad Cubana
Multidisciplinaria para el Estudio de la Sexualidad, SOCUMES) was created at
the request of GNTES, with a view to supporting ProNES and establishing links
with other scientic societies in the region and throughout the world; SOCUMES
became a member of the Latin American Federation of Sexology and Sex Edu-
cation Societies (Federacin Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Sexologa y
Educacin Sexual, FLASSES) and the World Association of Sexology. In 1983,
a national working commission on AIDS was set up, and, in 1986, in the spirit of
a preventative and a biosocial approach to public health-care programs and
campaigns, the Operational Group to Confront and Fight AIDS (Grupo Oper-
ativo para el Enfrentamiento y Lucha contra el Sida, GOPELS) followed. The
link between AIDS and sexual practices of the population stressed even more
the need for intersectoral sex education.
19
Pamphlets and books by major national and international authors were
published, and radio and television aired sex education programs.
20
Experts
from Sweden and the German Democratic Republic brought new ideas, which
made a mark on GNTESs work, cemented by academic interest in womens
studies.
21
28 : Mariela Castro Espn
The FMC proposed to the Ministry of Public Health that GNTES become an
independent body attached to the ministry, and, in 1989, the National Center for
Sex Education (CENESEX) was ofcially established. Although GNTES basi-
cally coordinated and carried out training and extension activities geared toward
raising the awareness of professionals and people in general, CENESEX was
called on to carry out a methodological function to enhance expertise and ca-
pabilities.
22
This structural change increased the capacity and scope of sex edu-
cation policy, backed by the state and with a budget allocated for this purpose.
The challenge that remained was for a formative and integrationist ap-
proach to counter the prevailing preventive and biological approach and neu-
tralize resistance from within the Ministry of Education to establishing a na-
tional sex education program in schools.
Third Stage, 19902003: Theory, Methodology, and Gender Praxis
The third stage coincided with major international events that undermined the
economic base of the country and made it necessary to modify all social and
economic projects of Cubas development strategy. As a result of the failure of
the socialist experience in Eastern European countries, and subsequent inten-
sication of the U.S. economic, nancial, and commercial embargo on the
Cuban revolutionary process, new survival strategies were implemented to
counter the vicissitudes of what became known as the Special Period in Times
of Peace.
The situation led women to sharpen their wit in the face of difculties,
especially in the home, caused by the problems in the supplies and service
sectors. The FMC was forced to change the program of its fth national con-
gress, in 1990, stressing, as it had in the 1960s, programs prioritized by the
state. The political will to continue the struggle for equal rights for women
remained, but, because of the hardships of daily life, many women, including
professionals, were compelled to return to their homes.
Despite the shortage of material and nancial resources, with the creation
of CENESEX the scientic bases for sex education were expanded and en-
hanced, with the integration of a gendered approach to understanding the social
and cultural assignation and/or assumption of male and female roles.
23
In 1991,
the FMC opened Women and Family Guidance Houses in municipalities
throughout the country, which provided information on sexual and reproduc-
tive health, family violence, family coexistence, prevention of HIV and sex-
ually transmitted diseases, and sex education at the community level. Intersec-
toral and community academic work was strengthened with the introduction of
the Methodology of Community Correcting Processes (ProCC);
24
on the basis
of work carried out in the years 19921994 in Piln, a municipality in eastern
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education : 29
Cuba with the lowest human development indices in the country, CENESEX
embarked on a new sphere of community work.
At the same time, CENESEX began to strengthen training criteria by
developing a postgraduate training system, with the introduction of courses,
diplomas, and masters degrees endorsed by the Higher Institute of Medical
Sciences of Havana. The rst master in sexology graduated in 1997. The
Enrique Jos Varona Pedagogical University started to offer masters degrees in
gender, sex education, and reproductive health. There was a transition from
womens studies to gender studies in research and teaching. In 1989 chairs in
women and gender were created in several universities as the result of collab-
orative work carried out by the FMC, the Ministry of Education, and the
Ministry of Higher Education, to consolidate awareness among teachers and
ofcials on the importance of integrating a gender perspective in the curricu-
lum and in research and extracurricular activities. In conjunction with the
Ministry of Public Health, CENESEX created chairs in sexology and sex edu-
cation in medical universities throughout the country and in the NPHS in 1993.
