One incident worth recalling happened Saturday evening. After it occurred, I immediately went to my computer and wrote everything down before I forgot any of the details.
After a long day of touring Trinidad and La Valle de los Ingenios, Steph, Courtney, and I were looking forward to taking a quick swim at the beach by the hotel. Walking from our rooms down to the beach area, the usual obnoxious stares from various obnoxious men accompanied us. We soon forgot about that enough to enjoy our swim, and afterward were sitting on our towels watching the sunset, chatting.
An older man, a boy of about 13, and a younger man of about 30 walked by us once, the 30-year-old man staring at us for quite a long time, even turning back to stare as he walked away.
A few minutes later, a young man approached us, and began to talk to us despite Courtney telling him repeatedly to leave us alone. He asked her to dance, and she said no. He continued to harass until finally giving up and walking back to his group of friends. That was when I noticed one of the earlier starers in the group. Ugh.
A group formed behind us as well, these ones including the boy and 30-year-old, a teenager with a camera, and several other men. The best part? The older man was now wielding a video camera and was recording us. RECORDING US. We told him to stop. He did not.
Our friend who had come up to us previously returned, this time with another friend. They continued to harass us. We continued to tell them to leave us alone. I began to lose my temper, and swore at them in English. They didn't understand me, which may have been for the better.
They finally leave, all of them, a while after this. The whole group decided to stand at the top of the stairs leading up to the hotel area from the beach, and there they waited until we had to walk through there.
As we walked up the stairs, the 30-year-old was then filming us with the camera. We told him to stop. He did not. Then all of the other men joined him in cat-calling us as we went up the stairs. As I started walking faster, I heard one of them yell behind me, "LA RUBIA!" (Which means "the blonde.") By that point I was shaking I was so angry, but there was really nothing we could do.
As we walked by the bar, we went up to two men in security uniforms and told them how we had been harassed for about a half an hour by those men (pointing to them as they started to walk closer to the area) after repeatedly asking them to stop. The security men nodded and said that they'd take care of it, making us feel slightly assured.
Walking down the path toward our rooms, we looked back to see the group of men standing there, laughing loudly at us. The security men were still leaning against the bar, completely unconcerned with the whole thing.
The group of men on the beach disrespected us, and harassed us repeatedly. This made me angry, but not nearly as angry as the security guards' disinterest in helping us. Beginning as a group of individuals who acted disgustingly, the security guards' passive support of its occurrence turned the harassment into something supported by multiple facets of society, even that of the official.
I told Chino about this a few days later, and he said that it was probably just because we're extranjeras. That sort of thing doesn't happen to Cuban women. I understand their hatred of foreigners, but I still can't be content with that as an explanation (and as such, will have no explanation to be content with).
The whistling, hissing, and yelling on the street is one thing, but harassment is another. Some days, walking to school is interrupted by a man standing on the sidewalk blocking our way, asking us repeatedly what our names are. This is inexcusable. The worst part is the group of people standing close by who feel no need to do anything about it.
Anyway, sorry for the long, borderline-angry-feminist rant. I promise I won't be burning my bras any time soon.
Here are some photos from the weekend:
A dramatic series of events followed the discovery of a frog in our toilet the first night of arrival:
(Various photos courtesy of Steph)
Steph finally caught him. We released him into the Cuban wild where currently he is enjoying an amphibious life of tropical debauchery.
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