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CUBA
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U.S. Football Coach Visits Old Cuban Home
Sat Sep 6. By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated
Press Writer.
HAVANA - For Carl Parrick, the only thing left
of the house where he lived as a teenage boy in
pre-Castro Havana was a fading wallet-size color
photograph from 1958.
It was enough. On Friday, armed with maps, his
memories, and the help of friendly hotel staff,
the 56-year-old high school football coach from
Chula Vista, Calif., rang the doorbell at 2109
Calle 218 and stepped over the threshold into
his past.
"This is it. It's all grown up, but this
is it," Parrick said, after stepping out
of the taxi and moving timidly toward the front
door, his eyes wet with tears. "This is really
something. People said not to get my hopes up."
The idea of attempting a homecoming to a place
forbidden to most Americans occurred to Parrick
last November, when he and the assistant coach
at Bonita Vista High School, Dan Hodges, were
trying to pick a site away from home to stage
the 2003 season opener with their La Jolla High
School rivals.
In previous years, they had traveled to Las Vegas
and places as far-flung as Hawaii, Parrick thought,
"So, this time I said, 'Let's go to Havana,
Cuba.'"
Hodges had his doubts, but started making the
calls to the State Department and filling out
the piles of U.S. and Cuban forms necessary to
travel to the communist island - a trip forbidden
under current U.S. law. Four or five months later,
Parrick received the good news: He could go home
again.
Last Sunday morning at 3 a.m., Parrick landed
at the Jose Marti International Airport accompanied
by football players, parents, assistants, and
school principals - 280 people all together. On
Friday night, Bonita Vista won the game, 31-22.
During his weeklong stay, the coach was impressed
by nearly everything he saw: the historic forts
of Old Havana, the dazzling white-sand beaches
of Varadero, the perfectly preserved 1950s Buicks
and Chevrolets rolling down the boulevard past
El Malecon, the capital's famous seawall.
But nothing hit him quite as hard or as deeply
as when he saw the carport-turned-garage where
his parents' gleaming 1951 Cadillac once sat,
the hole workers carved out of the front cement
roof to make room for the palm tree the family
planted, the former downstairs closet where he
threw his coat after arriving home from school.
Parrick lived in the neighborhood then known
as Country Club Nuevo Biltmore for two years beginning
in 1957, when Fulgencia Batista was still in power
and his father was a pilot stationed in Havana
with the U.S. Navy.
A student in the Cuban public schools, the adolescent
Carl played baseball and kickball against rival
teams and spent much of his free time riding his
bicycle past luxury hotels or diving with his
friends off the seawall into the warm Atlantic.
He remembers how one afternoon his parents joined
Ernest Hemingway for lunch at his secluded estate.
When a young lawyer and rebel named Fidel Castro
came to power, Parrick's family at first stayed
put. At the time, the world was still unsure of
Castro's intentions - he had portrayed his rebellion
as a nationalist revolution, and had not yet declared
Cuba a socialist country.
Parrick remembers the day when some of Castro's
soldiers gave him a red-and-black armband - which
he promptly put on his sleeve - commemorating
the July 26, 1953, attack on the military barracks
at Moncada that launched the revolution.
"I remember sitting in their jeeps,"
Parrick said. "They were really friendly
to us. To me it was an enjoyable time."
Then one day, when Parrick was in the 7th grade,
in the spring of 1959, his father informed the
family that they were going to have to leave the
country.
"I remember I didn't want to go," he
said. "I loved it here."
It didn't dawn on Parrick that he had been a
witness to history in the making until several
years later, when he revisited the pages of his
mother's scrapbook containing articles about Castro's
takeover and a TV Guide cover featuring the bearded
revolutionary.
Now, Parrick is trying to impress upon his students
the significance of their trip, "that it's
more than just a football game."
"We want them to understand the culture,"
he said. "A lot of people have misconceptions
about Cuba. The people are so friendly. ... The
country grabs hold of you."
Practicing what he preaches about intercultural
exchange, Parrick spent at least an hour sharing
recollections of his old life and photographs
of his new one with Jinnay Rodriguez, her parents,
Miriam and Pedro, and her grandmother, Esperanza
Ortega, who now live in his former house on 218
Street.
As a parting gift, he gave them three T-shirts
decorated with American flags, old cars, and football
themes.
"This is very emotional, to have him come
here and remember the years when he was a child,"
Miriam said.
"Our house is your house," Jinnay told
him.
Parrick was clearly moved.
"I have a lot of deep emotions," he
said. "After 44 years, I'm back home again."
