Cuban Colada

Intellectuals invited to US diplomat's home

About 200 Cuban artists, intellectuals and academicians attended a diplomatic reception in Havana last Tuesday at the residence of U.S. Interests Section chief Jonathan Farrar, BBC Mundo reported.
The purpose was to introduce two new members of the U.S. diplomatic mission, press and culture attachés, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said.
The Cuban guests included musicians Chucho Valdés, Juan (Los Van Van) Formel, singer Carlos Varela, guitarist Pablo Menéndez, trumpeter José Miguel (El Greco) Crego, actress Rosita Fornés, playwright Abelardo Estorino, conductor Zenaida Romeu, painters Roberto Fabelo, Eduardo (Choco) Roca, Manuel Mendive and sculptor José Fuster. No government functionaries or dissidents were invited.
BBC analyzes the event thus: "This is undoubtedly an exchange of signals. The U.S. government distances itself publicly from the dissidents and acknowledges as 'civilian society' the Cuban intellectuals, artists and academicians who mantain good relations with their government.
"Havana's response is implicit in the presence of about 200 people, the cream of the crop of  the nation's intellectuals." To read the BBC account, in Spanish, click here. The Mexican newspaper La Jornada also reported the event; click here.
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuba concert backlash for Cucu Diamantes

Cucu Diamantes, the Cuban-born, New York-based singer who was one of 14 artists to join Juanes in his enormous concert in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución, is suffering some backlash from an unexpected quarter – the New Jersey public school system. The singer, whose real name is Ileana Padrón, was supposed to perform at the opening of Union City High School last Saturday. However, on Thursday the Union City Board of Education cancelled the show, saying the city's heavily Cuban community would be "enraged" at their young people being entertained by an artist who had performed in Cuba.
Here's the main text of the email to Padrón's agent from Suzanne Lavelle, an attorney for the Union City Board of Education.
"This letter will serve to confirm Ms. DiNardo’s conversation with you on Thursday, September 24, 2009, wherein the Union City Board of Education cancelled the contract for the Cucu Diamantes’ performance at the Union City High School on September 26, 2009.
"As advised during said conversation, it is unfortunate that we must cancel the contract; however, due to your client’s recent performance at the Paz Sin Fronteras in Cuba, our community, which is comprised of approximately 85 % Cuban immigrants, became enraged at the thought of the High School supporting an artist who would perform in Cuba. The community perceived Ms. Diamantes’ performance in Cuba as support of the current political regime in Cuba. The community came together and threatened civil unrest, protests and the like at the grand opening gala if the High School went ahead with its plans to allow Ms. Diamantes to perform. Clearly, this is not the atmosphere we envisioned for the grand opening of our new High School." [Italics mine]
Amazing. Another Cuban-American city has usurped Miami's reputation for reactionary backlash. Here we got rid of the Cuba Ordinance, which prohibited local arts groups from presenting Cuban artists, years ago. Concert supporters outnumbered concert protesters on Calle Ocho two to one. The hundreds of thousands of young Cubans on the plaza in Havana weren't enraged. And there were certainly tens of thousands of Cubans avidly watching the show on TV in Miami.
Somebody should ask the New Jersey school board – did New Jerseyans protest when Springsteen sang for East Germans at the Berlin Wall? What would the Boss have done if they had?
Juanes expressed indignation and anger on his Twitter blog.
“Es sorprendente que esto pase en Nueva Jersey, estado hermano de Nueva York, donde siempre se han respetado todas las libertades propias de un individuo en un país democrático… vivimos en un país democrático, donde todas las opiniones pueden y deben coexistir,” he said.
“Eso es para los que hablan de represión y falta de libertad… y más vergüenza aún viniendo de una escuela… absurdo total. Qué tal el ejemplo de educación que quieren dejar, qué mensaje tan negativo, y eso, que estamos en USA, donde sí hay "libertad". ¡Me da risa!”
In Cuba, Radio Baraguá made a gargantuan leap of logic to blame the cancellation on the loooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggg arm of Emilio Estefan, head of the Miami Mafia's musical arm, and Ricardo Alarcón, head of radio chain SBS and Miami's Mega TV (whose influential talkshow host, María Elvira Salazar, literally wept with gratitude as she thanked singer Olga Tañón – on behalf of the Cuban-American community – for her performance in Havana.). Apparently blaming Union City would require too big a propaganda shift.
–JORDAN LEVIN.

