CUBAN TRANSITIONS

On morning of March 8,  a group of sleepy college students climbed onto a bus ready to make the long bus trip to Mantanzas. Once we were all settled in and role call had been taken to make sure that no one had hit snooze one too many times on their alarm clock, our tour guide, Yoel, got on the microphone to tell us a little bit about the plans for the day as he did every morning. On this day, however, he first took a minute to wish us a “Happy Women’s Day!” It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. It wasn’t until I reached back into my memories of a conversation from a women’s studies class that I had taken that I realized that March 8 was International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day has a history that dates back to the early 1900s and is rooted in the socialist movement. In 1909, the Socialist Party of America observed the first National Women’s Day as a means of bringing attention to issues surrounding the oppression of women. Over the next decade, countries around the world began organizing similar events. International Women’s Day is observed on March 8 in commemoration of a strike led by Russian women on this date in 1917. Today, International Women’s Day is officially observed in 27 countries around the world, including Cuba. In many of these countries, men use this day to honor the women in their lives with tokens of appreciation. [1]. We saw this tradition when Yoel purchased a small bottle of scented oil in a gift shop at Las Terrazas the day before or his mother.

Billboard in Havana

Throughout our stay in Cuba, I began to notice billboards and posters throughout the country promoting International Women’s Day. Interestingly, these seemed to be among the few government sponsored images that were focused towards women.  These billboards and posters generally depicted women alongside words that are generally associated with strength and femininity such as “valor” (braveness), “firmenza” (steadiness), and “pasión” (passion).

At the end of the day, many of us found ourselves at a discoteca at the Hotel Playa Girón where we were staying for the night. In the spirit of International Women’s Day, this discoteca was hosting a promotional event to celebrate the women in attendance that included raffles and prizes.

Hotel Playa Girón

Even though International Women’s Day is celebrated in the United States with events focused on activism and raising awareness for women’s issues, it does not have the same connotations in the United States as it does in Cuba. In Cuba, International Women’s Day is used to appreciate women for who they are.

Sources:

[1] http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp