Cuban science says goodbye to Norma Vasallo Barrueta, a fighter for equality

September 17, 2024

Investigating female subjectivity and the impact of discrimination conditions on women's lives is among the most useful contributions left to us by psychologist Norma Vasallo Barrueta, who recently passed away in Havana at the age of 72.

"The news spreads like a painful cry through chats, calls, social networks," lamented sociologist Magela Romero Almodóvar on her social networks. "The professor of many has become a light, she has passed away. This news has us distressed, no one expected it."

"A sad day for Cuban Science, she has gone to other dimensions of the universe to continue fighting for women, to achieve gender equity," anthropologist Leticia Artiles Visbal also wrote on her Facebook profile.

"Teacher of teachers, founder of the Chair of Women, friend and companion in struggle. Her work and her example will continue to be a guide for the fight for rights. Good journey, companion," added Artiles Visbal.

Vasallo Barrueta was a consulting professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Havana, where she worked since 1974. She also served as general coordinator of the Chair of Women, since its founding in 1991, and later assumed its presidency in 1997.

"In its origins, it was, above all, a space to publicize what had been done in the scientific sphere, of the institution, with the idea that it would constitute a stimulus to create an interest in these topics and their study," Vasallo Barrueta specified to SEMlac, in September 2011, at a meeting that brought together founders, members and close collaborators of the Chair, on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

Since 1994, the year of its founding, she chaired the organizing committee of the International Workshop Women in the 21st Century.

In parallel with her work at the head of the chair, Vasallo Barrueta directed research on community intervention in youth, sociopsychological aspects of AIDS, and the impact of economic restructuring and social change on Cuban working women.

Between 1997 and 2002, she coordinated the project "Helping Cuba in its Economic Transition," developed by the universities of Havana and Carleton University, of Canada.

An essential contribution to the development of gender studies in the country was her work in the preparation and development of the Academic Committee of the Master's Program in Gender Studies and the Master's in Social and Community Psychology, both registered in the Faculty of Psychology of the capital's institution of higher education, recognized by the Cuban Society of Psychology in its condolences publication.

At the same faculty, Vasallo Barrueta also served as vice dean of research, postgraduate studies and international relations (from 1995 to 2008), was part of its scientific committee and the National Court of Scientific Degrees in Psychological Sciences (since 2002).

In parallel, the psychologist also supported research that linked gender with other spaces of daily life, such as communication, journalism and artistic production.

Thus, she was one of the advisors for the first research that systematized in Cuba the connections between gender theories and those of communication, developed by Isabel Moya Richard, director of the Editorial de la Mujer, which were part of the book with which she defended her doctorate in Communication Sciences.

Based on these and other studies, "Professor Norma," as many of her students and colleagues called her, became part of the Gender and Communication Chair "Mirta Aguirre," of the International Institute of Journalism José Martí, a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) and its Gender commission.

"Gender, that other, critical, alternative perspective, imposes a complexity in its development, marked by the necessary rupture of knowledge established not only in popular social subjectivity, but also in those who build science," Vasallo Barrueta affirmed during the colloquium History of Gender Studies in Cuba "Isabel Moya Richard," held in November 2021 in Havana.

"It is a sensitive loss for Psychology and for gender studies in Cuba. Sad news for the Faculty of Psychology and the university community," confirmed the University of Havana on its Facebook page.

Vasallo Barrueta received multiple recognitions during her career, including the Distinction for Cuban Education, the Distinction of August 23, awarded by the Federation of Cuban Women and the award Join the Commitment to Equality and Non-violence against Women given to the professor, by the United Nations System in Cuba.

At the time of her passing, Vasallo Barrueta belonged to the Working Group Feminisms, Transformations and Alternative Proposals in Latin America and the Caribbean, of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (Clacso).

In a statement, Clacso recognized the academic as a "productive part of its collective for years," and valued her "intellectual and ethical legacy" and "her sowing of transformative knowledge."

"Cuban and world feminism today loses one of its greats, a brave woman who drove many processes," asserted Romero Almodóvar.