Raspe (2018)

One-channel, sound, color, duration, loop. 

Raspe, 2018, is a durational performance responding to the violent history of queer erasure in Cuba. Forced onto a chair with my hands restrained behind my back, my head is forcefully shaved “al raspe” by a man wearing a military uniform with a pair of silver clippers.

After the regime of the Cuban Revolution (1959) solidified itself into power, many queer people, specifically femmes, were submitted to queer baiting, arbitrary arrests, detainment, public humiliation, or were sent to UMAP(work camps) by state security. A suspicious look, a handshake held for too long, the way you walked, being a writer or a poet, or long hair was considered a signal of “homosexuality” in revolutionary Cuba. 

In his autobiography, Before Night Falls(1992), Reinaldo Arenas recounts memories of the various persecutions he witnessed and suffered himself. Arenas tells the story of his complicated friendship with another gay man, Hiram Prado, who repeatedly suffered abuse from the state. One account where Hiram was arrested, his head was shaved to the scalp and he was then imprisoned. Reinaldo was also subjected to having his head shaved during incarceration. This performance of affective censorship not only depicts a tool of erasure used against queer identity, but also the ways in which queer people directly and indirectly experience transphobia. 

Director: Alexis Ruiseco-Lombera. Special thank you to Kevin Leon for playing the military figure and Elias Roberto Jesus Rischmawi for being the camera operator.