Until May 1, the exhibition entitled Between genres and worlds. Dr. Favez (1791-1856): Lausana Baracoa New Orleans, recreates various moments in the life of the doctor.
She was accused in Cuba in 1823 for exercising her profession, marrying a woman and living the prerogatives of a man, Cuban historian Julio César González-Pagés explained to Prensa Latina.
Author of the book For walking dressed as a man and founder of the Ibero-American and African Network of Masculinities (RIAM), the writer opened the doors to Favez’s life in the 1990s.
Since then, it has promoted the broad representation of his career in film, theater, music and visual arts, such as the life-size sculpture created by José Villa Soberón and its replicas.
The exhibition project brings together a selection of images and documents arranged in 16 posters.
It has the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History, the Cuban embassy in the Swiss nation and its advisor for political, economic and cultural affairs, Lorenzo Suárez, and the curator Neida Peñalver.
The proposal, inserted in the program of actions that take place in the city to commemorate its history, is presented with the challenge of portraying the experiences of a person who, in the 19th century, affirmed a gender identity different from the one that was assigned at birth”, indicate the introductory words of the initiative.
Although she was baptized as Henriette, Enrique Favez assumed a masculine identity at the age of 18 to study medicine, joined the Napoleonic army and settled as a surgeon in Cuba, where he married Juana de León, until his career took a turn for a trial that condemned him “for dressing like a man”.
Her last years were spent in New Orleans, United States, where she lived in a convent like Sister Magdalena and offered health services to the poor, before working as a missionary in Mexico.
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