Cuban Colada

Omara Portuondo to present on Latin Grammys

    Tucked into the latest press release on performers and presenters at the Latin Grammys on Nov. 5th was the groundbreaking announcement that Cuban singer Omara Portuondo will be one of the presenters on the awards show being televised nationally by Univision.
    The "girlfriend of filin", former member of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and lone female in the Buena Vista Social Club, had already broken ground recently by being one of the first Cuban artists to get a visa to the U.S. since 2003, performing in San Francisco and Los Angeles earlier this month. Now Portuondo, whose cd Gracias is nominated for Best Contemporary Tropical Album, will quietly break another barrier by becoming the first Cuban artist living in Cuba to appear on the Latin Grammys.

    Controversy about Cuban artists appearing on the show dogged the awards in its early years, when it was on CBS, causing the awards to make a last minute move from a planned production in Miami to Los Angeles in 2000, and causing protests when the Latin Grammys were finally presented in Miami, at the AmericanAirlines Arena, in 2003 - although, at the end, no Cuban musicians appeared.
    Although Cuban musicians have continued to be nominated for Latin Grammys since then, U.S.-Cuba tensions kept them from getting visas. Latin Recording Academy president Gabriel Abaroa says he leapt at the chance to put Omara on the show when he found she would be stateside. "The moment I knew she had a visa I went and pushed so hard," Abaroa said Thursday.

    He said Univision did not protest. "We have a very specific contract, and it says all the nominees have a right to appear," says Abaroa. "Let's not forget she's a goddess of music, a legend, and she has a visa - my God, we need to have her." Abaroa says he would have loved to have her perform, but by the time he got word she would be available, the performance slots were filled. But he says that, given the strength of her album, she may appear onstage more than once. "I wouldn’t be surprised if she grabs a Latin Grammy," he says.

    Portuondo, whom I was able to interview on Thursday while she was in Miami visiting her sister Haydee (also a Cuarteto d'Aida member), seemed startled that her appearance had already been announced. "Ay Dios mio," she said, hands fluttering a bit. Portuondo, who turned 79 on Thursday, didn't admit to any sense of groundbreaking importance about her appearance, other than to say she was honored to be nominated, and regretted that Chucho Valdes couldn't make it.

    Portuondo is controversial for being one of a number of artists who signed a letter of support for the Cuban government during the primavera negra of 2003, which saw the execution of three men for hijacking a ferry and the mass prosecution and imprisonment of political dissidents. Music, filin, las d'Aida, and Buena Vista made up most of our conversation (she sang, spine-tinglingly, Veinte Anos, Contigo en la distancia, and Cachita, just a few feet away on the couch), but Omara talked about the letter as well. Full story and video by the inimitable Pedro Portal come out Wednesday. More on the Latin Grammys on Thursday.

 

Up on the wall – the Ayatollah Khamilo?

A large image of revolutionary fighter Camilo Cienfuegos has gone up on a wall of the Ministry of Communications in Havana, near the equally large image of Ernesto Che Guevara that overlooks Revolution Square. It is the work of artist Enrique Ávila, who also authored the Guevara portrait.
A Cuban Colada reader, who identifies himself as Felix Rex, sent us a picture of the Cienfuegos image and asked if it wasn't reminiscent of Iran's Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Ayatollah.
I dunno. Both men had beards and wore head cover. What do you think?
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Michael Douglas in surprise appearance

Michael Douglas spent some time Sunday at the Havana bar "El Floridita," schmoozing with fellow actor Sean Penn, according to the official website Cubadebate, which gave no indication of what Douglas is doing in Cuba. (The two played brothers in the 1997 movie The Game.)
On Tuesday, Douglas toured the historic quarter of Havana and stopped at the Conde de Villanueva hostel, where he watched cigar makers at work. He also posed for pictures with construction workers and startled residents, The Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, Douglas plans to be on the island for four days. He's staying at the Hotel Nacional..
(PHOTO SHOWS Douglas listening to a guide at the Casa del Habano cigar factory.)
In recent months, several American movie actors have visited Havana, including Benicio del Toro, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. The usual reason given for their trip is "film research."
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Con man is sentenced to 5 years in prison for selling bogus religious tours to Cuba

