Wednesday 08 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
CUBA: Women Breaking
Into a Men’s Game
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA - Women’s
incursion into baseball,
Cuba’s national sport
and a bastion of the
"machismo" that is so
deeply rooted in Cuban
culture, has drawn mixed
reactions.
Women’s baseball teams
in Cuba, which have
gradually emerged since
2003, have been winning
supporters who are aware
of the challenges
involved in breaking
into one of the "sacred
temples of masculinity,"
as described by Ernesto
Perez Zambrano, director
of the documentary
"Major Leagues?"
"One day, while I was
passing by the Ciudad
Deportiva (sports
complex) in Havana, I
saw female baseball
players training there.
It was like love at
first sight," Pérez
Zambrano told IPS.
"I really love baseball
and sports in general,
and I was captivated by
the image of the women
training. It looked so
nice, and for me it
became a symbol or
glimpse of the future
world that I would like
to see some day: a world
of peace, integration
and solidarity," he said
in an email interview
with IPS.
"Major Leagues?", the
dissertation project of
Pérez Zambrano, a
student at Cuba’s Higher
Institute of Arts (ISA),
explores the theme of
transgression of gender
norms using the
testimonies of the
players and coaches of
the Havana women’s
baseball team.
The young filmmaker
practically lived with
the athletes for a year
until he became the bat
boy and informal
cheerleader of the team,
which was created in
response to a call
issued in 2003 by the
non governmental Cuban
Women’s Federation (FMC)
to form women’s baseball
teams.
However, one of the
young players
interviewed in the
documentary complained
about the lack of
support and,
particularly, the lack
of opportunities to play
other teams, as well as
the scarce coverage they
have received by the
media. She said
sometimes the players
even have to "escape"
from work or school to
attend the training
sessions.
Women’s baseball has not
been included yet on the
National Sport
Institute’s (INDER)
official calendar of
events. Nevertheless,
every year, INDER
organises the March 8
Cup, in which teams from
all around the country
participate, and it is
also included as an
exhibition sport in the
biennial Cuban National
Olympics.
According to figures
from the National
Statistics Office (ONE),
only 221 women took part
last year in adult
baseball competitions,
at the municipal and
community levels -- a
negligible number
compared to the more
than 182,000 men who
took part in such
events, including
provincial tournaments
and the annual National
Championship.
The disproportion
becomes more glaring
considering that women
represented almost 20
percent of the
participants in adult
sports competitions last
year.
"The fact that women are
playing baseball means
that we are taking a
step towards human
justice, and it is also
a symbol, because
baseball, apart from
being the national
pastime, is a cultural
phenomenon," ISA
professor Danae Dieguez,
a researcher in the
field of gender
relations in Cuban
filmmaking, told IPS.
Dieguez believes that
women’s entry into
baseball opens "a path
towards gender equity,"
which would undermine
rigid social structures
and lead to a
"culturally more diverse
and just" society.
Cuba’s first female
baseball players came
out onto the field in
the 1940s, encouraged by
the success of their
American neighbors, who
had sporadically
participated in
tournaments since the
last quarter of the 19th
century.
The All-American Girls
Professional Baseball
League, which disbanded
in 1954, was founded in
1943 after the decline
of the Major Leagues due
to the men’s enrollment
in the army during World
War II.
"It’s ugly to see women
playing baseball," said
a young man interviewed
by Pérez Zambrano.
"Baseball has always
been a men’s sport."
Other men interviewed in
the documentary believe
that women "are better
suited for cooking than
playing baseball" or are
"genetically inferior to
men" -- arguments they
use to justify their
disapproval of women
playing baseball, which
is almost a religion in
this Caribbean island
nation of 11.2 million
people.
"In spite of all the
achievements in terms of
rights and laws, I do
not believe that Cuban
society is ready to see
women playing baseball,"
Dieguez noted. "However,
they are making their
own way," she added.
One of the young players
interviewed in "Major
Leagues?" talks about
the rejection she faced
from her family and her
boyfriend. "I had to
choose between baseball
or my boyfriend, and I
chose baseball," she
said.
"The world has changed
and women are no longer
slaves," says one of her
teammates.
Pérez Zambrano, for his
part, believes that
their efforts will bear
fruit. "We blindly
believe that, whether in
a simple or more complex
way, men and women will
come together in peace
and equality," he said.
And maybe that is the
final message of the
documentary, which ends
with a little boy saying
"they could even play in
the Major Leagues."
"The younger generations
are the ones that may be
ready to assume this
transgression, to burst
open this patriarchal
culture that lives
inside of all of us,
both men and women,"
said Dieguez. |
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