Prof. Norma Guillard, in town for the Latin American Studies Association conference last weekend, visited the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and its programs last Tuesday. Norma joined the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961 when she was 15 years old, and is one of the young women featured in Catherine Murphy’s documentary Maestra about the women and girls who taught their nation to read & write on the Campaign.
A social psychologist from Santiago de Cuba, she is one of the first Cuban women of her generation to call herself a feminist. She primarily works on the issues of gender, race, sexual orientation – and issues of diversity & identity in a Cuban and Caribbean context.
She is an adjunct professor at the University of Havana teaching largely on issues of psychology and gender. She is a past president of the Cuban Association of Psychologists and an Advisor to UNESCO and UNDP on the issues of gender in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. She is a principal collaborator at the National Center for the Prevention of AIDS and the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), which is spearheading the historic work to educate against homophobia and lobby for civil unions. She is one of the founders of “Oremi”, the first organization of lesbian & bisexual women in Cuba.
