Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution by Carlos Alberto Montaner

Author:Carlos Alberto Montaner [Montaner, Carlos Alberto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies)
ISBN: 9781351519939
Google: 9zc7DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-10-24T05:01:43+00:00

Good Sex

Sex is not a middle-of-the-road issue. In bourgeois societies it remains on the Left; in Communist ones, on the Right. Let me explain. Those Marxists living in Paris or New York tend to be very liberal. They applaud Andy Warhol, read Playboy, and sympathize with the most promiscuous communal experiments. Marxists living in Havana, East Berlin, and Moscow, however, are very busily engaged in persecuting pornography, that decadent bourgeois vice. They are decidely monogamous, serious-looking, resolutely heterosexual, and prudish—real prodigies of Judeo-Christian morality.

Wilheim Reich has lucidly explained the role played by sexual repression in fascist societies. It is important that a sociologist of his stature do the same with Communist societies. Cuba, in particular, demands the effort. The Calvi(Commu)nist sect that has imposed itself on Cuba has borne a repressive lineage inherited partly through ideology and partly through tradition. There are myriad contradictions, but suffice it to say, for now, that sex is a subject that makes the Cuban government uneasy. It is certainly a touchy matter. From the beginning the state has always tried to regulate sexual behavior. Only now with Marcuse, Fromm, and other Marxist heretics—banned like demons in the Communist world because they proclaim a nonrepressive communism—has the list of prescriptions and proscriptions formulated by the state regarding sexual matters begun to shorten. The West moves toward less rigid positions, in the direction of tolerance. Sex, little by little, is disappearing from ethics. Every day, those activities undertaken south of the waistline are becoming less important to the state.

In Cuba, the virile and chivalrous Communist caste marches in countercurrent. First, a colossal drama was made of prostitution. There was prostitution in Cuba just like there is prostitution in Spain, France, Japan, or Mexico; one of the arguments often brought forth to justify the revolution (the other kind, surely, cannot be eradicated). This is as insane as tearing down half of Spain to eliminate the “costa Fleming” in Madrid, or taking over Paris to close down the Moulin Rouge. Certainly, prostitution is a social calamity, especially for its degrading effects on the participants and furthermore for nurturing a parasitic mafia. But prostitution is no worse than alcoholism and undoubtedly better than government repression. What happened to Cuba was the accession to power of a profoundly repressive sexual system directed by a sleepless team of Communists with bourgeois mentality.

After closing the brothels—something quite different from eliminating prostitution—the government closed down the posadas (discreet motels for furtive couples). Despite Lenin, lovers keep having intercourse, but now in dark parks, in hidden squares, in cars. The government became frightened and allowed the reopening of a few posadas. Lines of anguished and anxious couples soon crowded the entrances. Numbers were distributed. “Couple number 18 may now come in. Couple number 18, please.” The confused lovers would rush in nervously. If they would come out shortly, the waiting line would applaud; otherwise, they would be hooted. When the scarcity of posadas began, as early as 1962, couples had to bring with them not only money, but also linens and soap.

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