Archivo Cubanecuir is a collection dedicated to preserving the legacy of Cuban people who have redefined the limits and defied expectations regarding gender.

THE PROJECT

Archivo Cubanecuir is a collection dedicated exclusively to preserving the history of the trans and queer community from Cuba. The project was created by Librada González Fernández in order to organize and make accessible these historical records which are often times erased or left out at an institutional level. Since 2019, the archives have a home in Brooklyn, NY and include physical and digital materials donated by the community for the most part.

The physical collection holds over 500 items including:

• Books, magazines, letters, newspapers, postcards, diaries, scripts, newsletters
• Photographs, sketches
• Videocassetes, DVD, vynil records
• Personal garments, uniforms

CUBANE+CUIR

The collection’s name is made up by cubane, gender neutral demonym for the people of Cuba + cuir, hispanicized spelling of queer, a reappropriated term used to describe the spectrum of identities that transcend cisheteronormativity.

Other umbrella terms such as trans and transgender are often associated with transitioning towards a different gender, hormone replacement therapy, or surgery that historically have not been accessible to everyone. Transgender has also served to group transexual, transvestite and intersex people together with cisgender female impersonators and drag queens. Hence we use the more ambiguous cuir to include those people with non normative gender expressions who do not identify as trans. Moreover, we recognize that terms like gay, homosexual, lesbian and bisexual have been more more expansive in the past reaching the realm of identities that we now know as trans, queer, non-binary, etc.

Finally, none of these terms come from the Cuban imaginary, but they help us describe the experiences of our community in a dignified and accessible way. Above all, we believe it is necessary to represent queer people from the past with the language they used to define themselves. As more terms emerge from withing Cuba to describe these experiences, Archivo Cubanecuir will incorporate them to the language of the project.

LIBRADA

Librada González Fernández (she/her) is a trans archivist and researcher born in Cuba. In November of 2019, she created Archivo Cubanecuir to recover and preserve historical documents from the trans and queer Cuban community. Since then, Librada has showcased the project at the Instituto Moreira Salles of Brazil, the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, and the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. Librada and Cubanecuir have also appeared in publications such as Rialta, Refinery29 and El País; also on the trans history podcast One From The Vaults created by Morgan M Page.

In 2022, Librada joined The Center, a community center in Manhattan, to organize Solidaridad Transfemenina, a monthly event trying to further connect the Spanish-speaking transfeminine community in New York City, and later assuming the role of facilitator for Stories, a weekly support group for English speaking transfeminine people.

Last year she worked to with the Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Cuban Heritage Collection, and the New York Public Library to showcase her work as an archivist. Currently, she is working on a book which will document the stories of trans and non-binary Cubans in the world of female impersonation/drag and burlesque.