In Cuba there are many Aitanas .

The soap opera Renacer, which is currently being broadcast by Cuban Television, demonstrates the acceptance of this genre by an increasingly demanding public eager for interesting proposals.

The novela Renacer (Reborn), which is being broadcast by Cuban Television these days, demonstrates the acceptance of this genre by an increasingly demanding public eager for interesting proposals.

With 90 chapters under the direction of Heiking Hernández and the script by Yoel Monzón, it is about the life of Aitana, a young woman who in the midst of a toxic and violent relationship decides to leave everything behind to build a completely different life.

Although it is too early to evaluate the performances of Renacer, it brings to the table the problems of gender violence that affect the different types of families that coexist in society.

And although in the first chapters Aitana’s submissive relationship with Luis Manuel and the position of her mother-in-law have caused astonishment, this is not far from the reality that many women live in the country despite the conquests of women in the revolutionary context.

The violence exercised in the field of assimilated coexistence, by one of the members against another, against some of the others or against all of them, includes different violent acts, from the use of physical force, to harassment, bullying, or intimidation, that occur within a household, and that develops at least one member of the family against another family member.

We are talking about Luis Manuel’s coercion of Aitana to such an extreme that he does not allow her to leave the house under the surveillance of her mother-in-law, a toxic relationship that even violates the protagonist.

All these situations usually end in femicide, a term provided for and sanctioned in the Penal Code. Although violence against women is incompatible with the principles of society, as the prominent jurist Yamila Ferrer rightly states, it is essential to effectively implement the existing legal and institutional mechanisms to prevent it.

Also in the family context, it is not possible to normalize actions that may seem common but that in their background show some type of violence.

Our country has the challenge of perfecting and implementing a more comprehensive attention to this problem that goes from specialized services, a legal culture and an adequate preparation of professionals to care for abused women so that they do not end up revictimized.

Renacer, the Cuban novel, only shows that in Cuba there are many Aitanas who suffer gender violence.

Written by Yunielys Moliner Isasi.