CUBA:
Popular Education
Transforms Women’s Lives
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, (IPS) - "I have
the spirit of a
15-year-old girl, and
the wisdom of a
66-year-old woman," says
Felicia Pérez, who
recovered her joie de
vivre after attending a
handicrafts course, and
became a promoter of
urban values and the
creator of a crafts
workshop in her own
neighbourhood.
Pérez’s story testifies
to the impact that
experiences of popular
education have on the
daily lives of Cuban
women, whose potential
for self-realisation is
often curbed by the
dominant "machismo" or
who are belittled if
they devote themselves
to homemaking work.
"Popular education
taught me that every
person has knowledge,
and deserves respect,"
Pérez told IPS. "I
learned that everyone
has value, and now I
don’t feel inferior
because I’m a
homemaker."
This Cuban woman, who
lives in the city of
Guantánamo, 930
kilometres east of
Havana, has brought
together a group of
women through the
handicrafts classes she
teaches. The members of
the group all live in
the same neighbourhood,
are past retirement age,
and have always done
domestic work, or felt
that their lives were
over when they retired
from their jobs.
It is estimated that
over one million women
work exclusively as
homemakers in this
Caribbean island nation
of 11.2 million people.
The 2002 population and
household census found
that 97 percent of those
who gave their
occupation as
"homemaker" were women.
Most of them had low
levels of education.
In the small workshop
space created by Pérez,
far away from the
traditional environment
of the home, this group
of women talk about
subjects related to
health, sexuality, the
family, and the history
of their city, which was
founded in 1796.
The group is part of the
Celia project, started
in 2003 by the
governmental Group for
Integral Development (GDI)
of the City of
Guantánamo, which aims
to stimulate women’s
participation in
improving living
conditions in the city.
Initially the project
targeted the low-income
neighbourhood of La
Caoba, which was a red
light district before
the 1959 revolution.
Social problems such as
juvenile delinquency,
drug use and a high
level of unemployment
among women still
persist, Sandra Prieto,
an official with the GDI,
told IPS.
"We started meeting in
the courtyards and
corridors, without any
materials at all,"
Prieto said. With the
help of local artisans,
they held the first
craft workshops, in
order to "attract women
and talk to them about
the city and its
history, so as to foster
a sense of belonging."
The goal of the Celia
project is to roll back
the "lack of knowledge
about architectural
treasures and the lack
of citizen and urban
culture," said Prieto,
who commented on the
impact this lack of
appreciation has on
migration, which
increased sharply after
the economic crisis that
began in the 1990s.
Contact with the Popular
Education and
Participating in Local
Experiences Programme at
the non-governmental
Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Centre (CMMLK)
led the GDI to use
popular education
methods and tools, which
are "essential to
working in the
community, and to
connecting with people
where they are," said
Prieto.
Pérez and Prieto, along
with another 200 people,
mostly women, took part
in the first national
meeting of the Network
of Popular Educators,
held Nov. 12-16 in the
town of Caimito, 20
kilometres west of
Havana.
"Popular education
raises people’s
awareness of their
identity and the love of
what is ours, while it
helps us express who we
are, ethical values, and
the principles of our
socialist society,"
Yolanda Brito, from the
Limón Limonero community
project in Jagüey
Grande, about 150
kilometres southeast of
Havana, told IPS.
"This approach is not
the one true way, but it
is one of the ways that
can work effectively,
like a grain of sand in
the building of better
things for our country,"
said Brito, who works in
the municipal library in
Jagüey Grande.
Popular education ideas
that she came across in
the CMMLK courses also
sparked a radical change
in the family and
working life of
Iluminada Brizuela, who
is involved in the Dorca
workshop in the informal
settlement of Las
Tamaras, near the city
of Bayamo, 730
kilometres east of the
Cuban capital.
"I’m a different person,
my self-esteem is much
higher, and the way I
communicate with other
people has changed,"
Brizuela told IPS.
"Before, if my husband
told me not to go out to
the government food
store, I wouldn’t go.
Now, he washes the
clothes, irons, cooks
and looks after our
daughter."
Brizuela, 44, belongs to
what is known as the
"sandwich generation" of
about one million women,
who had to look after
their ageing parents and
raise their children, as
well as take on other
family and professional
responsibilities,
carrying a double burden
because of the machista
culture.
However, she has managed
to cope with the demands
of her job as a local
coordinator of
Committees for the
Defence of the
Revolution, the largest
community-based
political organisation
in Cuba, as well as her
work in the Dorca
workshop, where she cuts
cloth and sews garments
together with nine other
women, and her
homemaking duties.
The Dorca project was
started with a donation
of sewing machines and
dressmaking materials
from the Cuban Council
of Churches, an
association of different
Christian denominations
in the country. Members
sew clothing and other
textile products to
alleviate the needs of
people on low incomes,
pensioners and single
mothers.
"There are lots of
people who are very
happy when you give them
an outfit," said
Brizuela. In her view,
the benefits of the
workshop in this
community of just over
1,000 people are
considerable, especially
for those who cannot
afford to buy the
products sold in the
government’s chain of
"dollar" stores, which
only accept hard
currency.
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