In 1997, the FMC founded the Womens Studies Center to coordinate gender
training for women, and the National Group for the Prevention of Family
Violence was also created.
Moreover, CENESEX strengthened its dissemination work with the maga-
zine Sexologa y Sociedad, started in 1994, and the supplement Sexo Sentido
published in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde. Because of resourcing issues dur-
ing the Special Period, Sexo Sentido was suspended until 2000, when it began
to appear again on Saturdays as a regular section. One of the most signicant
achievements during this stage, however, was the gradual creation and implemen-
tation of the National Sex Education Program throughout all levels of the national
education system as of 1996, building on the Responsible Maternity-Paternity
Project, which had started in 1992 and had as its main purpose the inclusion of the
father and/or relatives in pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal care, as during the
early years of childhood. In 2000, Project MSM (men who have sex with men)
was created on the basis of policies agreed in GOPELS for the prevention of
HIV/AIDS in the male homosexual and bisexual population, which was begin-
ning to show the highest incidence in the country. In addition, CENESEX and the
National Center for the Prevention of STD-HIV/AIDS started programs to train
sexual health activists to work with those in the population of male homosexual,
bisexual, and transgender orientations.
Important academic and scientic exchanges took place during this period,
including the rst and second Ibero-American Workshops on Sex Education
and Orientation for Life (1993 and 1998), organized by the Enrique Jos
Varona Pedagogical University; the rst Latin American Conference on Sex
Education and Reproductive Health, sponsored and organized by CENESEX,
30 : Mariela Castro Espn
FLASSES, UN Population Fund, and SOCUMES; and the seventh Latin Amer-
ican Congress of Sexology and Sex Education, sponsored and organized by
CENESEX, SOCUMES, and FLASSES (1994); the rst, second, and third
Cuban Congresses of Sex Education, Orientation and Therapy (1994, 1998,
and 2001); and the rst Latin American Symposium of Studies on Impotence
(2001).
The holding of provincial courses on sex education in 2002 helped encour-
age and disseminate the ndings of scientic research in the country that were
published and presented and at the sixteenth World Sexology Congress in
Havana in 2003, including an analysis of the origin, development, and situation
of ProNES, with priorities, principles, and objectives for its continuation.
Five priorities were identied: the right of every person, regardless of sex,
race, age, sexual orientation, sensorial, intellectual, or physical capacities, po-
litical or religious beliefs, to receive sex education as a part of his or her
education; the right of every person, with no exceptions, to have his or her sex
health looked after in a comprehensive approach to health; respect for human
dignity, from which derives respect for sexual rights; the creation of material
and ideological conditions favoring the development of a full, healthy, respon-
sible, and happy sexuality; and the development of capacity in the community
to attend to the needs concerning the sexuality of vulnerable population groups.
There were ve principles on which this policy was to be based and that
were therefore required for its implementation. The rst was multidisciplinar-
ity, the nature and complexity of sexuality as an object of study requiring
interrelation of scientic disciplines. The second was intersectoral implemen-
tation, requiring the coordinated action of diverse state institutions and social
organizations. The third was understanding historical specicity, that is, the
evolution of specic contexts and scenarios allowing for the development of
interventions to guarantee improvement. The fourth was a gender perspective,
as sexuality and sex education require a profound understanding of the com-
plex and diverse relationships existing between men and women, as well as a
rm agenda for the elimination of the sexist social and cultural ideas embedded
in history. The fth was the need for a scientic approach that embraced a
humanist and materialistic dialectic on sexuality and sex education, orienta-
tion, and therapy.
The objectives were fourfold: to develop sex education devoid of sexist
discriminatory elements, in the various stages of life and as part of the holistic
education of the individual; to promote sexual health as a fundamental element
in the quality of life in various age and population groups; to educate in a spirit of
respect for the sexual rights of all; and to further systematic reection, address-
ing stereotypes and prejudices, and promoting attitudes and behaviors favorable
to the development of a full, healthy, responsible, and happy sexuality.
