Published Tuesday, March 21, 2000, in the Miami Herald
When Nothing Means Something
On both sides of the Straits, people are looking beyond Castro.
Aremarkable thing happened when some 90 scholars from Cuba came to Miami last week: They joined in respectful, academic debate and held quiet, private conversations with 5,000 other scholars from around the United States and Latin America, among them Cuban exiles.
Such earnest talk may seem like nothing, particularly at a conference of the Latin American Studies Association, but in a world that often sees Miami as the capital of fanatical, anti-dialogue anti-Castroism, the conference belied all stereotypes and negative expections. Absent were ugly
protests and attempts to stifle speech.
Of course, there were those who condemned the academic forum as a propaganda fest for Cuba's totalitarian government. That's OK. Thankfully, in the United States we have a right to express our views.
But far from propaganda, conference debate most reflected an old phenomenon: Cubans from the island and those of the diaspora have been having these kinds of discussions -- perhaps in less scholarly terms -- in living rooms and at beaches, in Cuba and Miami, for decades. The constant and growing
parade of people going from Miami to visit family in Cuba, and in the other direction as well, has had an inevitable effect.
Recently, U.S. policy changes aimed at encouraging people-to-people contacts have expanded the opportunities for more formal cultural and academic exchanges, making possible what occurred in downtown Miami last week. Another great motivator has been the realization that Cuba's regime can't last
forever.
Tellingly, the Cuban scholars -- the largest contingent ever to visit Miami, if not the United States -- stayed faithful to Cuba's Communist Party line while in public and on the record last week.
But in private, much more was said. Far from the spotlights and media, Cubans otherwise divided talk to each other -- and have been talking for some time. On both sides of the Florida Straits, people are looking beyond Fidel Castro, forging relationships for the day that all Cubans can look
forward to change.
Film offers glimpse of Castro's life
By Marie Sanz . Agence France-Presse
HAVANA -- A documentary on Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution is being screened without fanfare in Cuba.
For the first time Cubans can see their president swimming, followed closely by six bodyguards, in turquoise waters off a Cuban beach, visiting his childhood home, or meditating at the grave of his parents.
Fidel: 40 Years of the Cuban Revolution and its Leader is the work of Estela Bravo, a U.S. filmmaker who lives part time in Cuba.
In production five years, the Castro documentary was first presented in Cuba in December during a festival of Latin American film in Havana. This week it is to inaugurate the first national documentary festival in Santiago de Cuba.
The film draws a flattering portrait of the Cuban president based on anecdotes from his older brother Ramon, admiring testimonials from teachers at the Jesuit school he attended, and comrades from his guerrilla days in the Sierra Maestra. Also interviewed were friends such as writer Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela, and Danielle Mitterrand, widow of former French president Francois Mitterrand.
The film shows Castro meeting with the pope and the king of Spain and strolling in Havana and Harlem. It also captures rare private moments of the Cuban leader.
Two short phrases in the film allude to his personal life. ``Cubans actually know very little about the personal life of Fidel,'' says the narrator, then: ``Rumor has it that he has seven children and has been married for almost 30 years.''
The few images of his private life date from before the revolution, such as photographs of his 1948 wedding to Mirta Diaz Balart, whom he divorced two years later, and 1960s footage in which Castro, accompanied by his son Fidelito, is responding in English to questions from a U.S. journalist.
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