Theodore L. McEvoy, Ph.D.: Theodore McEvoy was a counselor for the Student Counseling Center at UCLA. Since his retirement, he has been working at ONE Institute.
Lumsden is a gay associate professor of polical science at Atkinson College, York University, located in Toronto, Canada. He previously published Homosexuality, Society, and the State in Mexico and is currently working on a book about homosexuality in Costa Rica, as an example of other nations in Latin America.
As the author states, “This book is a gay Canadian's attempt to come to terms with the Cuban revolutionary process and the place of homosexuals within it” (Lumsden, Introduction, p.xi).
His book on Cuba deals almost exclusively with the sexual values, attitudes, and behavior of males, though it relates these to general attitudes toward “machismo,” Cuban family values, and the role of women in Cuban society. The author addresses these matters both in pre-revolutionary Cuba, and in the Castro era which began in 1959.
Lumsden defines and differentiates “machos,” “maricones” and “gays.” He discusses the mainifestations of same-sex behavior in non-gay men, in the sexual interactions between gay and non-gay men, and the recent emergence of a “gay” population. The first two chapters present an historical overview of the last half century as well as earlier antecendents to contemporary gay life. Other chapters address homophobia, sexual education and homosexuality, the law in Cuba, AIDS, the erosion of traditional “machismo,” and gay life in Havana today.
Contrary to popular ideas, same-sex male sexual behavior is remarkably common in Cuba despite the restrictions imposed by ordinary daily life. For Americans, officially denied the opportunity to travel in Cuba by the U.S. government, this book is an excellent account of contemporary Cuban life in general, and male-male sexual behavior in particular.
This is a carefully researched book, complete with appendicies, thirty pages of notes organized on a chapter-by-chapter basis, a lengthy bibliography, an excellent index, and well chosen photographs. It is organized in an orderly and systematic presentation. Although a scholarly work, it is quite readable to any informed and thoughtful reader.
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