Red Cheeks

Regina Cano

The bus stop was full of people though it had already begun to get dark because of the winter time change not long ago.  A black woman in a red dress came into the area, walked around, and finally situating herself a little distant from everyone else.  However, when she noticed a space available on the bench, she walked over and sat down.

She was short, wore high heels, carried a small purse and had starchy “Maybelline” covered eyelashes.

All dressed up, apparently the young woman was on her way out for a good time on a work day. She was leaving the working class neighborhood of Alamar (which many call a bedroom community) at a time when most people were returning home.

Well folks, none of the people present — not the men or the women — stopped to admire the elegance and poise of such a Creole beauty, at least not until an inopportune angle of light made everyone notice the light shadow on her face – the indication of a closely shaven beard.  From there began the comments, discreet, waiting to see who threw the first stone.

Some people argue that the citizenry shouldn’t accept these displays of free expression, while others take the opposing stance.

I would say that though these cross-dressers or transgendered individuals are not completely accepted — keeping in mind the astonishment they incite — at least they’re not jeered.  The citizenry respects gays (the ones who demand respect) in their neighborhoods, in the immediate environment of those who have had to hide themselves for such a long time and who still have this as a space for privacy and concealed shyness.  At least there they are not openly repudiated, and that is an achievement (though this does in fact occur in settings where there is no moral commitment, where the individual is a stranger).

I hope that with luck these generations of Cuban men can realize their desires to look beautiful in public, though they will have to put up with more than a little crassness on the part of some heterosexuals.

But what will happen the day that homosexual women want to show themselves off in men’s clothing or wear beards and mustaches.  Perhaps the whole process will have to start over again along the next path of pain.