CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cuban dancers say defections painful
but necessary
Lisa Cornwell, Associated
Press. Posted on Mon, Mar. 15, 2004.
CINCINNATI - Two dancers who joined the
Cincinnati ballet after defecting from Cuba's
national troupe say they had to leave because
they were prohibited from pursuing international
careers.
Cervilio Amador and Adiarys Almeida, both
20, have been granted asylum from the communist
country, said their attorney, Willy Allen.
Three other dancers also fled during the
National Ballet of Cuba's fall tour of 19
U.S. cities.
Amador slipped away in a taxi in Daytona
Beach, Fla., a day before he was to perform
in "Don Quixote." Almeida did
the same thing in New York City a few days
later.
Almeida said that she knew leaving her
country, loved ones and fellow dancers would
be difficult, but she wasn't prepared for
the overwhelming sense of loss.
"It has been so much more difficult
than I could ever have imagined to leave
everything behind," said Almeida, who
became so emotional that several minutes
passed before she could continue a telephone
interview. "If I had looked back, I
knew I might not have been able to leave,
so I just kept going."
The dancers, who speak little English and
are living in Miami for now, were interviewed
by The Associated Press with the assistance
of an interpreter from the Cincinnati Ballet.
Both said they do not regret their decisions
to defect.
"I had a dream to dance with a bigger
company in the United States and to understand
and learn other styles of dance," Amador
said. "I knew I couldn't do that in
Cuba. I hadn't yet decided to defect when
I came here, but I was hoping for an opportunity
to get away. When it came, I took it."
Almeida said she loves her homeland but
felt limited as an artist.
"The idea to defect was always in
the back of my mind, and when I heard there
was an American tour, I knew that would
be my opportunity," she said. "I
always had a dream to dance with other ballet
companies and have an international career."
Amador said the differences between American
and Cuban politics did not affect his decision
to leave.
"I love Cuba," he said. "I
had seen when we toured the United States
and other countries what working in an atmosphere
of freedom can mean to an artist."
Both dancers said they would have preferred
to stay in contact with the Cuban company
if they had been allowed to experiment with
other companies. Amador said he didn't know
what the consequences would have been if
they had tried but failed to get away.
Amador and Almeida accepted contracts to
perform as soloists for the Cincinnati ballet's
2004-2005 season and will begin rehearsals
in July.
Immigration authorities granted asylum
because they demonstrated they would be
persecuted if they returned to Cuba, Allen
said. Most Cubans who reach U.S. soil are
allowed to stay and seek permanent residency.
Messages to the Cuban Interests Section
in Washington, D.C., were not returned,
but Alicia Alonso, director of National
Ballet of Cuba, has said the defections
were painful because the company had trained
the dancers for years.
Cincinnati Ballet officials say the two
new additions will be an asset to the 32-dancer
company.
"I think the sacrifices they have
made for their art and the courage it took
to defect will add a maturity to their dancing
that few young dancers are able to achieve,"
said Victoria Morgan, the ballet's artistic
director.
The young Cubans look forward to learning
more about the American culture when they
get to Cincinnati.
"It's hard to even learn the English
language in Miami, because Miami is Cuba,"
said Almeida, laughing.
Both say their happiest experience in the
United States happened during their audition
in February in Cincinnati when it snowed.
"It was wonderful," Amador said.
"We had never seen that before."
The dancers are adjusting to their new lifestyles
with help from friends they have made in
Miami.
"We have had a lot of good things
coming in a very short time," said
Amador. "But our dream in the end is
to be able to return to Cuba and to share
our triumphs with our families."
ON THE NET:
National
Ballet of Cuba
Cincinnati
Ballet
Calusas may have fled to Cuba
Posted on Mon, Mar. 15,
2004
New evidence suggests that South Florida's
Calusa Indians may not have been wiped out
by Indian wars, the Spaniards and disease
and survived by migrating to Cuba.
PINELAND - (AP) -- Researchers have discovered
the first birth records of the Calusa Indians
outside Florida, providing evidence that
the once-mighty South Florida tribe might
not have been wiped out as previously thought.
Anthropologist John Worth said new information
from his search of records shows several
dozen members of the tribe, which lived
in Southwest Florida from 100 A.D. to the
early 1700s, escaped to Cuba after invading
Indian tribes, Spanish soldiers and foreign
diseases overran their region.
Though most of the band of Calusa who escaped
to Cuba died from typhus or small pox within
three months of arriving, records show at
least one Calusa woman survived and gave
birth, said Worth, the director of the Randell
Research Center, which is located at the
site of one of the Calusa's largest Florida
settlements.
The woman, who arrived in Cuba in 1711
as an infant, was baptized in the Catholic
church and gave birth to two daughters in
1729 and 1731, Worth said.
No records have been found to show what
happened to the girls, though Worth said
he's now trying to trace their paths to
determine whether Calusa descendants may
still be alive.
''The chances are probably fairly slim,
but hope springs eternal,'' he said.
