The main purpose of the study is to analyse and critique how accurately the representation of women in Cuban cinema portrays the existing gender power relationships in Cuban society, in the light of Chanan’s claim that Cuban people consider that what we see in Cuban cinema is what we see on the public and private spheres of Cuba. It follows that the cinematic medium increases our understanding of women and gender issues in the daily experience of Cuban society, and thereby allows spectators to engage in representations of the history, the humour, the changes, the needs, and the courage of Cuban people. The films examined here are grouped into two epochs. In the first epoch, Cuban women are generally portrayed as revolutionary heroines, without fully exploring and projecting their fear, their sensuality and their desires as women, as it is typified in the second epoch. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that post 1959 Revolutionary Cuban cinema has frequently portrayed social history–including the breakdown of social class–through women. Consciously or by default, the films chosen highlight both the opportunities for the incorporation of women into the public sphere, and the limitations of that process but only up to a certain point: the machista ideologies and practices characteristic of a patriarchal society still remain.

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Como citar: Mejía, G., & Martínez-Expósito, A.  (2005). Women's Representation: Two Epochs of the Revolutionary Cuban Cinema. Revista Brasileira do Caribe, VI(11), 33-56.