Published Tuesday, January 22, 2002 in
The Miami Herald
Top Cuban dilpomat speaks at Palm Beach luncheon
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- (AP) -- Cuba is willing to negotiate
re-establishing relations with the United States, so long as no conditions are
set regarding free elections on the communist island, a top Cuban diplomat said
Monday.
However, Dagoberto Rodriguez, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C., said talks to improve relations between Fidel Castro and the
United States are not imminent.
"What we are hearing from the American people is a great desire to have
normal and civilized relations,'' Rodriguez told The Palm Beach Post. "From
what we're hearing from U.S. government officials, there isn't much hope of that
happening soon.''
Rodriguez, who became Cuba's Washington representative four months ago and
is Castro's top diplomat in the United States, also addressed the 40-year-old
trade embargo against Cuba while speaking to a Palm Beach social club.
The lunch was not open to the press, but Rodriguez gave an interview
afterward.
Rodriguez said he has visited several cities to talk to the American public
about lifting the embargo.
While Cuban exile groups defend the embargo, recent food shipments to Cuba
and Castro's lack of protests regarding the American military's use of
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base indicate Cuba is slowing down its anti-American
rhetoric.
Cuba also is willing to negotiate dealing with the $1.8 billion in claims
from U.S. corporations whose property was nationalized by Fidel Castro in 1960,
Rodriguez said. But discussing democratic elections is not an option, he said.
"We are willing to sit down in a civilized manner to discuss any issue
of a bilateral nature, but not our internal affairs,'' he said.
Cuban exiles hoping for radical change when the 75-year-old Castro dies or
steps down will be disappointed, Rodriguez said.
"There will be a tremendous impact psychologically, because Fidel has
been such an important historical figure,'' he said. "But Cuba is very
organized and institutionalized. I don't foresee major changes.''
Actor and TV host Rolando Barral dies
By Renato Perez And Elaine De Valle. edevalle@herald.com
Rolando Barral, a tireless actor and veteran television host with more than
half a century on the radio and small screen, died Monday at Kendall Medical
Center, where he was admitted last week for surgery after a ruptured aneurysm in
the brain. He was 62.
"He was a man who breathed and lived and ate the public and I think the
public responded accordingly,'' said his daughter Marietta Barral Zacker. "The
most amazing thing about my father was watching him light up a room of people
that didn't know him personally. And I know he was thankful for that gift.''
Barral began his career in show business at the age of 9 in his native
Havana on the CMQ radio program Street Angels. Until his hospitalization, he was
host of Fiesta at Five Minutes till Seven, a variety show on Miami's TVC cable
station.
The son of writer and TV director Mario Barral, Rolando Barral was
practically raised in TV studios. Many of his fellow Cubans remember him as a
teenage co-host of Partying with the Heartthrobs, a song-poetry-and-dance
program on CMQ-TV in Havana that premiered in 1957 and ran for four years.
Barral was already a household name when he left Cuba in 1962. He began a
long sojourn through Spain, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,
Venezuela and El Salvador, playing romantic roles in television soap operas.
Settling in Miami in 1977, he gave up daytime drama, but only briefly. After
years of playing romantic leads and at the ripe old age of 37, "I didn't
want to be cast as the leading lady's father. I'd rather shoot myself!'' he
joked years later.
He went on to appear in dozens of telenovelas -- Spanish soap operas -- at
least 20 of which he taped in Puerto Rico.
In 1978, he made his debut on WLTV-Channel 23, then an affiliate of the
Spanish International Network (SIN), with El Show de Rolando Barral. In June
1985, the program moved to the fledgling WSCV-Channel 51, owned by John Blair &
Co., a New York conglomerate.
Channel 23 lured him back five months later.
In May 1986, he became co-host of Sábado Gigante, a hugely popular
variety program brought to Channel 23 from Chile by its creator, Mario
Kreutzberger, aka Don Francisco. Barral stayed only seven months, when he
abruptly joined Super Sábado on Channel 51, by then a Telemundo
affiliate.
Barral returned to Channel 23 in September 1987 with Mondays and Fridays
with Barral, in which he interviewed English-speaking and Spanish-speaking
personalities.
Long known in the industry as "the Latin Johnny Carson'' for his breezy
interview style, Barral said he'd rather be compared to ABC's Ted Koppel.
Univision canceled the talk show on Jan. 22, 1988, after Barral was arrested
by Coral Gables police on cocaine possession and driving while intoxicated
charges. He was fined $964 for the DWI conviction and given a one-year probation
for the drug conviction.
Support from fans and industry associates through what he called "my
bad telenovela'' was unwavering.
In March 1988, Barral was back on the airwaves, this time on WSUA-Radio
Suave, with a radio version of El Show. And he kept his hand at live theater,
appearing in comedies at Little Havana's Teatro Martí.
"I was born to work and be active,'' he said at the time.
Active he was, returning to television in June 1989 with TV with Barral, on
Hit TV, an independent cable station with studios in New York City. He also
taped Spanish soap operas for Puerto Rican TV stations and acted in an
independently made movie comedy.
Like many Cuban exiles, Barral hoped to return some day to a post-Castro
Cuba.
"I won't give up Cuba,'' he said two years ago. "I want to go back
to CMQ and walk into the studio and go on television -- even as an extra.''
Barral is survived by his wife of nearly 40 years, Mellie; daughters Yolanda
Barral Acosta and Marietta Barral Zacker; his mother Odelia Barral and three
grandchildren.
Viewing is at 5 p.m. today at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Funeral Home, 3344
SW Eighth St. There will be a graveside service Wednesday.
Copyright 2002 Miami Herald | 