Calusa Indians, nicknamed ''The Fierce
Ones,'' were the most powerful people in
South Florida when the Spanish arrived in
the 16th century.
They built large shell-mound settlements,
most of which were torn down in the 20th
century to be used as road fill or removed
to make room for development.
But lost manuscripts from the 1890s that
recently turned up at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C., provide a new picture
of the tribe's life on Pine Island.
The manuscripts are from archaeologist
and ethnographer Frank Hamilton Cushing,
who explored the region in the late 1800s.
Including maps and sketches, the papers
describe a much larger complex than researchers
believed existed.
''He has new things on his maps and in
his observations that no one knew about,''
said Phyllis Kolianos, vice president of
the Florida Anthropological Society, who
found the papers.
Researchers said Cushing's notes show where
other mounds existed, and where workers
will now concentrate excavations.
Kerry's stances on Cuba open to attack
By Peter Wallsten, pwallsten@herald.com.
Posted on Sun, Mar. 14, 2004
John Kerry had just pumped up a huge crowd
in downtown West Palm Beach, promising to
make the state a battleground for his quest
to oust President Bush, when a local television
journalist posed the question that any candidate
with Florida ambitions should expect:
What will you do about Cuba?
As the presumptive Democratic nominee,
Kerry was ready with the bravado appropriate
for a challenger who knows that every answer
carries magnified importance in the state
that put President Bush into office by just
537 votes.
''I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I
think he's running one of the last vestiges
of a Stalinist secret police government
in the world,'' Kerry told WPLG-ABC 10 reporter
Michael Putney in an interview to be aired
at 11:30 this morning.
Then, reaching back eight years to one
of the more significant efforts to toughen
sanctions on the communist island, Kerry
volunteered: "And I voted for the Helms-Burton
legislation to be tough on companies that
deal with him.''
It seemed the correct answer in a year
in which Democratic strategists think they
can make a play for at least a portion of
the important Cuban-American vote -- as
they did in 1996 when more than three in
10 backed President Clinton's reelection
after he signed the sanctions measure written
by Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton.
There is only one problem: Kerry voted
against it.
Asked Friday to explain the discrepancy,
Kerry aides said the senator cast one of
the 22 nays that day in 1996 because he
disagreed with some of the final technical
aspects. But, said spokesman David Wade,
Kerry supported the legislation in its purer
form -- and voted for it months earlier.
The confusion illustrates a persistent
problem for Kerry as Republicans exploit
his 19-year voting history to paint the
Massachusetts senator as a waffler on major
foreign-affairs questions such as the Iraq
war, Israel's security barrier and intelligence
funding.
Cuba policy is particularly treacherous
for Kerry because Florida's nearly half-million
Cuban-American voters could be pivotal in
awarding the state's 27 electoral votes.
And Republicans are preparing to unleash
a wave of publicity designed to portray
Kerry's new toughness as an election-year
conversion from a career of liberal positions
on Cuba.
Speaking to reporters Saturday after a
meeting of senior Florida Republicans about
increasing Hispanic turnout this year, Lt.
Gov. Toni Jennings predicted that Kerry's
voting record on Cuba would ''haunt'' him
in the coming months.
OTHER VULNERABILITIES
Kerry will also rue past votes supporting
loosened restrictions on travel and cash
''remittances'' that Cubans are allowed
to send back to the island, Republicans
said. They point to a 2000 Boston Globe
interview in which Kerry called a reevaluation
of the trade embargo ''way overdue'' and
said that the only reason the United States
treated Cuba differently from China and
Russia was the "politics of Florida.''
Republicans say they can increase Hispanic
voter turnout in Florida from the 2000 levels,
when outrage over the Clinton administration's
decision to return Elián Gonzalez
to his father in Cuba helped Bush crush
then-Vice President Al Gore among Cuban
Americans.
''Kerry is much softer on Castro than Al
Gore was,'' Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign
manager, said in an interview.
Saturday's meeting came as GOP strategists
worry about Bush's vulnerability on Cuba
after months of criticism from some exile
leaders who say Bush has failed to deliver
on campaign promises to crack down on Castro.
One recent poll showed that three in four
Cuban Americans planned to vote for Bush
again -- but that a substantial number are
concerned about his handling of Cuba policy.
Democratic strategists hope that such skepticism
of Bush gives Kerry a foothold. But they
acknowledge that a Democrat with Kerry's
record is not likely to score points on
Cuba policy among single-issue voters.
Some Cuban Americans, however, may be more
flexible if they are equally skeptical of
Bush and Kerry on the promise to foster
reforms in Cuba. Strategists think they
could be convinced by Democratic arguments
on domestic matters such as jobs, healthcare
and education.
''If they don't believe Bush on Cuba, then
they certainly aren't going to believe someone
who is new on the scene like Kerry,'' said
Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen, who
is advising the centrist New Democrat Network
on a new ad campaign targeting Hispanic
voters. "Cuban Americans don't believe
anybody on Cuba policy, not Democrats or
Republicans.''