In short, advances in sex education, with the political, social and eco-
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education : 31
nomic support of the state, are signicant and offer us a higher awareness of the
problems demanding a greater depth in our scientic knowledge and an im-
provement of our actions.
25
The main challenge was how to adapt the National
Sex Education Program to new demands in the Cuban scientic and social
context.
Fourth Stage, 20032009: Sex Education and Sexual Diversity
The fourth stage began with the 2003 World Sexology Congress, which was
attended by more than two thousand delegates from ninety countries, and
whose theme was Sexuality and Human Development: From Words to Ac-
tion. The event contributed to a qualitative, theoretical, methodological, ideo-
logical, and practical advance in ProNES, as it brought together renowned
international clinical experts and demanded a critical review of the work car-
ried out; the guidelines that had been followed; and the national and world
development of, and future prospects for, sex education and sexology.
In 2004, a sexual diversity section was created on the CENESEX Web site
(http://www.cenesexualidad.sld.cu) and as a scientic section in SOCUMES.
Both CENESEX and SOCUMES joined the International Lesbian and Gay
Association (ILGA) during its regional meeting in Latin America and the
Caribbean. That same year CENESEX took the decision of reorganizing and
extending the multidisciplinary team in charge of the diagnosis and care of
transsexuals, with a redenition of its objectives and the elaboration of a com-
prehensive care strategy.
26
In 2005, CENESEX and the National Center for the Prevention of STD-
HIV/AIDS sponsored a gay lm festival in Havana, and Cuban specialists
participated for the rst time in the nineteenth symposium of the Harry Ben-
jamin International Gender Dysphoria Association held in Bologna, Italy. The
Cuban Strategy for Comprehensive Care of Transsexual Persons was presented
there, and CENESEX later submitted for parliamentarian consultation a strat-
egy for the legalization of sex change and other rights of transgender persons.
Cuba, represented by CENESEX and SOCUMES, took part for the rst time in
the ILGA World Congress in Geneva, in 2006, and in the rst International
Conference of Human Rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Persons in Montreal.
As a result of GOPELS agreements, Cuban national television transmitted
the Cuban series The Hidden Face of the Moon, which addressed the topic of
sexual diversity, among others. The series had a great social impact, and the
debate on male homosexuality and bisexuality widened as the media called on
professionals and institutions for comment. On May 17, 2007, when Interna-
tional Day against Homophobia was commemorated for the rst time in Cuba,
CENESEX coordinated the debate of the lm Boys Dont Cry in a Havana
32 : Mariela Castro Espn
movie theater; and the fth Congress on Culture and Development subse-
quently presented social and legal initiatives for the rights of sexual minorities.
In early 2008, the fourth Cuban Congress of Sex Education, Orientation,
and Therapy for the Right to Free Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was
held in Havana. On May 17 that same year, the second Cuban Conference for
International Day against Homophobia, took place, with the support of cultural
institutions, student organizations, the government, the UJC, and the PCC.
Seven provinces, including Havana, took part this time, and a monthly lm
debate, Diferente, was started, led by the lm critic Frank Padrn, in the 23 y
12 movie theater. In June, despite opposition from some religious quarters, the
Ministry of Public Health adopted Ministerial Resolution No. 126, which set
out procedures for the care of transsexual persons, legitimized the functions of
the National Commission for the Comprehensive Care of Transsexual Persons,
and created the Center for the Comprehensive Care of Transsexual Persons.
In this stage, the FMC, the Cuban Union of Jurists, and CENESEX began
to promote awareness of the need for a consultation process on changes in the
Family Code, to include articles on respect for sexual orientation and gender
identity, among other substantive proposals, with a view to democratizing
intergender and intergenerational family relations. This was a demand voiced
at the eighth FMC National Congress in 2009, and CENESEX, together with
the UJC, the University Students Federation, and other organizations and in-
stitutions, embarked on a new strategy to educate all of society with respect to
free and responsible sexual orientation and gender identity as an exercise in
equity and social justice. Talks, lectures, lm debates, and plays were put on in
all the universities in the capital and in some of those in the provinces, and the
Diversity Is Natural public media campaign was launched.
