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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cuban police visit men who made floating truck
Tractor frame seized at garage
HAVANA - (AP) -- The men who converted a 1951
Chevy truck into a boat to sail to the United
States were visited Saturday by police who hauled
away the metal frame of an old tractor one had
in his garage.
No one was arrested in the police operation,
said Marcial Basanta, one of the men involved
in the unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to the
United States last month.
Eduardo Pedro Grass, who was also in the same
group, said the officers thought they were trying
to build another floating vehicle.
The men denied that and said they are awaiting
word from the U.S. government on their applications
to emigrate legally. They said they expect to
hear back from U.S. officials in September.
The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba
after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual,
bright-green truck-boat floating in the Florida
Straits in July. The craft came within 40 miles
of Florida.
The truck-boat was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon
drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller
attached to the drive shaft was pushing it along
at about 8 mph. On the craft were nine men, two
women and one small child.
The truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation.
Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach
U.S. shores are allowed to stay while those caught
at sea are usually returned.
Local Republicans write Bush urging new Cuba
policy
By Oscar Corral. Ocorral@herald.com. Posted
on Sat, Aug. 16, 2003.
Dozens of local Republican-elected leaders have
signed their names to a letter to President Bush
urging him to make changes to Cuba policy, a week
after a group of state representatives sent the
White House a similar note.
The letter echoes the message some Cuban-American
leaders have delivered recently to Bush: Get tougher
on Castro or risk losing Cuban-American support
in the 2004 election.
''We must not ignore the potential for significant
erosion in the loyalty of our constituency, which
is frustrated by the unfulfilled promise made
by every candidate for president over the last
40 years: a free Cuba,'' the letter says.
Hialeah Councilman Esteban Bovo, who drafted
the document, said he followed the lead of several
state legislators who sent a letter Monday to
the White House asking for changes in Cuba policy.
He sent it Friday to Washington by certified
mail.
The letter asks the president to authorize improvements
in Radio and TV Martí; implement Title
III of the Helms-Burton Act; abolish the wet foot/dry
foot immigration policy that repatriates most
Cubans picked up at sea; and stop the sale of
food to Cuba by U.S. farmers.
''We supported your candidacy for President with
great enthusiasm, and we expected a more proactive
approach to the Cuba situation,'' the letter said.
"Sadly, as of today, little has changed.''
'FIRMLY DEDICATED'
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said the
White House had not yet received the letter, but
she reiterated Bush's commitment to a tough Cuba
policy.
''The administration remains firmly dedicated
to a proactive Cuba policy that will assist the
Cuban people in their struggle for freedom,''
Mamo said. "The president remains committed
to the goal of achieving a rapid, peaceful transition
to democracy by using the dissuasive tools of
the economic embargo and travel restrictions.''
The U.S. embargo has been the keystone of its
Cuba policy for 43 years.
State Rep. David Rivera, who drafted the White
House letter signed by 13 Republican state legislators
this week, said he is heartened to see other elected
leaders follow their lead.
''I welcome any good-faith effort to provide
suggestions or a road map that has as a goal the
reelection of President Bush,'' Rivera said.
The letter is signed by 34 Republican Cuban Americans
who hold a wide range of offices, from County
Commission to Hialeah Gardens City Council.
It thanks Bush for his leadership but expresses
"deep concern over your administration's
policy toward Cuba.''
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American
National Foundation, said the letter is more bad
news for the Bush administration.
Garcia and CANF have led recent criticism of
the White House.
''This is what you call a rebellion,'' Garcia
said. "Cubans now feel discriminated against.
[The president] doesn't dignify Cuban Americans
with an answer.''
But some of the politicians who signed the letter
said they do not want it to seem like a threat.
County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, who signed the
letter, said she merely wants Bush to remember
his commitments to Cuban Americans.
MAYBE STAY NEUTRAL
Miami Commissioner Tomas Regalado, a Spanish-language
radio commentator and longtime Republican, said
if nothing changes on Cuba policy, he would consider
remaining neutral in the 2004 election.
''I would say on radio that we asked [the president]
for things and he didn't answer,'' Regalado said.
"The letter is not an ultimatum. It's a unified
message.''
Exiles In Culture
Each Cuban crisis sends a new wave of artistic
talent to South Florida's shores
By Fabiola Santiago. Fsantiago@herald.com.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 17, 2003
Cuba's loss is Miami's gain.
Six years after he defected during a U.S. tour,
Cuban master saxophonist Carlos Averhoff is jamming
at the Van Dyke Café on Lincoln Road, an
oasis for South Florida's jazz aficionados.
