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When nights become days

By Raquel Sierra

Miralys Beaujardin, a resident in the special municipality of the Isle of Youth, watches her son Alexander with pride. He is a six-year-old, extremely-white-skin, red-haired, thin and very active boy who likes playing with the ball, just like any other child of his age. He is different, however.

When Miralys took him to the backyard five days after he was born for his first sunbath, she realized something was wrong. Although he was exposed to the sun for a few minutes only, there were ulcers and scars all over his face shortly afterwards.

"I did not know what was happening to him and the doctors gave me no diagnosis. When he was three years old, he was referred to a specialized institution in Havana for genetic and oncological studies. He was diagnosed with Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP)", she told SEMlac.

This changed our lives. "We have another two boys aged 15 and four, but only Alexander suffers from it, she added. At the beginning, they did not understand why we had to keep doors and windows closed. They have got used to that because Alexander's health is at stake", she recalled. (read more)

MSM vulnerability to HIV/AIDS

By Dixie Edith

The Cuban STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention Project for Men having Sex with Men (MSM) currently involves 1,400 volunteers and 124 working groups all over the country.

There were 5,237 HIV-positive people in the island by early July 2008. Out of this total, 84.8 percent were men, including 3,929 MSM (88.5 percent of the overall number of infected men).

Around 51 percent of them live in four provinces (Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Pinar del Río), according to a Survey on HIV/AIDS Infection Prevention Indicators that was conducted by the National Office of Statistics' Population and Development Study Center.

The survey defined MSM as men who have had sex with men at least once in a lifetime. (read more)

A new television soap opera on AIDS

By Dixie Edith

Shortly before the 17th International Conference on AIDS opens in Mexico City in early August, a new television soap opera sparks debate over daily life of HIV-infected people in the island.

"How can they show an HIV-positive man dating two women at the same time? What about social responsibility?" wondered Marta García, a 55-year-old PR officer.

These questions have to do with the conflicts faced by David, one of the main characters in Dust in the wind, which is shown prime time over Cubavisión channel three nights a week.

He has a steady sexual partner (Liuba), but falls in love with Keila, the family doctor. He decides to conceal his condition from and have no sex with her. (read more)

Is masculinity changing?

By Sara Más

Achieving gender equality in Cuba today largely depends on male and female models, experts said.

Men are being asked to change, but it is their model the one that predominates, Oscar Ulloa told SEMlac. He is a psychology professor and coordinator of the Gender Equality Study Group at the University of Oriente, 860 kilometers east of Havana.

"There is a belief, which has become evident in many research works, that masculinity in its most traditional and inflexible form of expression is not only reproduced, but also accepted and even admired", he added.

Under the traditional scheme, the masculine is associated with power, supremacy, strength, independence and success. (read more)

Women's role in Judaism

By Mariana Ramírez-Corría

Women make up around 60 percent of the 1500 Jews living in Cuba today. The following is a SEMlac interview with Maritza Corrales Capestany, a historian of the Hebrew community in the island.

SEMlac: Why can we say that women play a key role in Judaism?

MC: Because they pass on traditions, including lighting up candles on Shabuoth (a holiday observed on the 6th and 7th of Sivan), both at the temple and at home.

Why do women light up the candles?

Under Judaism, everything is closely related to the Bible and the Talmud (authoritative body of Jewish tradition). Using the central candle, women light up the other candles, including the menorah, which is the seven-armed candelabrum, and the nine-armed, which is used only on Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday beginning on the 25th of Kislev and commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after its defilement by Antiochus of Syria. Hanukkah is usually observed over Catholic Christmas.

Men can also light up the candles, but the reason for giving women such a task is connected with Eve, Adam's wife. As she dimmed the light of the world to commit a mortal sin, she was supposed to give it back with similar intensity. (read more)

SEMlac-Cuba Reports 2008

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean (SEMlac), International News Agency, offers this weekly service.

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