The age-herald., 1900-07-15
THE INFLUENCE IF AMERICAN WOMAN
 UPON THE SOCIAL REGIME OF CUBA
WeN-KOWn Writers Discuss Women of HaVana and Their Dee-
 imitation to be Free from the Yoke of Tradition

ago the women of the south looked askance upon the women seen at the north who attended public places, without escorts, the former have long ago realized that there could be no mpropriety in party of women attending any public event that they might desire.
 This was really a radical departure and yet it presages the changes that will come to Cuban society when a woman of the Antilles realizes that she may go shopping alone or speak to a man other than her husband. the American woman in Cuba sets the example Indeed, it is claimed that the latter Is fast breaking down the preju- dices that have existed for hundreds of years, and the social regime is becoming somewhat relaxed. But while the Cuban woman is discussing the advent of the American, the recent arrival in this coun- try of more than thousand Cuban teach CTS who are here to attend the summer school at Harvard is said to have caused the mildest excitement in Boston. especially among the Boston women many of whom are entertaining the Cuban women. The former expected persons of African de- scent, and were surprised that the women were representatives of Cuban and Spanish aristocracy, and in the fashion of their gowns were exactly like a Parisienne The Boston women were resigned to the cer- tainty of cigarettes, but now they arc most agreeably surprised in the Cuban women, who are quite bewildered over shopping alone in Washington street. They wear buttons 70 identify them. and they have found so much difficulty in learning their way in Boston's intricate streets that more than ono pretty. exotic Cuban senorta has been identified at headquarters and re. turned to Cambridge.
 But while one cannot fail to be interested in Cuban women and their magnificent past, which reads not unlike that of the old rNcimn in the sOI1tn I Tl1rVel not at the traditions of the old school which I ad- mire, but at the fact that the fair women of Cuba know so little of current topics. and that with all their exclusiveness and lineage, she is todsy q most ignorant per son, and from what I read however. Of her environments, and of her ambition to know something of the subjects that inter- est American women, l glory in the lat ter's influence that is even now ceuspicJ- ously, luminously in evidence, might say in land where the social regime Is extremely conservative, and whose tradi- tions that of proud and naughty aris- tooracv.
 Of the Cuban woman and her life, there has been already much written. but as she is passing through a trane.tory period she will continue to be a new and inter- 'esting subject. Among the numerous arti- cles from American writers is that by Mary c. Francis, in one of the leading maga- zines in which she describes the past and present environments or the CQDan WOtna Among other things she says: "It is inn possible to hold a rational conversation with the average Cuban woman on any current topic of the day. After the regula- ton commitments are exchanged, further conversation becomes difficult. It would be worse than useless to attempt to introduce any matter of general public interest, even for passing comment. She knows nothing of it. and you are met by blank stare and futtering of the fan. A few disas- trous experiments and one retires discom- fited and half exasperated, and yet it s only what might be expected after several centuries of repression and constant se clusion from every ordinary interest of life. The Cuban woman has been kept in total ignorance of current history. and the events of worldwide import which are subjects for mutual discussion and thought in every civilized and progressive .coun- try. Her education has been confined to a smattering of music. the languages, embroidery, and a variety of more less useless accomplishments. Held in this nar- row rut she declined Intellectually until today. She is content to to sit and rock and chatter, chatter and rock, from morn- ing to night, and If she can go to a party in the evening and dance all night, re- ceiving liberal supply of high-fown com- pliments, the end of her being is attained As for her reading, what little there Is of it, is confined almost exclusively to senti- mental fiction of ancient and exploded merit, and in the majority of Cuban house. holds, books are conspicuous by their ao- sence. Of the Cubans who have enjoyed the advantages of enlightened education and observed the enviable station in life of the American woman, Miss Francis states that they eager to extend the same benefits to their sisters, sweethearts and wives. They are today diligently urg- ing social freedom for the women of their families, and bringing every possible argument and influence to bear to accom- pliSh tEat end
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