Playing with Sammy Figueroa's Latin Jazz Explosion,
Averhoff's fancy finger work on the tenor sax
delivers one piece after another with intense
rhythm and swing, from the American standard Invitation
to Secuencia para ti (Sequence For You), written
by his 23-year-old musician son, Carlos Averhoff
Jr., who remains in Cuba.
The senior Averhoff was a saxophonist for Cuba's
world-renowned jazz ensemble Irakere, a musical
revolution when it was founded in Havana in the
1970s. As if this weren't enough musical accomplishment
for one lifetime, Averhoff was also a founding
member of another Cuban sensation, the dance band
NG La Banda, creators of the sexy timba style.
Now, he's at Miami's doorstep, playing his instrument
in top form, teaching privately and at Florida
International University and Miami-Dade College
-- another transplanted Cuban talent to a city
still young and in the process of creating a cultural
identity.
''I don't have the ambition of fame and money,''
Averhoff quips. "I'm here with my music and
I'm having a lot of fun.''
So is South Florida, judging by the crowd packed
at the club this Friday night, and by other audiences
relishing the theater, book readings, art shows
and a host of other blossoming cultural activities
being infused with Cuban talent, exodus after
exodus.
It's a bittersweet reality: With every new crisis
in Cuba, Miami gains another layer of contributors
to the cultural scene.
''We were victims of a macabre totalitarian experiment
in Cuba, but we have arrived with a lot of energy,
with the will to create and to contribute here,''
says actress Lili Rentería, who came to
Miami in 1997 and last year launched Teatro Abanico,
a promising theater venture in Coral Gables that
also doubles as art gallery space.
NEW VISION
The vision of the new exiles, colored by the
freshness of their experience in Cuba, their rigorous
cultural training on the island, and their travels
to perform abroad, adds more layers to the Cuban
arts community, which has been diversifying since
the Mariel boatlift brought in 1980 an impressive
cast of writers and painters.
An example: One of Teatro Abanico's most successful
works, a riotous adaptation in Spanish of Neil
Simon's play The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, brought
the packed theater to a standing ovation.
Among Rentería's clever twists -- Simon
could have never imagined this -- the work closes
with the catchy tune Ahora sí tengo la
llave (Now I Have the Key) by Habana Abierta,
a cutting-edge but almost underground Cuban band
beloved by the generation of more recent arrivals.
Now in Madrid, the group is reuniting for its
first concert in Miami in October, another anticipated
cultural milestone.
And the exodus of artists and intellectuals from
the island doesn't seem likely to slow down.
In the aftermath of Cuba's recent stiff jail
sentences for dissidents and independent journalists,
the heightened atmosphere of repression is already
yielding notable new defections.
After a period of soul-searching following his
sold-out art show in Coral Gables, Requiem for
Havana, artist Ismael Gómez Peralta decided
to stay. A painter of mournful Havana buildings
in a state of decay, he has a new studio at the
edge of Little Havana and is preparing an exhibit
that will feature Cuba's historic churches and
cemeteries.
Last May, the island's premier classical guitarist,
Rey Guerra, in Mexico to perform, crossed the
border with his wife and daughter and came to
live with his parents and brother in Hialeah.
Says the Latin Grammy-nominated Guerra, who is
already busy composing new music, preparing to
record and eager to participate in South Florida's
classical music scene, "It's like being born
again.''
MODEST START
In South Florida, the Cuban cultural infusion
dates back to the earliest days of exile in the
'60s when artists and intellectuals began to transplant
their work here, building the modest foundations
of a culture with small theater companies like
Grateli, which performed zarzuelas, Cuban operettas
and endeavors like bookseller Ediciones Universal,
which doubles as a publisher.
Back then, most exiled artists -- including high
profile stars like Celia Cruz -- had to leave
for New York or Puerto Rico to recharge their
careers. But today, Miami is a more cosmopolitan,
international city, and for many Cuban artists
and intellectuals new to exile, it has become
home base.
''We're living magical moments in Miami. I sense
the awakening of a strong cultural life, and it's
not just the Cubans, but the convergence of Hispanics
from everywhere who are bringing many visions,''
says Félix Lizárraga, an award-winning
playwright and poet in Cuba who traveled to Mexico
to participate in a cultural event then crossed
the U.S. border in 1994.
''I'm a balsero by generation, but technically,
I'm a wetback,'' Lizárraga jokes.
And it is his generation -- like the Mariel generation
did in the 1980s -- that is coming into its own
in Miami now, diversifying the scope of music,
art, books and theater.
