Published Wednesday, November 1, 2000, in the
Miami Herald
Cuba again bars writer from book fair
By Wilfredo Cancio Isla. El Nuevo Herald
Cuban poet and independent journalist Raúl Rivero has been barred by
the Cuban government from attending the 17th annual Miami Book Fair
International, scheduled for Nov. 12-19 at the Wolfson campus of Miami-Dade
Community College. The writer had been invited to discuss his book Ojo, pinta,
published this year in the United States.
"I'm the writer who has un-attended the Miami fair most often. I'll
probably set a record,'' Rivero quipped Tuesday on the phone from Havana,
referring to the three previous invitations he has been unable to honor because
of bureaucratic intervention.
According to Rivero, he submitted MDCC's letter of invitation, dated Sept.
11, to Cuban authorities shortly after he received it but was told that his trip
would have to be sponsored by a Cuban institution.
"That's a sick joke, because it's well known that nobody dares -- or is
allowed -- to sponsor dissidents or independent journalists,'' said Rivero,
director of the unofficial news agency Cuba Press. The 55-year-old author often
writes columns for El Nuevo Herald.
Prevented from coming to Miami in an official capacity, Rivero applied for
an exit permit for a family visit, but that, too, was denied.
Book fair organizers condemned the Cuban government's attitude and voiced
regret over Rivero's absence. The writer was scheduled to present his book at
the end of the closing session, Nov. 19 at 5:45 p.m.
"This is unacceptable. It seems Rivero is doomed to be an eternal
absentee at the fair,'' said its executive director, Alina Interián. She
added she was still hopeful that Rivero might deliver his presentation by
telephone.
Ojo, pinta, a collection of interviews with 11 Cuban painters, illustrates
the problems faced by young artists in terms of censorship and shortage of art
materials.
Its title is intentionally ambiguous, meaning either "Warning: Wet
paint'' or "Watch out, this person paints.''
Rivero said he will continue to press for the right to leave and re-enter
his homeland freely.
"What I find bizarre is that some days ago, the Cuban government
organized a mass parade through Havana defending the right of Americans to
travel freely to Cuba, whereas that right is nonexistent here,'' he said.
Cuba announces boost in power supply, end to blackouts
By Carlos Batista . Agence France-Presse
HAVANA -- After decades of long, scheduled blackouts caused by electricity
shortages, Cubans woke up to the news Tuesday from officials who announced the
lights -- and the refrigerator and TV -- were on to stay.
"Today, the island's [power] generating capacity is above national
demand, aided by the modernization of our power plants and the country's energy
conservation program'' Radio Rebelde said.
'WHITE-ONS'
Cubans grew so used to regularly scheduled power outages that during the
toughest years, in 1993 and 1994, they called their sporadic moments of
electrical supply "white-ons.''
While progress since then appears to have been made, top officials remain
cautious about the power supply. The modernization "does not mean that
power cuts might not take place in some areas, Cuban towns and even provinces
due to technical difficulties and other unexpected developments'' the radio
said, quoting Roberto González, top electricity expert at the Ministry of
Basic Industries.
President Fidel Castro on Monday signed a cooperation deal with Venezuela
that should end Cuba's chronic energy woes.
The government of President Hugo Chávez agreed to provide the island
with up to 53,000 barrels per day of crude oil and derivatives financed by
long-term credits.
The 15 million tons of oil Havana imported annually from the former Soviet
Union was slashed to less than half, and the country's power plants were not
equipped to burn the high-sulfur heavy crude that Cuba produces domestically.
LOCAL CRUDE
Thanks to greater investment in oil exploration in Cuba -- with French
financing -- the government has raised its heavy crude production, while also
adapting its power plants to burn domestic crude.
This year, 70 percent of the oil needed for power generation will be local
crude, according to government estimates.
The country's attention to reducing energy consumption could also contribute
to fewer blackouts, analysts said. The national electrical savings program,
which maintains a staggered consumption schedule for residential and commercial
users, is complemented by a substitution of low-energy household products,
including light bulbs and appliances.