Some musings about the Havana concert

The Juanes concert continues to spark discussions, arguments, soul-searching, throughout Cuban Miami, on TV, in homes, on the net. Much of the talk is about how a corner has been turned, how the discussion Juanes engendered, the pushback against the familiar and powerful media voices slamming the event in the months leading up to Sunday's enormous show, have meant that there's a whole new willingness to say things openly that people once only tended to say privately. Here's one of the best essays I've read on that subject, "Cuba's Real Revolution," by the novelist Achy Obejas, whose fiction, journalism and other written thoughts are almost always about Cuba.
Here's an excerpt:
"A new generation in Cuba wants change — maybe not a wholesale revamping of their system, but inclusion in the system, access to the Internet, to travel. A new generation of Cuban-Americans wants a normal, healthy relationship with its home country, regardless of their system of governance. The changing of the guard at Versailles was not just symbolic.
"That it took a Colombian rocker to introduce us to each other, to put us Cubans on the spot (believe me, this has become a real put-up or shut-up moment) and make us talk to each other, with the whole world watching … well, it’s kind of embarrassing."
The changing of the guard at Versailles refers, of course, to the fact that pro-concert protestors outnumbered those hating on the concert, with Vigilia Mambisa's not-so-mighty steamroller (how many people have noticed that they don't actually buy Juanes' CDs, but buy blanks and scribble his name on them) by 2 to 1. Some great video of that on Youtube – click here for one . It's still unclear whether the threat to close off the front of the plaza for officials and special guests, which Juanes, Bose, Olga, Yotuel of Orishas and others argue about so emotionally on the much-circulated video  that Mega TV first got its hands on, was for real or not. A source close to Juanes says that it was a case of sensitive artists who had been under a huge amount of pressure hearing rumors and losing it an hour before it was time to head to the Plaza for the concert.
"Es un momento mas en el desarrollo del concierto...faltaba una hora para ir a la plaza y tenian mucho temor, suspenso, intriga, emoción, tensión de lo que iba a pasar...no sabíamos cómo estaba la plaza, si había 100 mil, 500 mil personas o un millón...era algo fuera de lo ordinario."
One more moment when I wish I could have BEEN there - and there would have been a chance of knowing whether it was for real.
Having been to Cuba, though, I doubt whether Juanes' complaint of being followed was just a case of sensitivity.  But the world was watching, and they knew it. One more reason for the world to go to Cuba, Miami included.
---JORDAN LEVIN.

Marx, Lenin reenter teachers' curriculum

Teachers colleges have reprised the teaching of Marxism-Leninism "as one of the strategies of the current transformation of the Cuban educational system," Radio Rebelde reported Wednesday.
The course had been suspended six years ago.
(As they would say in Hollywood, "Back to the Future, Part Two.")
Teaching 20th-century communism to would-be schoolteachers is intended "to strengthen the actions destined to form patriotic values that adhere to the social project being built" in Cuba, the article says.
According to the Dean of the Blas Roca Pedagogic Institute in Granma province, Oscar Rivero Reyes, "the discipline attempts to strengthen the revolutionary thinking of the future teachers" and "elevate [their] political, ideological and historical training."
The institute will eventually create a Department of Marxism-Leninism and History, which "will take up, in a novel and interesting manner, the study of history and through it foment the formation of patriotic values in the new generations."
The article, which you can read by clicking here, is rich in lofty descriptions but basically says that old-fashioned communism is in Cuba to stay.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Why was Cuban diplomat at U.N. replaced?

 

Cuba's high-profile ambassador to the United Nations, Abelardo Moreno Fernández, returned to Havana even before the Council of State announced he had been replaced by Pedro Núñez Mosquera, Cuba's current ambassador to Brazil. (See previous blog item, "Cuba's envoy to Brazil reassigned to U.N.")

Moreno's sudden departure became the topic of diplomatic talk in New York City and Washington, the Herald's stringer at the U.N., Stew Stogel told Cuban Colada.

Moreno, a well-known figure in the diplomatic community, had been on the job since January. His tour of duty ended suddenly in late August, when Moreno visited U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for what was described as "a farewell call." Shortly thereafter, Moreno was on his way back to Havana.

An ambassadorial term usually lasts four years. So why was Moreno recalled?

According to the U.N. source, Moreno irked General Assembly president Miguel D'Escoto by upstaging him during a visit to the U.N. by deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 30. Upon Zelaya's arrival and departure, Moreno broke protocol with overly effusive demonstrations of comraderie,  Stogel said.

Another reason for the recall may have been the two occasions in mid-June when Moreno openly approached top U.S. diplomats in the hallways outside the General Assembly, presumably to start a conversation. In one instance, the U.S. ambassador walked away from Moreno; in the second, U.S. mission staffers blocked Moreno.

The official announcement of Núñez's appointment, published in Granma on Wednesday, did not state a reason for the replacement. It didn't even mention Moreno.

