Following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in January of 1959, Fidel Castro began to implement his new vision for Cuba based on his communist ideals. By 1990, many felt that women’s positions had been bettered in terms of their lives. Still others commented that more had to be done to remove the remnants of patriarchy which still existed. Some, however, seem to offer a different account, highlighting how Castro’s Cuba had actually hampered both gender relations and family life.
Many point to the positive results on the lives of Cuban women following the revolution of 1959. Navarro, (Doc 1) a Cuban socialist feminist, discusses the male authority that mothers and daughters had to live under before 1959. She points to the legacy of the Spanish law codes with imposed patriarchal power, and in spite of efforts by others to override this tradition, none were effective until the communist revolution. As a socialist sympathizer, it should not be surprising that she looks to Castro’s rule as favorable. However, it is true that others, including Genoveva Diaz, (Doc 3) echoes a similar
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A male Cuban sympathizer (Doc 2) discusses his staunch anti-women’s liberation position explaining that women’s economic freedom has undermined traditional marital roles. Since he is being interviewed by a US anthropologist, he might feel free to express what would otherwise be an unpopular sentiment. Fernandez in her memoir (Doc 5) points out how she was expelled from medical school upon asking for maternity leave. She discusses the difficulties of living in Cuba with her infant daughter when she was short of necessary supplies. As an exile, it is not surprising that she is highly critical of her former country’s government. Even Diaz (Doc 4) acknowledges that older women think that the revolution hurt gender relationships by allowing women to do “men’s