At first, Lizárraga, winner of Cuba's
prestigious Premio David in 1981 for his book
Beatrice, had to work all sorts of odd blue-collar
jobs to support himself. But as he attended tertulias
-- get-togethers among intellectuals and artists
-- Lizárraga started making contacts in
Miami's theater community and cultural circles.
As a result, he has published two poetry books
with small Miami-based publishers, A la manera
de Arcimboldo (In the Manner of Arcimboldo) and
Los panes y los peces (Bread and Fish), he works
as a freelance translator and editor -- and he
has written two whimsical theater pieces staged
by the theater group Prometeo before sold-out
crowds.
The first, La farsa maravillosa del Gato con
Botas (The Marvelous Farce of the Puss in Boots),
was a liberal adaptation of the famous children's
story, Puss in Boots, written in verse. It had
a three-month run and closed only because the
actor in the lead role had to leave town.
The second, Matías el aviador, was an
adaptation of the classic The Little Prince. In
Lizárraga's version, a guitarist sings
verses to the tune of a mournful Guantanamera
as the prince, named Matías, travels from
planet to planet. The Matías-prince character
is a reference to the legendary Cuban aviator
Matías Pérez, who left the island
on a hot-air balloon and disappeared, never to
be heard from again.
It was a story full of the wisdom of the original
Little Prince tale -- but with a touching Cuban
flair. The packed theater was moved to tears,
laughter and applause. And in the actor-audience
exchange following the performances, it became
clear that there were more than just Cubans in
the crowd.
''I thought the flaw was that the work was too
weighty on Cuban references -- the Prince loses
his roots as happens with all of us who leave
Cuba or who remain in Cuba but in an internal
exile -- but the piece turned out to have universal
appeal,'' Lizárraga says.
OPPORTUNITY ABROAD
As it is for most other exiles, for artists and
intellectuals the dramatic decision to leave Cuba
is closely linked to a mix of political restraints
and personal circumstances.
''It's not that there is a crisis in Cuba,''
says Averhoff, 56. "Cuba is in a perennial
crisis -- it's a disastrous place. For an artist,
it's a matter of opportunity, of having the right
one come along so you can escape.''
For Averhoff, the opportunity came in the form
of a tour with singer Issac Delgado at a time
when the saxophonist had fallen in love with a
Colombian woman he met while touring in that country.
The two had reunited in the United States. Like
a sad jazzy ballad, the love story ended, but
Averhoff and his music stayed in Miami.
He launched a modest new life with the help of
a cousin who supported him the first nine months
as he made contacts in the music world, tapped
into educational institutions, found new students.
He says he has no regrets.
''An exodus of artists and intellectuals is always
a loss for a country,'' Averhoff says, "but
in the case of Cuba, that island generates more
musicians than any place in the hemisphere. In
Cuba, there's nothing to do but study your music,
drink and have sex. So people study the arts seriously,
talents flourish, and there's a constant churning
of new artists.''
Generation after generation, it's a pipeline
that feeds Miami's cultural life.
Anniversary of Mariel produces cultural jewel
By Fabiola Santiago. Fsantiago@herald.com.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 17, 2003.
The 1980 exodus from the port of Mariel brought
125,000 Cubans in five months to an already socially
challenged South Florida.
But the much-maligned boatlift also delivered
to the region a generation of artists, writers
and intellectuals who sparked a cultural blossoming
that touched virtually all of the arts in the
region.
This year, a group of those intellectuals has
pooled resources to publish a 20th anniversary
issue of Mariel, the literary magazine they founded
in exile in 1983.
The magazine was published every three months
until 1985. It closed for lack of resources, but
remained the forum by which Mariel writers and
artists made their voices heard.
The anniversary issue, dedicated to the late
Reinaldo Arenas, one of Cuba's most important
novelists and perhaps the most prominent voice
of his generation, is a cultural jewel.
Edited by Miami-based Reinaldo García
Ramos, it features poetry, short stories and art
work by the late Carlos Alfonzo, Ernesto Briel
and Juan Boza, and by Luis Vega, Jésus
Selgas, Juan Abreu, Eduardo Michaelsen and the
sculpture of Laura Luna.
Among the featured poets are Andrés Reynaldo,
René Ariza, Esteban Luis Cárdenas,
José Abreu Felippe, David Lago, Jésus
J. Barquet and Néstor Díaz de Villegas.
To obtain an issue of the magazine Mariel, e-mail
Marielveinte@yahoo.com or send a self-addressed
10-x-13-inch envelope with $1.80 in postage to
PO Box 403683, Miami Beach, FL 33140.
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