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lgbt-history-channel · 5 years

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Cuban HIV Sanitariums

For those who dont know what sanitariums are here is a definition i got off of google:

san·a·to·ri·um

/ˌsanəˈtôrēəm/

noun

noun: sanatorium; plural noun: sanatoria; plural noun: sanatoriums

Definition: an establishment for the medical treatment of people who are convalescing or have a chronic illness.

The beginning

Location: Cuba 🇨🇺

To Flee jail time, Los Frikis voluntarily gave each other HIV for a opportunity to live in a Cuban sanitarium for AIDS.

Los Frikis is a community of Cuban music lovers especially those who fancy punk music grouped up together through the latter times of the 80s and 90s, they shown a different side of style and taste throughout the nation and soon became well known as pariahs by the community but themselves as a whole.

At this part in time the government attempted to create a type of order in the community forcefully. The police constantlycracked down on the homeless and those who was just plain divergent in the community. The Frikis as tou can imagine was a big target, they had everything the government was looking for... They looked different than other people with their differences in style, They couldnt fit into the box the government was constraining people in as the societal norm (who was in charge Castro and the socialistic government).

The frikis would hang around and live in run down areas of town often harassed,arrested ,put to labour forcefully,or even imprisonment. Therefore the mark of a rebellion started Frikis started protesting that shocked everyone...what did they do you may ask... they gave themselves the HIV virus.

How they did it was by injections of those who had HIV positive blood into their blood. It is something that blows the minds of people in the present and crazy for someone to consider doing, but with their circumstances and problems it felt like the only way to get freedom.

The Soviet Union was a supporter of cubas way of governing/workings but by the latter 1980's the soviets support seemed to dissolve over time. Cuba was left to be independent and fight their own battles with no help.

According to Vice.org "Castro called what followed the "Special Period," an ironic euphemism for massive food and fuel shortages and a rationing so drastic that it physically altered the Cuban people forever." and that it did. Because around the same time people who had aids was on the rise, freighting and making the world panic on how to Constain the spread of the AIDS virus.

With Cubas dishonourable way of trying to fix the AIDS virus by belligerently testing people who was active sexually (mostly adults). To live in containment housing also known as sanitariums. With the new action many people like the Frikis saw a way to civil liberty and a way to escape the society that pushed them out and seeked out to eliminate those like them.

" He knew that by infecting himself he would be sent to the sanitarium", Niuruka Fuentes said while telling about her husband who was a Friki named Papo La Bala (which literally translates to papo the bullet which is kinda badass in my opinion) "He knew that he would meet other people like him in there, the police would leave him alone, and he would be able to live his life in peace."

Instead of living on streets unknowing where their next meal will come from, where they will sleep, and being harassed and even assaulted on top of persecution from officers they self infected to find a place with shelter to sleep and food everyday and proper medical help. After alot of them went to the sanitariums they knew it would be a safe place for those who fancy punk.

"You could hear rock 'n' roll and heavy metal coming from every house," said Yoandra Cardoso, who still continues to live on the grounds of a former sanitarium. "When the sanatorium first opened, it was 100 percent Frikis... we were all here together."

In the mark of 1989 to 1990 the military started to handoff the sanitariums to The Ministry of Public Health with this freedom truely did arise the Frikis could now dress however they want listen to whatever music they want and be able to communicate with others inside or outside of the sanitariums they were staying. They lived better than the average cuban at the time and could even afford.

"We created our own world in there," Fuentes told Vice.

One of the last sanitariums that housed Frikis and Cardosos* since the 90's, but recently closed back in '06. Right now all but one is still open Santiago de Las Vegas, which runs as a outpatient installation. Even though many many people have been lost the the HIV AIDs virus, three of cardoso's friends from the same sanitarium is still alive.

Survivors are being kept alive by the domestic acquiring antiretroviral meds that are divided out through the healthcare program. Cuba still prides itself on being one of the lowest rates of HIV; commonly in the world. Cuba is even celebrated for the termination of monther to child transmission in this decade. But HIV has still been on the rise in the present.

Frikis enough to say discovered themselves in a middle ground position for those who fancy and are into punk as a community even through hardships wouldnt seem to help their last resort of self infecting of the HIV virus. Because of the fact that they was in a place to be presecuted, they still found a way for freedom even if it ment to do something unthinkable.

Here are some photos i found on the web~ Via google images searching Cuban Sanitariums.

#lgbtq #history #aids #hiv aids #cuban sanitariums

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