Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Event focuses on revolutionary Cuban punk-rock band
by Ariel Parrella-Aureli
2018-12-05

This article shared 2253 times since Wed Dec 5, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Nonprofit arts and education group QUEER, ILL AND OKAY brought a neglected component of Cuban history to the mainstage with a screening and panel discussion on Los Frikis, a group of Cuban punk rockers in the late '80s who intentionally contracted the HIV virus to be put into state-run sanatorium camps. In collaboration with Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, QIO hosted the event on Nov. 30 at the museum to bring to light a troubled past in HIV and AIDS history and honor World AIDS Day, which was Dec. 1.

Cuban documentary filmmaker Vladimir Ceballos, who was a Friki in Cuba during the movement, shared his personal experiences of living during the "Special Period" of Cuban history and its economic destruction after the Soviet Union stopped supporting the country. This created a lack of resources for many citizens, which is why Los Frikis—ostracized from society and looked to as the enemy from the government because they dressed differently—who listened to punk rock and didn't fit the mold of the Cuban regime's idea of the "new man," turned to desperate choices when they found out they had contracted the HIV virus.

"Being a Friki was a rebellion," Ceballos said, speaking through a translator. "The government saw us as the enemy."

Radio Ambulante's Luis Trelles, a Puerto Rican journalist and producer, presented an audio documentary on Los Frikis and how they were treated by the authorities. With a socialist government crumbling and lack of access to information and contraceptives, there was no discussion of safe sex or proper healthcare in Cuba at the time, the documentary said. Los Frikis had created a tight community where those who felt outcast could express themselves freely and enjoy American rock music, but facing the HIV epidemic was a challenge they were not prepared to face, Trelles told the audience.

Ceballos agreed and said the state of disinformation in Cuba at the time was so strong that he and all his friends had to make the difficult decision of socialism or death, which is the name of one of Ceballos' documentaries he produced undercover in Cuba.

The sanatoriums were originally created to quarantine the Cuban soldiers coming back from Africa who had contracted HIV but it turned into a prison camp of sorts. Because there were such different laws and "inequality on the streets" in Pinar del Rio, Ceballos said, Los Frikis thought that it would be best to live in the sanatoriums, where they could listen to rock music openly, have access to proper medical treatment and healthy food—all things they could not do on the streets. No one could leave or walk about freely, but for Los Frikis, it was worth that sacrifice. They saw it as a way of living by their values and expressing themselves in any means they could.

"There is a link that can't be undone between that self-injected movement and self-expression and that there was a punk aesthetic that went into this very hard decision," Trelles said.

As the movement took off, Ceballos said, it became like a fashion statement to self-inject with HIV to get into the sanatorium. But the honeymoon phase did not last long, and soon many HIV-positive people died in the sanatoriums.

Ceballos had to flee to the U.S. in 1976 and has only been back shortly to film for his documentaries on Los Frikis—undercover. He said he cannot go back to Cuba because he would be arrested for "working with the enemy" in the eyes of the government. As a result, his work has never been seen in Cuba, but that's where it needs to be seen the most, he said. He has created two documentaries on the movement; "Cursed Be Your Name, Liberty" was the first produced in 1994 and the second is called "Socialism or Death."

"I wanted to make [the documentary] in Cuba because I wanted to show the youth there that it wasn't a good idea to be injecting the HIV virus," Ceballos said. "[Leaving the country] is the price I had to pay to show the world," he said.

After all of the discussion about the past, Trelles asked Ceballos and playwright Krystal Ortiz, who just returned from Pinar del Rio to interview the last Frikis who had self-injected themselves with the virus, what lives on about the historical time. Ortiz plans to write a play about the self-injecting movement and said its relevancy is an example of Cuba as an island of contradictions.

"It will always be relevant in how extreme it is in nature—that there was a whole community who felt they needed to die in order to live," Ortiz said.

She also shared a video message from the last Frikis she interviewed; They said they are happy, living on their own and are now getting good medical treatment. They had hoped to attend the event in person, but the current immigration issues from the Trump administration and the U.S.-Cuba relationship made it difficult to travel.

Ceballos said he sees the legacy of the movement from a philosophical perspective.

"Death is a door that you can open to find freedom," Ceballos said, which he believes is a perfect tie to existentialism and the self-injecting movement.

People can get more information about Ceballos' first movie at www.dmovies.org/2016/10/29/cursed-name-liberty/ and watch the beginning of the film at www.youtube.com/watch .


This article shared 2253 times since Wed Dec 5, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Jamie Barton brings nuances of identity to her Lyric Opera 'Aida' performance
2024-03-18
Chicago's Lyric Opera is currently featuring a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida starring Michelle Bradley as Aida, Jamie Barton as Amneris and Russell Thomas as Radamès. The opera runs through April 7, 2024, with Francesca Zambello ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition'
2024-03-15
Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

Chicago History Museum announces "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s - 70s exhibition
2024-03-14
--From a press release - CHICAGO (March 14, 2024) — The Chicago History Museum is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s—70s." Set to open on Saturday, May 18, 2024, this exhibition is ...


Gay News

House-music festival on Aug. 30-Sept. 1; icons, Idris Elba to be part of it
2024-03-13
The ARC Music Festival—an event celebrating house music—will take place Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at Chicago's Union Park, per WGN-TV. This will mark the fourth year that the festival will celebrate the genre at Union Park—less than ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


Gay News

SAVOR Eldridge Williams talks new concepts, Beyonce, making history
2024-03-08
One restaurant would be enough for most people to handle. However, this year Eldridge Williams is opening two new concepts—including one that will be the first Black-owned country-and-western bar in the Midwest. Williams, an ally of ...


Gay News

COBRAH slithers into Chicago and brings Feminine Energy
2024-03-08
COBRAH snaked her way into Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St., for two nights March 7 and 8 for her Succubus Tour. This Swedish-born talent has a way with naughty words and ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer
2024-03-08
Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SAVOR Let's Talk Womxn's 'More Than March'; Adobo Grill's tequila dinner
2024-03-06
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a culinary event that celebrates the achievement of women—and, fittingly, it happened during Women's History Month. On March 1, Let's Talk Womxn Chicago held its annual "More Than ...


Gay News

Queer Eye's Jai Rodriguez is set to slay at The Big Gay Cabaret
2024-03-05
Out and proud performer Jai Rodriguez is set to play at The Big Gay Cabaret this March for three days. Presented by RuPaul Drag Racer Ginger Minj, this monthly series highlights the wide world of cabaret ...


Gay News

THEATER 'R & J' puts a female, queer spin on Shakespeare
2024-03-05
Romeo and Juliet is the theatrical gift that keeps on giving. It's been reworked for the masses numerous times, whether in direct adaptations or musicals such as West Side Story. Shakespeare's plotline points have even inspired ...


Gay News

Without compromise: Holly Baggett explores lives of iconoclasts Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap
2024-03-04
Jane Heap (1883-1964) and Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), each of them a native Midwesterner, woman of letters and iconoclast, had a profound influence on literary culture in both America and Europe in the early 20th Century. Heap ...


Gay News

THEATER When growth is paramount: Jim Corti helps fuel Aurora theater expansion
2024-03-01
Out actor/director/choreographer Jim Corti made his Broadway debut in 1974, in the ensemble of Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide. Director Harold Prince's acclaimed Tony Award-winning revival is often cited as a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor
2024-03-01
Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Anti-LGBTQ+ Republican McConnell to step down from leading U.S. Senate
2024-02-29
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will step down from Senate leadership in November, having served in that capacity longer than any senator in history, The Advocate noted. McConnell has been a senator since 1985 and has ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.