Norma Guillard Limonta is a Cuban

social psychologist Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field of ...

and adjunct lecturer at the

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

. She is a co-founder of Grupo Oremi, a now defunct lesbian discussion group in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. Her academic works borders on gender, sexuality, race and identity. Guillard is a foundation member of the Cuban branch of La Articulacion Regional de Afrodescendientes de Latinoamerica y el Caribe, a joint regional discussion group composed of individuals of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean. She appeared as one of the protagonists in Catherine Murphy's documentary,

Maestra Maestro (; from the Italian ''maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher," plural: maestros or maestri) is an honorific title of respect, sometimes abbreviated Mo. The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, ...

about the Cuban Literacy Campaign.

Life

Guillard's spent her childhood in

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

. She participated in the Cuban Literacy Campaign when she was 16. In 1993, Guillard joined Magin, an association of professional women media communicators and worked with the organization as a public relations specialist before it was closed down. The organization worked to create awareness about gender equality and gender bias in the media and to challenge negative images of women in the media. Her work for Magin led her to write articles about sexuality and feminism. She was later approached by

Mariela Castro Mariela Castro Espín (born 27 July 1962) is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana, as well as the National Commission for Comprehensive Attention to Transsexual People, and an activist for LGBT rights in Cuba. C ...

of National Centre for Sex Education to organize a group of Cuban lesbians which was called OREMI. Oremi, the Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for the Study of Sexuality and the National Centre for Sex Education organized a symbolic same-sex marriage in 2007, the first-ever in the country to be recognized by the government. In 2016, Guillard did an interview with BBC World Service in which she described her life as a single, lesbian mother during the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillard, Norma Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academic staff of University of Havana Cuban LGBTQ rights activists LGBTQ psychologists 20th-century Cuban LGBTQ people 21st-century Cuban LGBTQ people