Challenges Today
The challenges facing Cuba in the years ahead with respect to sex education
range from analyzing the impact of the sex education policy on the Cuban
population to implementing action that can help change the subjectivity and
behavior of women and men in accordance with life cycle and social and
geographical context. These include the need to continue creating the material
and ideological conditions favoring the implementation of ProNES priorities,
principles, and objectives; to stress the work with institutions of socialization
such as family, school, church, and other social organizations, as well as state
bodies; to develop a mechanism of integrating macro social policy with sexual
education; to strengthen the legal and legislative bases for this; and to develop
lasting educational and social communication strategies.
The Cuban strategy for comprehensive development, our socialist project,
is the backbone of Cubas sex education policy, which, for fty years, has shifted
A Cuban Policy Approach to Sex Education : 33
but not put an end to patriarchal culture. The stages identied here help us both
systematize what has been done and render more visible the challenges to come.
NOT E S
1. Fidel Castro Ruz, History Will Absolve Me (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1975).
2. At the time of the triumph of the revolution, there were several womens organizations,
some of a social nature and others linked to political movements. In early 1959, others emerged in
support of revolutionary laws or in favor of womens demands. See Federacin de Mujeres Cuba-
nas, Informe Central del II Congreso de la FMC (Havana: FMC, 1975), 95.
3. Ibid.; Congreso de Mujeres Cubanas por la liberacin de Latinoamrica, Revista Obra
Revolucionaria (Havana: Imprenta Nacional de Cuba, June 3, 1960).
4. Since 1959, following the victory of the Revolution, general and sectoral policies were
established in keeping with the national strategy for economic and social development, including
the inalienable right of women to participate in the economic, political, cultural and social life of
the country with equal opportunities and possibilities as men. Vilma Espn Guillois, Las cubanas
de Beijing al 2000 (Havana: Editorial de La Mujer, 1996), 9.
5. These include documents of FMC congresses, Mujeres magazine, educational materials,
lectures, interviews with founders and other key gures, and secondary sources.
6. Women from diverse sectorsworkers, peasants, housewives, women who fought in
mountains and the underground movementinformed me that they had decided to create an
organization for all the women in the country in order to make the Revolution with their voluntary
work . . . quoting their words. . . . And that was how the Federation of Cuban Women was created.
Vilma Espn Guillois, Historia de la educacin sexual en Cuba (Opening Lecture: Sixteenth
World Sexology Congress, Havana 2003), Sexologa y Sociedad 13, no. 34 (August 2007): 24.
7. On January 26, 1909, the Gazeta Ocial recorded the creation of the precursor Health and
Charity Secretariat, which began to function on January 28, 1909. See Gregorio Delgado Garca,
Centenario del Ministerio de Salud Pblica de Cuba (1909-2009), Coloquio por el centenario del
Ministerio de Salud Pblica de Cuba, ed. Ministerio de Salud Pblica (Havana: Instituto Superior de
Ciencias Mdicas de la Habana, 2009), http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/his/hise108/his02108.htm.
8. See Hctor Terry, prologue to La intersectorialidad en la prctica social, ed. Pastor
Castell-Florit Serrate (Havana: Editorial Ciencias Mdicas, 2007).
9. Espn Guillois, Historia de la educacin sexual, 24.
10. Miguel Sosa Marn, Aborto en Cuba: Breve consideraciones histricas y jurdicas;
Situacin actual (Panama: Publicacin FIGO, 2008), 1.
11. Juan Carlos Alfonso, Miguel Sosa, and Antonio Farns, Cuba transicin de la fecun-
didad, cambio social y conducta reproductiva (Havana: UNICEF, 1994).
