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The Miami Herald.
Kansas officials push for farm sales to Cuba
John Rice. Associated Press. Posted on Mon, Dec. 09, 2002
HAVANA - Political and farm officials from Kansas met Monday with Cuban
President Fidel Castro after calling for the United States to normalize
relations with the communist nation. A Cuban official said his country will have
purchased about $175 million in goods from U.S. producers by the year's end.
Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer, a Republican, told a news conference there should be
a "normal political relationship" between the United States and Cuba.
John Moore, the Democrat who will replace Sherrer as lieutenant governor on Jan.
13, said he also supports "normalization of relations."
No deals were signed during the five-day trip, but Sherrer said he believed
the trip "will be very meaningful in terms of dollars of trade for Kansas."
The delegation had a 2-hour, 45-minute meeting and lunch with the Cuban
leader immediately before leaving for home.
"It was talking about farming and crops and sorghum and soybeans,"
said trip organizer Kirby Jones. Castro "didn't get into any specifics"
about a trade deal, Jones said.
"Castro said he'd met I don't know how many hundreds or thousands of
American farmers and said he'd learned a lot about American agriculture."
During a news conference earlier, Sherrer said he believes "the
majority of the Congress and a majority of the American people believe that
relaxing the embargo is the proper direction."
President Bush has opposed such measures, however.
Quoting a saying comparing lawmaking to sausage-making, Sherrer said, "The
process will not be attractive, but I believe it is inevitable."
U.S. farmers and agribusiness companies have increasingly attacked the
four-decade-old trade embargo against Cuba that is most strongly supported by
Cuban exile organizations based in Florida.
Sherrer said that while Cuba might be a relatively small market, "I can
tell you that with what the Kansas farmer has gone through with low prices and
drought, the prospect of 20 or 30 million dollars in sales is very attractive."
Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import concern Alimport, said Cuban
food imports will reach about $950 million this year and were expected to rise
to about $1.4 billion by 2005 or 2006.
He said Cuba has signed agreements to buy about $250 million in food from
the United States and will have taken delivery of about $175 million by the end
of the year.
The United States began imposing limits on trade with Cuba in the early
1960s, shortly after the revolution led by Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio
Batista. But a law passed in 2000 created an exemption in the embargo, allowing
direct sales of food.
The first direct shipment of food to the island in almost 40 years took
place in December 2001.
Sherrer said the delegation had invited Alvarez to visit Kansas and said "we
will work very hard to see that he is given a visa to do so."
U.S. federal officials are often slow to grant visas to Cuban officials
seeking to visit the United States. Alvarez said he had been allowed to visit
twice but also had been turned down twice.
"To deny him a visa is to deny Kansas farmers an opportunity to sell
their products and that's simply wrong," Sherrer said.
Others making the trip included organizations of Kansas wheat, corn, pork
and other producers, as well as state trade and farm officials.
First couple of Cuban music together in illness
By Lydia Martin. lmartin@herald.com. Posted on Sat, Dec.
07, 2002
Theirs is as old school as a romance can be.
Cuban diva Celia Cruz and trumpet player Pedro Knight met in the fabled
swinging Havana of the 1950s, when she sang and he played for the island's
hottest orchestra, Sonora Matancera.
They have been inseparable ever since.
In July, they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in Madrid. Today,
they are both battling serious illness. But they are battling side by side.
Insiders say Knight, who had surgery for colon cancer in late September, has
not left his wife since she was admitted to a New York hospital Wednesday for
unspecified surgery that friends said was delicate. Her management will not
disclose details of her surgery, other than to say her condition is stable.
''This is a very difficult moment for them,'' said lifelong friend Israel
''Cachao'' López, credited with creating the mambo. "I've known them
since their romance began, and I can tell you, you can make a movie about their
love story. They got along like no couple I've ever seen.''
Celia, salsa's international superstar, rarely takes the stage without
Pedro, her cabezita de algodon (little cottonhead), standing beside her. He
always has his baton fixed in his hand and his gaze fixed on his wife.
But on Nov. 1, he watched from a wheelchair as Cruz performed on a Mexico
City stage.
Sharp and tireless into her late 70s, Cruz reportedly is now experiencing
memory lapses. She uncharacteristically flubbed the lyrics of the song she was
performing live during the Latin Grammys in September.
NO SCANDAL
Always intensely private, Cruz and Knight have a relationship that never
makes tabloid headlines.
''If there are 24 hours in a day, we're together 25,'' Cruz told The Herald
in 2000. "We've never had a fight. And if we have a disagreement, I won't
tell anybody, not even my sister Gladys.''
They live by an old-fashioned code. As big a star as Cruz has been for
decades, she has continued to do the cooking for her husband whenever they're
home in New Jersey. Cruz and Knight have no children.
He accompanies her everywhere -- even to a manicure.
'To say 'gentleman' and to say 'Pedro' is to say the same word,'' said Betty
Del Rio, Cruz's publicist.
To see them together is to understand the strength of their bond. At dinner,
even when there are record label executives, journalists and promoters to
entertain, Cruz watches closely to make sure Knight doesn't order anything he
shouldn't. A diabetic for more than 15 years, Cruz is there to remind him to
take his insulin shots.
''They are the most romantic couple I know,'' said fashion stylist and close
friend Tico Torres. "He never lets her cross the street without holding her
hand.''
'LIKE A ROOSTER'
''He is like a rooster who takes care of his hen,'' added Torres' partner,
photographer Alexis Rodríguez Duarte. He photographed the couple at their
40th anniversary in Paris before they went to Madrid. The two were in the middle
of a summer concert tour.
'It was incredible how every now and then she looked over to him and he
would wink at her, like saying, 'You're doing great.' '' | 
