Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez Barred from Accepting Award

A few days ago I wrote about the brave blogger Yoani Sanchez who writes about life and communism in Cuba. Sanchez just won a journalism award in Spain and the Cuban government prohibited her from going. For the full article click on the title above.

Australian Artist Josefine Kristensen

Josefine Kristensen was born in Denmark and has lived in Australia since she was eight years old. Currently she is working on her MA in Communication Design at Swinburne University. Her influences include Nancy Graves, Louise Nevelson, and Barbara Kruger. 

Anthology Update

Sherisse is co-editing an anthology on glbtq women of color and desire. Submissions are still being accepted. For the complete call or to submit work email: desireanthology@yahoo.com

(Image by Amanda Morgan)

Cuban Blogger Speaks Her Mind

As citizens of the United States of America we often take our freedom of speech for granted. Yoani Sanchez reminds us that in Cuba, where the government determines what can be written and by whom, this is a luxury. Check out her blog http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/

Boleros for the Disenchanted: A Review

Like a good and proud Latina I traveled, with a bit of reluctance but mostly enthusiasm, from New Jersey to New Haven to see the new play by Jose Rivera, Boleros for the Disenchanted premiering at the Yale Rep. Rivera also wrote the screenplay Motorcycle Diaries which was nominated for an Academy Award.  As a Cuban-American I was ambivalent about the film which portrays Che Guevara as a martyr and a hero. Like most children of Cuban exiles I grew up hearing horrific stories about how Guevara was responsible for executing innocent people in the name of revolution.  In the eyes of the Cuban people that I know there is nothing romantic about the oppression and persecution that took place (and in some ways still does) on the island. However, I made a conscious choice to be objective; I had heard he was an amazing playwright. But I had an overwhelming feeling of sorrow at the end of the show, partly because of the story but mainly because I felt it was a regurgitation of the stereotypes of Puerto Rican culture. The men are cheaters and liars, the women live for men alone, love is always a trajedia, a straight up tragedy. Will we ever see Latina women who do more than sacrifice and men who do not demean their wives and conflate loving with objectifying them? It is nauseating how marriage is repeatedly reduced to esclavitud, a socially acceptable form of servitude. We need to write new stories, stories that demonstrate to audiences in general, and the younger generation of Latinos specifically, that misogyny should not be used to provide comic relief, that the novela-like drama reinforces the internalization of stereotypes. Some moments that were especially disturbing: a priest's gratuitous description of a husband penetrating his wife; the wife asking her unfaithful husband if they should take their own lives thereby giving him the authority to dictate, literally, whether she lives or dies. If the intention of the playwright is to devastate us can't he do it without all the degradation? If nothing else this will encourage Latinas to write their way out of this male-constructed story where they will perhaps be forever subordinate. Will that revolution be televised?

Poetry by Sappho

You know the place: then

Leave Crete and come to us

waiting where the grove is

pleasantest, by precincts

sacred to you; incense

smokes on the altar, cold

streams murmur through

     the

apple branches, a young

rose thicket shades the

   ground

and quivering leaves pour

down deep sleep; in meadows

where horses have grown sleek

among spring flowers, dill

scents the air. Queen! Cyprian!

Fill our gold cups with love

stirred into clear nectar