Nevertheless, as Kerry fought for his party's
nomination and began eyeing a Florida strategy,
his language on Cuba morphed.
The first shift was evident in August,
when Kerry told NBC's Tim Russert that he
was not in favor of lifting sanctions. ''Not
now,'' he said. "No.''
Days later, in an interview with The Herald,
Kerry offered a more textured explanation
of his position, embracing ''humanitarian''
travel and other exchanges with the island
to curb "the isolation that in my judgment
helps Castro.''
HE STRUGGLES
But there are also constant reminders that
Kerry struggles with the complexities of
Cuba. Asked in the Herald interview last
year about sending Elián back to
Cuba, Kerry was blunt: "I didn't agree
with that.''
But when he was asked to elaborate, Kerry
acknowledged that he agreed the boy should
have been with his father.
So what didn't he agree with?
''I didn't like the way they did it. I
thought the process was butchered,'' he
said.
And when he was asked last week during
a town hall meeting in Broward County about
immigration policies that allow Cuban migrants
to remain if they reach land but do not
give the same rights to Haitians and others
who travel to Florida, he appeared to grasp
for an answer.
First, he said all migrants have a right
to make their case for asylum. Then, as
if anticipating his weaknesses, Kerry turned
the conversation back to the embargo, pledging
that he would not support lifting sanctions.
''I haven't resolved what to do,'' he said,
seeming to reflect on the full scope of
Cuba concerns. "I'm going to talk to
a lot of people in Florida.''
Herald staff writer Lesley Clark and researcher
Gay Nemeti contributed to this report.
Miami shares nation's pain
A church overflows with
mourners coming to pay their respects to
victims of Spain's train bombings.
By Rebecca Dellagloria.
rdellagloria@herald.com. Posted on Sun,
Mar. 14, 2004.
In an outpouring of support for those victimized
by the terrorism attack in Spain, hundreds
of mourners packed St. Michael the Archangel
in Little Havana on Saturday.
Among them: Alba Valdes Rodriguez, whose
brother was one of 200 killed in Thursday's
bombings of four commuter trains. Michael
Michelle Rodriguez, 28, is the only known
Cuban killed in the attack.
''I was here for vacation and all of a
sudden I heard the news,'' Rodriguez told
a well-wisher offering condolences between
tears. She was planning to leave Saturday
evening for Madrid, where she must identify
her brother's body and collect his belongings.
Five people were arrested by Spanish authorities
Saturday -- including three Moroccans and
two Indians -- and charged in connection
with the bombings. The arrests, announced
on the eve of national elections for Prime
Minister and Parliament, is seen as a strong
indication the bombings were the work of
Islamic terrorists. Previously, the Basque
separatist group ETA had been named as a
prime suspect.
During the Mass, led by Bishop Agustín
Román and Father Federico Capdepon,
a group of women dressed all in black sat
somberly holding signs that read "With
Spain.''
''For us, it's like Sept. 11 all over again,''
said Sylvia Iriondo, president of Mothers
and Women Against Repression, a human-rights
organization. "We were so profoundly
affected when we saw the images on the television;
all the suffering . . . It was horrible.''
During the service, Javier Vallure, Consul
General of the Spanish Consulate in Miami,
spoke of the many foreign victims who suffered
along with the Spanish.
He thanked everyone who had shown their
sympathy.
''I'm very touched,'' Vallure said after
the ceremony. "They feel very close
to the people in Spain. They share our pain
and our sorrow.''
Jose Antonio Sanchez, who now lives in
Miami, attended the Mass carrying a flag
bearing the name of his hometown, Asturias.
''It's very hard from a distance,'' said
Sanchez, who has many friends and relatives
in Spain. It pains him to watch the news,
he said. "Even though I'm here, I'm
with them.''
Hip-hop festival opens Friday
Posted on Sun, Mar. 14,
2004
The Cuban Hip-Hop Film Festival opens Friday,
and take place at the Arts at St. Johns
on Miami Beach and the Miami International
University of Art & Design in Miami.
The three-day festival runs through March
21, and will feature films, panel discussions
with directors and critics, poetry, opening
jam, master of ceremony battles, open mike
and open circles.
Films to be screened include Cuban Hip-Hop
All-Stars and Cubamor by Joshua Bee Alafia,
Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop by Danny
Hoch, INVENTOS by Eli-Jacobs Fantauzzi,
and the trailer for La Fabri-k by Lisandro
Perez Jr. Marinieves Alba, director of the
International Hip-Hop Exchange, will chair
panel discussions.
Admission is $10 on opening night Friday
with film, performances and poetry, and
$5 each for Saturday and Sunday, which includes
films and panel discussions. A $15 pass
covers all events.
The festival takes place at 8 p.m. Friday
and 2 p.m. Saturday at the Arts at St. Johns.,
4760 Pine Tree Dr., Miami Beach; and 2-6
p.m. Sunday, March 21, at the Miami International
University of Art & Design, 1501 Biscayne
Boulevard, Suite 100.
Call 305-815-2484 for information.
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