A California man was sentenced Monday to five years in state prison for selling "phony travel packages" to senior citizens seeking to visit Cuba for religious and cultural purposes, the California Attorney General's Office said in a press release.
Ralph Adam Rendón, 33, a resident of Santa Ana, was also ordered to pay $154,000 in restitution.
"Rendón never arranged for travel to Cuba, but used the funds to purchase a Mercedes, pay his rent and hire a divorce lawyer," AG Edmund Brown Jr. said.
In 2006, Rendón began advertising his travel agency, USA to Cuba, in religious magazines. He said he could arrange trips for Jewish and Greek Orthodox Americans who wanted to visit members of their faith in Cuba.
Approximately 41 individuals, including 20 senior citizens, responded to the ads and purchased travel packages priced at up to $4,000 each. Once Rendón received payment, he falsely informed his victims that the trip had been cancelled by the U.S. Treasury Department and then ignored demands for refunds.   
The case was referred for prosecution and Rendón was arrested in April 2008 on 78 charges of felony. For more details, click here.
–Renato Pérez Pizarro, with thanks to Lesley Clark.

Broward OKs bid to host air traffic to Cuba

Broward County (Fla.) commissioners approved seeking permission from the federal government to allow flights to and from Cuba at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Amy Sherman reported Tuesday in The Miami Herald.
County officials will also ask the U.S. Treasury Department to designate Port Everglades as another point of entry.
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue have expressed an interest in starting such flights in Fort Lauderdale. Broward airport director Kent George estimates that the airlines would start offering service a couple of times a week.
He said he had no immediate plans to send lobbyists to Washington, though he said that is a future possibility.
Adding flights to Cuba would not increase costs for the airport, George added. ``We have the gates, customs and security.'
To read Sherman's entire report, click here.

Penn flies to Cuba on journalistic mission

Actor Sean Penn left Las Vegas for Havana in a private jet on Saturday, the entertainment news website TMZ.com reported.
"Sean is going to the land of Fidel as a journalist, writing a story for Vanity Fair about how the Obama administration has affected Cuba," the brief article said. Penn reportedly was traveling in a plane owned by Diana Jenkins, the wife of Barclays Bank executive Roger Jenkins.
Penn met with Raúl Castro in Havana in October of 2008 and wrote an interview that was published in The Nation the following month. In it, Castro said he would be willing to meet with Obama "in a neutral place," perhaps the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. "We must meet and begin to solve our problems," Castro said at the time. [An account of that meeting appears in Ann Louise Bardach's new book, Without Fidel. To read it, click here.]
A spokesman for Penn told TMZ.com that there is "no appointment scheduled and no current plan" for Penn to meet with Raúl Castro's brother Fidel.

[UPDATE: Penn spent Sunday on the Isle of Youth, talking with Cuban artists, reported the official site Cubadebate in a lavishly illustrated article. His host was painter Alexis ("Kcho") Leyva. Others included singer Kelvis Ochoa, trumpeter Yasek Manzano and painters Ernesto Rancaño and Sándor González.
Penn visited an arts gallery in the city of Nueva Gerona and toured an arts camp called The Second Front. For details, click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Obama asked Spain to deliver a message to Raúl about 'changes,' newspaper says

President Obama two weeks ago asked Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to send a message about reform to Raúl Castro through Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the Spanish newspaper El País reported Sunday.
Obama allegedly made the request on Oct. 13, during a conversation with Zapatero at the White House. As reconstructed by El País from diplomatic sources, this was the gist of the exchange:
Obama: "What about Cuba? We are taking steps, but if they don't take steps too it will be very difficult for us to continue."
Zapatero: "Moratinos is going to travel to Cuba in the next few days." [Moratinos met with Castro on Oct. 19.]
Obama: "He should tell the Cuban authorities that we understand that things cannot be changed overnight, but that, after a few years, when we look back, it should be clear that this was the moment when the changes began. If that doesn't happen, it will be a big disappointment."
The newspaper also quotes Moratinos as saying Monday, after his meeting with the Cuban leader: "Raúl Castro has positively welcomed the election of Obama, for whom he has great respect and has also welcomed with satisfaction certain actions and decisions [Obama] has made."
To read the entire article in El País, click here.

