Favez o el secreto de Henriette Faver Caven

Abstract

Unlike the theatre and literature, the cinema does not seem to have sufficiently addressed gender discrimination in Medicine. From this perspective, the present work addresses the eventful life of Henriette Faver Caven, who had to study, practise and impart her medical acumen dressed as a man, and rescues its current repercussions in cinematography. Henriette Faver Caven is sketched from her birth to her death through an analysis of the different phases of her life (orphaned at an early age, the death of her uncle, husband and daughter, cross-dressing, graduation, her involvement in the war, prison, emigration to Cuba -the first female doctor on the island- her professional activities, homosexual marriage, trial, conviction and exile). At the same time, we allude to two Cuban films about her life by Lídice Pérez López [Enriqueta Faver (1998) and Favez (2004), with their different presentations at cinematographic festivals]. We estimate that this issue and corresponding cinematographic initiatives are of great value for debating not only the harsh story of the access of this woman to formal studies in general, and university level education in particular, but also the problems of gender, and to relate this singular existence to both its cinematographic recreations and its literary and theatrical repercussions.