MIAMI, United States. – While the short film Kill a man —censored during the 45th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana— was screened at the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños, the actress Kiriam Gutiérrez remained under “arbitrary house arrest,” denounced this Wednesday the activist Marta María Ramírez.
According to Ramírez, this practice is a well-known tactic of the Cuban political police, which seeks to isolate critical voices and silence complaints against the discrimination and violence faced by LGBTIQ+ people on the island.
“Giving in to censorship brings other revictimizations, other victims, or perhaps they have always been the same,” warned the feminist activist and journalist, referring to the situation of Gutiérrez, co-star of Kill a mana 12-minute film by director Orlando Mora Cabrera.
The film was excluded from the Havana International Film Festival with the excuse of frequent blackouts. However, Mora Cabrera consider that it was an act of censorship motivated by the discomfort caused by its approach to “violence, domination or control that can be exercised over our bodies” and by its focus on LGBTIQ+ issues.
The marginalization of Gutiérrez is not an isolated incident. At the beginning of July, the actress was banned from the “La Reina de la Copla” event, organized by the Venus Drag Queen project at the Cubanacán cabaret in Santa Clara. Gutiérrez, who had participated without problems in previous editions, was denied not only the possibility of performing on stage, but also of attending as an audience.
According to what the actress reported to CubaNet On that occasion, the organizers of the event justified her exclusion with vague arguments and even mentioned “anonymous” alleged people who accused her of being anti-communist and of planning acts against the Government from the stage. “They were defaming me… They have no evidence, they have nothing,” declared the actress, who stressed that these events are part of a broader political repression against her.
Attempts to participate in independent cultural circuits, added to her public activism, have made the actress a target of persecution. The authorities have unofficially prohibited him from working in night shows and have banned his access to recreational spaces.
After learning of Gutiérrez’s house arrest, Marta María Ramírez regretted that “complicity with transphobes” remains intact in Cuba.
Just this month, the actress and activist became the first Cuban trans woman to receive an Emmy Award in the regional “Suncoast” category for her participation in the documentary series “Being Trans”produced by Martí News and referring to the experiences of trans people in Cuba and in exile.
“I’ve won an Emmy Award! United States Television Academy Award, for the first time a Latin American and Cuban trans woman wins it in this category, I couldn’t go but my name, my soul and my truth were heard on that stage. “Today I dedicate it to the entire LGBTIQ+ community in my country, to the trans community and to drag actors and actresses, those who are no longer here, those who are here and those who will come,” Gutiérrez wrote on his social networks.
The actress, 47, was also the first trans woman to venture into Cuban cinema and television. She is the protagonist of the video clip Lola, of the Moneda Dura group, where he was placed under the direction of Lester Hamlet. The video could not be broadcast on Cuban Television until 2008.