CANF praises presidential veto threat on Cuba
anti-embargo amendments
Applauds Cuban-American members of congress
for efforts to defeat amendments on house floor
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today,
the Cuban American National Foundation applauded
President George W. Bush's veto threat to potential
amendments to the Transportation/Treasury bill,
expected to be presented on the floor of the House
later today. If passed, the amendments would remove
protections for American taxpayers as well as
restrict the Department of Treasury's ability
to enforce current travel regulations.
In today's Statement of Policy issued by the
White House, the Administration made clear its
intention of vetoing a bill that contained any
such amendments:
"The Administration understands that an
amendment may be offered on the House Floor that
would weaken current sanctions against Cuba. The
Administration believes that it is essential to
maintain sanctions and travel restrictions to
deny economic resources to the brutal Castro regime.
The licensing process helps to ensure that humanitarian
and cultural travel facilitates genuine exchanges
between U.S. travelers and ordinary Cuban citizens
and that any sales to Cuba are done within the
boundary of the law. Lifting the sanctions now,
or limiting our ability to enforce them, would
provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive
regime at the expense of the Cuban people. If
the final version of the bill contained such a
provision, the President's senior advisors would
recommend that he veto the bill."
"We are very pleased with the President's
explicit veto threat on these amendments. It sends
a very strong message to the Congress and even
more importantly, to the people of Cuba, that
the United States will not support the Castro
regime by providing it with an unearned windfall
of financial support," said Jorge Mas Santos,
chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Rayo to publish posthumous autobiography of
legendary salsa queen, Celia Cruz, in collaboration
with husband, Pedro Knight
Business Wire, Thursday September
4.
New York (Business Wire), Sept. 4, 2003 -- Rayo,
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers announced
today that it has acquired the rights to publish
the autobiography of legendary salsa queen, Celia
Cruz, titled "Celia," written with Ana
Cristina Reymundo, in collaboration with Cruz's
husband, Pedro Knight. Rene Alegria, Editorial
Director of Rayo, negotiated the deal with the
Cruz's agent Alfredo G. Santana, her marketing
director, Raymond Garcia and the Cruz's personal
manager, Omer Pardillo.
Based on over 500 hours of taped video and audio
interviews, including some recorded just months
before her death, this authorized, posthumous
memoir will also include never before-published
personal pictures, of Cruz touring the world and
at home and with family--plus countless never-before-published
personal anecdotes, letting fans celebrate a life
filled with heartbreaking set-backs as well as
glorious triumphs.
"It is with great pride that we bring into
the world a book which captures the essence of
one of the 20th century's most iconic personalities.
Celia inspired us all to smile and dance, no matter
how tough the world seemed to get. Through a universal
trajectory of hard work and faith, she proved
over and over again that anything is possible,
and inspired millions to do the same," said
Rene Alegria.
"Celia"--scheduled to be published
simultaneously in English and Spanish to coincide
with the first anniversary of her passing, in
July 2004--will recount and reflect on the extraordinary
life she lived. With the help of journalist Ana
Cristina Reymundo, Cruz and her husband Pedro
Knight offer a rare glimpse into their private
lives. From her modest childhood in Cuba, to her
exile years in Mexico and her remarkable career
and life in America, the book will show Cruz as
a spirited woman who comfortably lived a life
full of contradiction. Cruz's flamboyant costumes
juxtaposed her simple and straightforward demeanor.
She was open and accessible to her fans but staunchly
private in her personal life. She was uninhibited
without decadence; honest without offense; confident
but not arrogant; and generous without fault.
For Latinos under seventy, there has never been
a time without Celia Cruz. Her career spanned
three generations--each one harboring fond memories
of her timeless music. So deeply is she rooted
into the collective Latin consciousness that her
songs can be used as benchmarks to recall a certain
time in someone's life. Celia Cruz's life has
remained untold all these remarkable years, until
"Celia."
HarperCollins is one of the leading English-language
publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS - News, NWS.A - News;
ASX: NCP - News, NCPDP - News). Headquartered
in New York, the company has publishing groups
in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and Asia.
Its publishing groups include the HarperCollins
General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's
Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins
Canada and HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand.
The HarperCollins General Books Group is made
up of four operating divisions: HarperCollins,
Morrow/Avon, HarperInformation and HarperSanFrancisco.
You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the
Internet at www.harpercollins.com and HarperCollins
UK at www.fireandwater.com.
Contact:
HarperCollins, New York
Alberto G. Rojas, 212-207-7321
Alberto.Rojas@harpercollins.com
Source: Rayo
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