User:Minto078/Male Sex Work In Cuba in the 20th Century

Male Sex Work in Cuba in the 20th Century
Male sex workers in Cuba are called “pingueros” and noticeably emerged in the 1990s after an economic depression. Another name for a Cuban, male prostitute is “jinetero”. The term pinguero “...combines the slang term for penis, ‘pinga’, with ‘ero’, a suffix that refers to someone who works in a trade that does not require a university degree”. Pingueros and jineteros have specific styles and are terms to describe a male sex worker's economic status, not a way to label their sexuality. In Cuba people look down on homosexuals and even more so on men who engage in male-to-male sex work. Typically, pingueros are not homosexual and believe that they can engage in male-to-male sex work while maintaining their masculinity because they would have the penetrative role. By not being penetrated, the pinguero can keep his masculinity because a man being penetrated is heavily stigmatized in Cuba or the pinguero may claim "la lucha". Some male prostitutes are homosexual and are also grouped in with pingueros just because of gender. However, most pingueros are not homosexual or deny that they are. Popular places for male prostitution in Cuba include the Cine Yara, in Vedado and the Fiat Cafeteria on the Malecón. Cuba has made legal attempts to regulate prostitution and keep it under control.

The History of Male Sex Work in Cuba
When the Communist Bloc ended in the 1990s, Cuba spiraled down into an economic depression. In need of a way to bring money back into the suffering economy, Cuba started centering around a new market: tourism. Many of Cuba’s businesses shifted toward catering to foreign tourists, including Cuba’s sex industry. This time period also brought on a large boom in prostitution rates compared to the average rate of increase. Many males in Cuba joined the ranks of prostitution in order to support themselves and their families during this period. In many cases, the average male prostitute in Cuba made more doing sex work than in a government job. Other gay males joined to be able to express their sexuality more freely, all the while getting paid to-do so. Most men got involved with sex work due to poor financial circumstances.

"La Lucha"
A popular movement during this time was called “la lucha.” “La lucha” were activities or jobs taken on in order to survive as a result of the difficult financial situation in Cuba at the time .They saw “la lucha” as a method or term to escape or excuse any guilt that was associated with sex work, or specifically sleeping with male clients.

Relationship Types Between Pingueros and Foreign Tourists
General Overview

The popularization of a more relationship-based exchange between the customer and pinguero happened after the Cuban Revolution. This means a switch from a bugarron which is a Cuban, male sex worker that works with Cuban buyers and is paid in housing commodities, to the modern-day pinguero that works with foreign tourists and gets paid in dollars or pesos.

Single Encounter

Most pingueros are streetwalkers and engage with a client for one sexual encounter. Pingueros cater mainly to European men charging around $30-50.

Friendship

A friendship between a pinguero and foreign tourist is when even after having sexual relations in Cuba, the customer will still send money and gifts from afar after going back to their home country. In return, the customer expects to feel like the pinguero genuinely wants to be there with them and that the interaction is not just transactional. There are certain expectations of seduction that the tourist sets. If a Cuban male sex workers builds a strong enough relationship with a customer, the foreign tourist may provide them an outlet for a way out of the country, a marriage, or just a better life.

Kinship

A kinship is when a pinguero will adopt a foreign tourist into their family where the tourist will get to meet the sex workers’ real family. The pinguero will still continue to have sexual relations with a tourist during a kinship. Although kinship is typically in relation to blood ties, this type of kinship is fueled by monetary transactions. By creating a kinship, foreign tourists feel an obligation, as a family member would, to help support the pinguero and his family. Family members of pingueros would use terms of endearment like son, uncle, or brother to foster a closer relationship between the customer and pinguero and make the customer more willing to give more money. Foreign tourists who get involved in kinships are looking for sexual satisfaction and experiencing the feeling of belonging to a family. Often times "...foreign tourists felt more love from their kinship families than their blood-related families". Specifically wealthy European and White tourists felt validated by being introduced to a pinguero’s family. Even dating back to the Cuban colonial era, kinship was used to better the lives of Cubans. Creole families in Cuba would try to marry into white families to improve their social class.

The Allure of a Pinguero From a Foreign Tourist's Perspective
Pingueros are fetishized by foreign tourists based on their skin color. Tourists that travel into Cuba are interested in having sexual encounters with men who have darker pigmentation and glamorize their skin color because they cannot find people who look like that in their home countries. Additionally, darker skin is associated with more sexual promiscuity. "White foreign tourists were more interested in pingueros that were lighter-skinned, and Black and Latino tourists were more interested in pingueros that were darker-skinned". Foreign tourists seeking to engage with pingueros wanted “bounded authenticity” or to feel a genuine connection from them. Foreign tourists are also attracted by the Cuban sex industry because they can buy sex more easily and for much cheaper than in their home country.

Cuba's Prejudice Against Homosexuals
In the past, it was dangerous for a male to publicly announce that they were gay. Even in modern times, Cuba has no official areas where there are specifically-designated homosexual regions or explicitly gay gathering areas. Although homosexuality is looked down upon in Cuba and bias exists in the government, people looking to engage in homosexual behavior feel more comfortable doing so in Havana than other places in Cuba because it is known among the community that there are more gays there. Popularized gay spaces that pingueros frequent like the ones in Havana, were created informally and became recognized over time through word of mouth. In Havana, homosexual, Cuban men can gather and can be more public about their expression compared to other places.

Legislation and Legal Problems that Pingueros Face
Prostitution is legal in Cuba. However, solicitation, brothels, pimping, and pornography are illegal. Cuba has denied that prostitution is a problem in Cuba but still regulates it. Article 73 of Cuba’s penal code is used to regulate prostitutes who commit acts of “dangerousness” which could harm the Cuban community. Additionally, Havana authorities in Cuba have tried to remove pingueros from the streets by passing Decree Law 217. Havana is one of the most popular attractions for tourists, so many sex workers living in other areas of Cuba travel to Havana. Now with decree law 217, anyone who does not permanently live in Havana can be sent back to their original home in Cuba and fined. This law has been used to specifically target all sex workers in Cuba. If you are illegally in Havana, the authorities will fine you 500 pesos which is astronomically high in Cuba and very difficult to pay off. Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and Committees for Prevention and Social Attention make efforts to protect Cuba’s image from the negative associations that come with prostitution. The local police that patrol are very corrupt and accept bribes from pingueros. Pingueros are often harassed by Cuban police, but sometimes police harass them just to prove their authority.

Pinguero Style
Pingueros have a specific look and many of them seem to follow similar trends. They like to wear designer labels that allow them to flaunt their wealth. These brands include Tommy Hilfiger, Versace, and Calvin Klein. They also strategically wear clothes that accentuate the bodies that they work hard for. This is also a method to attract more customers. The style of pingueros has been influenced by the trends from overseas, specifically from Hollywood.