I Didn't Fight to Be Just a Housewife
Havana Times
By Dalia Acosta
03 September, 2010


http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=28709


HAVANA TIMES, Sep 3 (IPS) — Mavi Susel, the first transsexual in Cuba to undergo sex reassignment surgery, back in 1988, has found herself trapped in the traditionally assigned gender role of a housewife.

"She is a woman imprisoned in that gender role," Marilyn Solaya, the Cuban filmmaker who made the documentary "En el cuerpo equivocado" (In the Wrong Body), told the press.

Many (or most) Latin countries have very strict gender roles.  For example, in Mexico, gender role expectation is often even carried over into gay life where instead of being just gay, you are either the "male" or the "female", and the "female" often dresses and acts very feminine.  Whether that is do to preference or to increase social acceptance, I don't know. The "female"  is regarded lower than the "male"  because of gender stereotypes.