[UPDATE: Zapatero himself leaked details of his conversation with Obama to El País, contended the editor of the Spanish newspaper El Imparcial, Joaquín Vila, in a sarcastic article Sunday. "Zapatero has appointed himself Obama's ambassador to Cuba, a messenger of peace," Vila wrote, adding that the Prime Minister needed favorable publicity, "relief after being clobbered in the debate over the [Spanish] budget [...] and that's why it occurred to him to broadcast the message from the American president in every direction." To read the article, click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

'Shocking revelations' about the Castros reportedly appear in book by their sister

Juanita Castro Ruz will air the dirty linen of her brothers Fidel and Raúl in a book that will be released next Monday, Oct. 26, but will be previewed on South Florida's Univisión-Noticias 23 tomorrow Sunday, Oct. 25.
The program, at 11 p.m., will be the first of eight episodes about "Fidel and Raúl, my brothers; The secret history," a 432-page book published by Miami-based Santillana USA. The book will be released simultaneously in the U.S., Spain, Colombia, and Mexico. It was edited and printed in total secrecy because (the publishers say) it contains "shocking revelations."
Juanita, 76, who did not see eye to eye with the Revolution, came to the U.S. in 1964. In Miami, she owned and operated a pharmacy from 1973 to 2007. [UPDATE: Juanita admitted that she collaborated with the CIA during the 1960s. For the Miami Herald story, click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuba plans to boost sales of rum to Russia and the Russians warm up to the prospect

Cuba is planning to increase its sales of rum to Russia to "more than one million liters per year," Juan González Escalona, vice president of the state-run Cuba Ron S.A., said at a Havana press conference on Wednesday.
The prospects of trade with Russia are promising, the businessman said, according to the news agency RIA-Novosti. "Our production has a huge market potential in Russia and we're taking steps to develop this area. Our current supply is about 30,000 to 50,000 boxes per year. I hope that, within a few years, we'll be talking about hundreds of thousands" of boxes.
One box contains 9 liters of rum, so the current volume is 270,000 to 450,000 liters per year.
The Russian market consumes the brands Havana Club, Cubay, Varadero, Santiago de Cuba, and Caney.
Are the Russians ready to triple their consumption of rum? Vadim Iosifovich Drobiz, chairman of the Russian Chamber of Commerce's subcommittee on alcoholic beverages, believes they are. (Russians consume 2 billion liters of vodka per year, official estimates say.)
Until 2005, the foreign drinks of choice were (in descending order) tequila, gin, rum and absinthe, but after 2005 "the buyer opted for rum and now its market share is 10 to 11 percent," Drobiz told the business journal Sostav.
From January to September 2009, Russians bought 1.5 million liters of rum, a figure that is expected to reach 2 million liters by the end of this year. "Therefore, the future plans of the [Cuban] exporters-suppliers appear to be quite viable," Drobiz said. (For more on González's presentation, click here.)

[UPDATE: Moscow is trying to curb Russians' vodka habit, The New York Times reports. Click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

A leak is plugged at Cuban mission in DC

A gas leak inside the Cuban Interests Section in Washington caused part of Northwest 16th Street to be closed for a couple of hours Thursday, Herald reporter Lesley Clark told us from the nation's capital.
Issues of diplomatic security hampered the work of the firefighters who responded to the first emergency call.
DC Fire spokesman Pete Piringer told the Washington website DCist that the Cuban diplomats "met our guys at the gate. We had about 15 people ready to go in, and they selected a small group, and the firefighters were escorted in."
Some Cubans left the building, which was aired while Washington Gas Company technicians plugged the leak. But, Piringer said, firefighters and technicians were not allowed into some parts of the facility.