Research into writer’s work opens window on past treatment of Cubans with HIV/AIDS
Hey everyone!
Welcome to my research blog! My name is Reegan Whipple, and I’m from Plymouth, MA. I am a senior at PC with a double major in Health Policy and Management and Spanish. Last summer I started my research in conjunction with Dr. Monica Simal from the Spanish department. We received an undergraduate research grant and began researching how Cuban policies on HIV/AIDS impacted the Cuban culture and how those changes are reflected in contemporary Cuban literature.
We mainly focused on the Cuban writer, Reinaldo Arenas, who was persecuted for being a homosexual in Cuba, fled the country during the Mariel Boatlift, found out he was HIV positive while living in New York, and, sadly, committed suicide there before the disease could take his life. This research combined both of my majors, which is something I am really excited about. I could look at the situation in Cuba from both a health policy and epidemiological standpoint and also have my understanding of Cuban culture enriched.
HIV/AIDS victims in Cuba were a source of paranoia for the state. Although that paranoia led to a great public health effort in the form of screening, which greatly reduced the incidence rate of new cases in the country, HIV/AIDS victims were forced into labor camps, which were essentially prisons they could not leave. Volatile reactions to this practice by the state went so far as people willingly injecting themselves with HIV/AIDS positive blood in order to be reunited with their family members who were detained in the camps. Homosexuals were also severely persecuted under the Castro regime and many men were sent to labor camps called UMAPs, simply for their sexual orientation.
Reinaldo Arenas was one of these mistreated Cuban homosexuals who was considered to be an enemy of the state. Over the summer I traveled to Princeton University to access their Rare Books Collection where all of Arenas’ unpublished manuscripts are housed. I am continuing my research with Professor Simal this semester and attending the New England Modern Language Association Conference with her in March to present our work.
I hope you enjoy learning about our findings as much as I have enjoyed researching!
-Reegan Whipple ’16
Photo by Nestor Almendros, 1981
