Monika Krause, Queen of Condoms. Memoir of a Sex Educator in Revolutionary Cuba. Monika Krause-Fuchs

Ilíada Ediciones publishes the remarkable life and accomplishments of Cuba’s first sex educator and outspoken proponent of planned parenthood, women’s and gay rights for English-speaking readers. It is an edited English translation of «Cuba, mi Infierno y mi Paraíso» (Ilíada Ediciones, 2020), Monika Krause’s memoir in original Spanish, with the add of selected texts from «¿Machismo?, no gracias» (Ediciones Idea, 2007), also by Monika Krause. The edition work was done by Dani and Dictys Jiménez Krause, Monika’s sons. Regina Anavy from San Francisco translated from the Spanish.

In 1962, at the age of twenty, Monika Krause marries the “youngest captain in the world” and moves from East Germany to Cuba, an island with a different climate, culture, and customs. She soon clashes with Afro-Cuban saints, food shortages, and the macho mentality. Still, Monika is full of idealism and determined to participate in the construction of a new society, made possible by the triumph of the Revolution.

Monika’s memories and recollections, told with humor and heart, provide a unique glimpse into the turbulent first thirty years of the Cuban Revolution. The young mother of two boys experiences the follies of the Cuban educational system, when a whole country is turned into a laboratory for the formation of the New Man. Monika works her way up, becomes a Cuban citizen, and holds important positions in the Federation of Cuban Women.

Monika becomes Cuba’s first Sex Educator, charged with developing and implementing an ambitious and impactful national program of sex education. Monika is the first director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), has her own radio and TV programs, and is a strong advocate for women’s rights and a staunch fighter against institutionalized homophobia.

In 1990, exhausted and disillusioned, with her marriage over, and her grown children eager to break free from the rigid ideology, Monika returns to Germany, her country of birth.