TransCuba

BOOK INFO  Hardcover, 9 X 13 In. / 142 Pages / 67 Color  ISBN 9780988983137  List Price: $45.00  "As the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba continues to evolve, Allen is ahead of the curve in documenting and comparing how both societies represent transgender people. ",  - The Huffington Post, December 6, 2017 “The transgender subjects in Allen’s portrait series blend bravery and beauty...", - American Photo Magazine, July 2014 “...a far cry from the media's sensationalistic portrayals of trans lives.”, - The Advocate, November 15, 2014 Photographs by Mariette Pathy Allen Text by Mariela Castro Espín, Allen Frame, and Wendy Watriss  For more than 30 years, New York based photographer and painter Mariette Pathy Allen has been documenting transgender culture worldwide; in 2004 she won the Lambda Literary Award for her monograph The Gender Frontier. In her new publication, TransCuba, Allen focuses on the transgender community of Cuba, especially its growing visibility and acceptance in a country whose government is transitioning into a more relaxed model of communism under Raúl Castro's presidency. This publication therefore records a cultural watershed within Cuba. In addition to color photographs and interviews by Allen, the book also includes a contribution from Raúl Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro, who is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana. In 2005, Castro proposed a project, which became law three years later, to allow transgender individuals to receive sex reassignment surgery and change their legal gender.  Featured in Mother Jones, Slate, Out, and Huffpo. Text by Mariela Castro, Allen Frame, Wendy Watriss