DATA OF INTEREST
GUEST:
Kiriam Gutierrez Perez
HOST:
Marta María Ramírez
Synopsis:
Cuba was one of the first countries of the region to attend to trans identities, with a medicalized focus that responded to the realities of the 1970s. They were one of the pioneers in creating, under a pathologizing concept, an integral commission for the attention of transexual people.
In 2001, out of the demands of several dozen trans women, victims of intense police repression, TransCuba was created in Havana as a group of trans women. What happened in that reunion with the director of the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX)? What have been the achievements for the trans population? What must still be done? And why? What are their demands? Why do we need a trans identities law? All these questions in the voice of one of Cuba´s oldest and most important trans activists.
Bio:
Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez
(Habana Cuba, 1977)
Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez has been a trans activist for LGBTIQ+ rights for over two decades, the majority of this time as an independent activist.
Kiriam was the first leader of the group TransCuba, founded by the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (Cenesex) to attend to the demands of trans people and their families.
She began her career as a drag queen 26 years ago. She was the first trans woman to work as a professional model (1996), dressed by designers such as Caridad, Rafael D'León, Abraham García and Ariel Nápoles. She was also the first to appear in the public health campaigns of the National Center for the Prevention of STI/HIV/AIDS, to star in a music video (Moneda Dura´s Lola, 2001) and to work at the official station Televisión Cubana on the series Patrulla 444 (Roly Peña, 2008) and the film Buscando la Morosa, Anna Assenza (2000)
Her career in Cuban film includes: Habana Blues (Benito Zambrano, 2004), H2O (Leonardo Pérez, 2008), Los dioses rotos (Ernesto Daranas, 2008), El hombre que hablaba con marte (Jorge Molina, 2009), 7 días en La Habana (Benicio del Toro, 2012). Vestido de novia (Marilyn Solaya, 2013), Que sea niña (Florencia Coleman, 2018), and the augmented virtual reality film Los ojos de Mila Kaos. She has collaborated in documentaries such as Ella trabaja (Jesús Hernández, 2008) and Estoy viva te lo cuento (Ingrid León y Lissett Vila, 2015). In 2021 she become the first Cuban transwoman to direct a video production, the video clip Es mi vida, which promotes a campaign for the recognition of marriage equality, the trans identity laws, among other demands that should be legislated in Cuba this year.