12. Law No. 723 of 1960 established the Rural Medical Service, which included the entire
basic infrastructure of rural hospitals. Rural medical posts were built, offering ambulatory health
care, hospitalization, control and eradication of transmittable diseases, and health education. For
the FMC, 1961 was a year of major challenges, including involvement in the National Literacy
Campaign and the National Revolutionary Militias. The rst day-care centers were set up, and
1,200 assistants, 300 directors, and 300 health counselors were trained to work in them, which
generated employment for women. A school for peasant girls was opened, bringing fourteen
thousand girls from the most isolated parts of the country; a school for former domestic workers
was created; and a campaign to eradicate prostitution was launched, the FMC Health Brigades
were established, rst-aid courses and immunization programs were organized, and FMC members
were mobilized to defend the revolution during the Bay of Pigs invasion. See Delgado Garca,
Centenario del Ministerio.
34 : Mariela Castro Espn
13. Espn Guillois, Historia de la educacin sexual, 24.
14. See Celestino lvarez Lajonchere, Entrevista, and Vilma Espn, Sexo Sentido, special
edition for the Seventh Latin American Congress of Sexology and Sex Education (Havana, 1994).
15. Centro Nacional de Educacin Sexual, Programa cubano de educacin sexual (Havana:
CENESEX, n.d.), 6; FMC, Memorias II Congreso Nacional de la FMC (Havana: Editorial Orbe,
1975), 111.
16. Although twelve years elapsed between congresses, eleven annual plenary meetings were
held in the interim. See FMC, Informe Central del II Congreso de la FMC (Havana: FMC, 1975),
129.
17. See First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, Tesis y resoluciones (Havana: Revolu-
tionary Orientation Department of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, 1976),
60910.
18. The Harry Benjamin Dysphoria Association approved these procedures in 1979.
19. Conner Gorry, La Estrategia Cubana de respuesta al VIH/SIDA: Un enfoque integral
con base en los derechos, MEDICC Review (2008): 29.
20. CENESEX, Educacin sexual, 10.
21. The rst book published was Siegfried Schnabl, El hombre y la mujer en la intimidad
(Havana: Editorial Cientco-Tcnica, 1979), the Spanish-language translation of Mann und Frau
intim: Fragen des gesunden und des gestrten Geschlechtslebens (Berlin: VEB Verlag Volk und
Gesundheit, 1971). The evident interest of the population in connection with this type of literature
led to the publication of a series of titles by German authors during the 1970s and, in 1981,
Siegfried Schnabl, En defensa del amor (Havana: Editorial Cientco-Tcnica, 1981). See Vilma
Espn Guillois, Lecture to CENESEX, April 12, 2001.
22. Among its functions, GNTES was to produce materials and books addressed to the
different population groups for information, guidance, and educational purposes; to continue train-
ing specialists in sexual education, mainly from the elds of medicine, psychology, and education;
to be part of the tasks and programs generated by GNTES and of the efforts undertaken by
professionals beginning their sexuality studies, to make their work more effective. Among the
functions of CENESEX were the expansion and enhancement of its teaching, training, and scien-
tic research capacity, including the training of professionals to offer sexual guidance and sexual
therapy services; guidance and information for the methodological implementation of the pro-
grams on sexual education was also included. See Espn Guillois, Historia de la educacin
sexual, 2328.
23. For the gender approach, see Mayda lvarez, La transversalizacin del enfoque de
gnero en la educacin superior: La experiencia cubana, and Inalvis Rodrguez and Ms Len,
Sensibilizacin en Gnero: Memorias de una experiencia multiplicada, in Experiencias de
transversalizacin de gnero, ed. Mayda lvarez (Havana: Editorial la Mujer, 2008).
24. The approach used was that of the Argentine Mirtha Cucco Garca, in M. Rebollar, La
metodologa de los procesos correctores comunitarios, apuntes para una presentacin, Sexologa
y Sociedad 6, no. 17 (2001): 2629.
25. Mariela Castro, El programa nacional de educacin sexual en la estrategia cubana de
desarrollo humano, Sexologa y Sociedad 8 (December 2002): 67.
26. Mariela Castro, La transexualidad en Cuba: La atencin a transexuales en Cuba y su
inclusin en las polticas sociales (Havana: CENESEX, 2008), 31.