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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Defectors face future together
By David Ovalle and Elaine
De Valle, dovalle@herald.com. Posted on
Wed, Nov. 17, 2004.
LAS VEGAS - Members of the Havana Night
Club show -- newly defected from Cuba --
enjoyed their opening night in these strange
surroundings Tuesday, taking solace in what
got them here in the first place.
Each other.
''You know what gives me strength?'' said
José Manuel, 38, a dancer and singer.
"The company. We dance. We act. This
is what we want to do and it's what gives
me strength.''
Throngs of gamblers stood up and cheered
as the troupe preceded its official opening
act Tuesday night by parading down a red
carpet outside the Wayne Newton Theater,
snaking its way around blackjack tables.
Wearing traditional and flashy costumes,
playing drums and blowing whistles, cast
members were led by Las Vegas legend Siegfried
of the Siegfried & Roy duo.
Early Tuesday, the 44 troupe members already
in Las Vegas were joined by six comrades,
who arrived at McCarran Interntional Airport
from Germany.
MORE PAPERWORK
The six requested asylum in Germany because
they could not get visas to the United States
on time. They have family in America, which
made them a greater flight risk in the eyes
of the Cuban government, said Hannah Kampf,
a spokeswoman representing the group.
The reunion was delayed for a few hours
when the six newcomers were required to
finish additional Customs and immigrations
paperwork necessary for those who request
refugee status overseas.
''There are no issues,'' said Pamela Falk,
an immigration attorney representing the
troupe. "It's just extra paperwork.''
The delay dampened the mood only slightly
for the performers the day after they requested
asylum in the largest mass defection since
Fidel Castro took power.
Most felt elated, maybe a little scared,
facing their new lives, and definitely worried
about their families in Cuba.
For Puro Hernández, the group's
musical director, the loss of family cuts
deepest.
His mother lives in Cienfuegos. Hernández
won't be able to take his 15-year-old niece
and 4-year-old nephew to parks and museums.
''They're the kids I don't have,'' said
Hernández, 32. "They are my
adoration.'
The United States rejected the troupe's
first visa request. But the performers persisted
and, after lobbying by members of the Cuban
American National Foundation and other influential
exiles, they got their visas.
The troupe came to the United States over
the objections of Cuba's government.
Falk, the lawyer, described a series of
events that veered from the absurd to the
dramatic in her two-year quest to get the
OK from Havana and Washington.
At one point, she found herself having
to convince bureaucrats in D.C. that the
cha-cha-cha is indeed Cuban, since the troupe
had to be offering something ''culturally
unique,'' Falk said.
At another, she trotted out 800 pages of
financial records -- ''phone calls, receipts,
everything,'' she said -- to prove to the
State Department that the group was the
rare independent group in Cuba that earns
no money for Castro's government.
WHAT'S AHEAD
The next steps for the 44 Cubans who filed
their application for asylum in Las Vegas
on Monday are fingerprinting and asylum
interviews. The interviews could be within
six to seven weeks at the closest asylum
office, in Southern California. Each applicant
would return to that office two weeks later
to get an answer in person.
Hernández has fielded calls from
across the world -- friends from Thailand,
France, even an old soccer buddy who lives
in Miami and saw him on TV.
His smile is so broad, his questions about
life in the United States steeped in pure
optimism. His girlfriend of four years is
a dancer in the show. Maybe they will finally
get married.
And soon, Hernández hopes, he can
finally visit Miami.
The troupe had warmed up for Tuesday's
opening show with an emotional charity performance
Monday night. Hernández, the German-born
director and self-described ''mother hen''
introduced the show to the audience by saying
that the cast's decision to defect was made
"with a tear and a laugh.''
''It's great to be here in the United States
-- it only took 50 years,'' performer Jose
David Alvarez blurted out during the show.
The troupe is staying in nearby hotel suites.
Shopping at Target on Tuesday was an adventure.
They discovered a Cuban restaurant, the
Florida Cafe, on Vegas' main strip.
Singer Pedro Dikan left his family behind,
but his Cuban-born girlfriend who lives
in Guatemala may soon join him.
''It feels weird. I can't compare it to
Cuba,'' Dikan said. "Everything here
is almost too perfect . . . but this is
the city of lights. This is what we as performers
all dream about.''
Herald special correspondent
Timothy Pratt contributed to this report.
Former official in Cuba fought for exiles'
rights
By Rebecca Dellagloria.
rdellagloria@herald.com. Posted on Tue,
Nov. 16, 2004.
Alberto Diaz-Masvidal, a prominent Miami
banker and an accomplished attorney and
government official in pre-Castro Cuba,
died Saturday after a long battle with cancer.
He was 80.
Born in the village of Manacas in Cuba's
Santa Clara province, and educated at the
University of Havana, Diaz-Masvidal was
an expert in international banking who held
a doctorate in economics and law, his daughter
Mari Masvidal-Visser said.
An official in the Cuban government before
the Castro regime, he served as director
of the Consejo Nacional de Economia, or
National Economic Council, and was an attorney
for the Ministry of Commerce and the Central
Bank of Cuba, she said.
In 1963, Diaz-Masvidal left Cuba for Miami.
He prospered as a banker, eventually becoming
the majority stockholder of Republic National
Bank of Miami, now Union Planters.
His daughter said Diaz-Masvidal developed
the concept of character loans -- giving
Cuban exiles who had successful businesses
back home, but no established line of credit
in the United States, the chance to borrow
money for business ventures.
''At that time he was very innovative and
visionary,'' Masvidal-Visser said. "He
basically was able to provide loans to jump-start
a lot of businesses here.''
In 1972, Diaz-Masvidal started Miami Extra
-- one of the first Spanish daily newspapers
in Miami. The venture lasted just two years
because of a poor economic climate, according
to his daughter.
A tireless advocate in his later years
for the rights of Cuban nationals who owned
confiscated properties in Cuba, Diaz-Masvidal
-- himself a Cuban property owner -- testified
in congressional hearings leading up to
passage of the Helms-Burton Act. The act
enables American citizens and companies
who claim confiscated Cuban property to
sue those ''trafficking'' in their Cuban
holdings for damages.
In 1996, Diaz-Masvidal, as principal of
Consolidated Development Corp. and head
of the Coral Gables-based National Association
of Cuban Mineral and Petroleum Rights Holders,
sued the Canadian nickel mining company,
Sherritt International, for exploring and
exploiting oil fields where it held concessions.
The lawsuit was unsuccessful because of
''jurisdictional technicalities,'' said
Diaz-Masvidal's attorney, Nicolas Gutierrez,
"but we were able to bring a lot of
attention to this important issue, and he
was the driving force behind that.''
''He was quite a visionary in regards to
how to present these cases,'' Masvidal-Visser
said of her father.
He also is survived by his wife, Tulina
Garcia Cortes, and daughter Adriana Diaz-Masvidal
Tompkins.
Viewing is set for 10 a.m. to noon today
at Ferdinand Funeral Home, 2546 SW Eighth
St. in Miami, followed by a 1 p.m. Mass
at St. Augustine Catholic Church, 1400 Miller
Rd., Coral Gables.
EU seeks strategy to deal with Cuba
Posted on Tue, Nov. 17,
2004.
Representatives of the 25 European Union
countries met Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium,
to begin mulling the future of diplomatic
sanctions adopted a year ago against Cuba
while seeking a more effective dialogue
with Cuban dissidents, diplomatic sources
said.
''The group of experts talked about measures
to improve constructive dialogue [between
the EU and Cuba],'' a spokesman for the
bloc's Dutch presidency said. The spokesman
said a further meeting had been scheduled
for December.
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