Miamian's book recalls life of Jews in Cuba
By Hindi Diamond. hindi@herald.infi.net
Betty Heisler-Samuels has only warm memories of her life in pre-Castro Cuba.
"We had the best years. We lived a slice of history from l935 to l960
when it was such a special place, and a special life,'' she recalls while
sharing lunch at an Israeli restaurant in Aventura.
"We were so enchanted with the warmth, friendship and sensuality of
that tropical paradise, it was a miracle that we stuck to our Judaism.
"You can imagine the culture shock my parents felt, coming from small
drab shtetl [in Eastern Europe] where anti-Semitism was a way of life to this
luscious colorful land that nourished them, gave them complete freedom, and
where for 25 years they flourished and grew.
"Then it all fell apart with the oncoming Castro regime.''
Heisler-Samuels, now the editor of a Spanish language magazine in Miami,
recently published her family memories in a book, Last Minyan in Havana
(at
Amazon.com). The book is described as a novel, but it is about 95 percent
non-fiction. She changed the name of her late first husband and she embellished
her family's history a bit, but otherwise it is true.
Heisler-Samuels, who is now married to an Israeli, returned to Havana
recently to show her daughter the land of her birth and found the Jewish
community reduced to a mere 1,000 people struggling to survive.
"I knocked on every door at every house that my family had lived in.
And would you believe, when they heard that, they welcomed us in and showed us
around. They were such good people,'' she said.
She had been working on the book for a while, really "just playing with
it,'' but the moment her mother died, in December of last year, she was
propelled into finishing it.
"It was like a monument to my parents lives,'' she said wistfully. "Maybe
it was also a cleanser for me. It represented closure, and I finished it in
three months.''
Besides drawing a glowing picture of the tight Jewish community that shared
an almost communal life, the book paints the years before the coming of Castro
as idyllic.
Her introduction to the book traces the first Jewish presence in Cuba as
going back to Christopher Columbus, whose ships carried many Jews fleeing the
Spanish Inquisition. One of them, Columbus interpreter, Luis de Torres, spoke
Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic as well as Spanish.
And Heisler-Samuels writes that it was de Torres who first documented the
custom of cigar smoking. He reported seeing "many people, women as well as
men, with a flaming stick of herb in their hands, taking in its aromatic smell
from time to time.'' Although Columbus continued his voyage northward, de Torres
preferred to stay in Cuba, where he became the representative of the oyal
Spanish government.
Heisler-Samuels writes that more Jews came to Cuba in 1516 during the first
years of Spanish rule, and the presence of conversos so alarmed the Church that
a bishop sent a letter to Madrid complaining that "practically every ship
docking in Havana is filled with Hebrews and New Christians.''
She also reveals that Cubas national hero, Jose Marti, equated Cuban
suffering under Spanish rule with Jewish suffering at the hands of Spain. His
advisor was a Jew named Joseph Steinberg. He and his brothers, Max and Edward,
organized the fund-raising arm of the Cuban revolution, giving Marti vital
financing. Cubas first president, Tomas Estrada Palma, appointed Joseph
Steinberg "Captain of the Army of Liberation.''
One of her chapter deals with the tragic voyage of the ill-fated ship St.
Louis, carrying hundreds of Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler, which was refused
entry by the Cuban government. After her parents shipped her off to Miami in
1960, Heisler-Samuels studied journalism at the University of Miami. She later
took writing courses at Florida International University. She now edits a
monthly magazine Entre Nosotros and will be speaking about her book at the Miami
Book Fair. Last week, she appeared on a panel as part of the Jewish Book Fair
sponsored by the David & Mary Alper Jewish Community Center.
"Out of four generations in my family, we have lived in four countries,
truly epitomizing the wandering Jew,'' Heisler-Samuels said. "Maybe my new
grandchild will be born here and break that cycle.''
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald
Active hyperlinks have been inserted by CubaNet | 