Cuba is a female island which venerates mothers and motherhood. A country where the toughest, roughest and most macho of men will go weak at the knees before an irate mother as she smoothes out his hair. A country where days will be taken off work to do the washing of a (30 year old) son returned from a trip. Mother’s day is a big deal. In the 1960’s, Cubans were celebrating Mother’s Day with gifts and greetings cards, with the addition of a new ingredient—a cake. Cakes and greeting cards were a must and to let the day go by without these articles was simply inexcusable. Even in times of increased hardship for the national economy during the Special Period, when even a bar of soap was a luxury and the nation had blackouts for most of the day, neither of these things stopped Cuban daughters and sons to give their mothers greeting cards and cakes, although of varying quality.