Teachers' skills and ideology to be raised

Beginning this fall, the Ministry of Higher Education will implement "a set of measures to potentiate political-ideological work in the universities in the quest for a better education," Radio Rebelde announced Wednesday.
Education Minister Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said the measures will focus on "the process of selection of high-school graduates who take up teaching, by [establishing] a balance between their politico-revolutionary qualifications and their knowledge."
"The university is for revolutionaries," summarized Granma in its account of Díaz-Canel's announcement. And that will be done by "rattling the classrooms with a profound and systematic politico-ideological endeavor."
High-school seniors will be expected to score 60 out of 100 points in their Cuban history, Spanish and mathematics tests before they can go on to college. And, once in college, students will be made to participate more intensely "in social-impact tasks."
Education in Cuba has suffered in recent years because teachers either retire, take up more profitable jobs or leave the country. In many cases, their posts have been filled with high-school or university students whose pedagogical skills have proved to be unsatisfactory.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

A counter reflection from Yale

CNN online has published a counter-reflection, if you will, asking the Obama administration to seek concessions from Cuba. You can read it here.   Roberto González Echevarría is Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature at Yale. His latest book in English is "Love and the Law in Cervantes" (Yale). He is also the author of "The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball" and several books on Cuban literature. And he's right on the mark.

-Myriam Marquez

Minister: We must encourage criticism

Culture Minister Abel Prieto has put a positive spin on a controversial event in the 10th Havana Arts Biennial in which ordinary citizens were invited by performance artist Tania Bruguera to step up to a microphone and speak their minds. Many of them denounced constraints on freedom of expression in Cuba. (See our April 1 blog item "Arts show features startling displays.") Biennial organizers criticized the event -- titled "Behavior Art" -- saying it pandered to "dissidents" and spokesmen for "the propagandistic anti-Cuban machinery."
In an interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Prieto looked at the sunny side of grousing. Asked about Bruguera's presentation, he said:
"Not only in Tania's project but also in general, young Cuban artists emphasize a critical, analytical art that brings back the spirit of avant-gardism, with its role as a transformer of society, of the person, of the environment. [Critical art] is healthy. It is a criticism from inside the Revolution, from a position that is committed to the Revolution. And that criticism often coincides with the analysis we ourselves are doing to achieve greater efficiency, to battle the same bureaucratic encumbrances we ourselves have created."
"In the works associated with 'Behavior Art,' there is an iconoclastic element that is very attractive for young artists," Prieto went on. "Regrettably, Sunday night [...] there was a provocation. That famous girl blogger [Yoani Sánchez] stepped to the microphone to make a speech against the Revolution. She said the Internet was a crack in Cuban censorship. What she posited was something we consider important: to create an appropriate climate for the reception of that type of art. [...] That is one of the themes of critical art in Cuba. We are encouraging it, so that we may reflect, so that it helps us to discover our distortions, so that it helps us to defend the utopia."
"When criticism is made the way Tania Bruguera makes it, from a position of commitment to the nation, the results are truly fruitful." Cuban artists, take note.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Arts show features startling displays

Giant cockroaches climbing the Cuban Arts building are Roberto Fabelo's contribution to the 10th Havana Arts Biennial, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde reports Wednesday. The artist has called his installation "Survival," describing it as the aftermath of a nuclear war or prolonged environmental pollution.
In another Biennial event on Sunday, Manuel Mendive led naked dancers performing to baroque music outside his art gallery on Prado Street. For more on the festival, click here.
The newspaper does not report on performance artist Tania Bruguera's public-opinion presentation on Monday, which was criticized by Biennial organizers as promoting "dissidents" and "individuals at the service of the propagandistic anti-Cuban machinery." At Bruguera's presentation, speakers stepped up to a microphone to denounce constraints on expression on the island. For details on that event and its aftermath, reported by The Herald's Fabiola Santiago, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Hialeah park won't host Paulito FG

But the Fidel-lover may be performing at a Miami Lakes night club instead. Here's a Herald story about the controversy that ran before the venue change was announced. (Posted by columnist Myriam Marquez):

Controversial concert by Cuba singer Paulito FG canceled

A planned Feb. 1 concert by controversial Cuban salsa singer Paulito FG has been canceled.

The concert by Paulito FG, who lives in Cuba, and other performers was to take place in Hialeah's Amelia Earhart Park. But Miami-Dade county officials said the production company, Fuego Entertainment of Miami Lakes, failed to get the necessary permits in time.

Paulito FG's planned return to South Florida follows comments he made here in November, when he said on a local TV station, GenTV, that he believed in Fidel Castro and that he was able to accomplish his artistic goals thanks to the Cuban government.

-- JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ - EL NUEVO HERALD