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ARTS: Cuban Musicians Resuming
U.S. Performances
By Roque Planas*
NEW YORK (IPS) - New York City recently hosted its first
Cuban band in five years, after the group Septeto
Nacional became the first to win a visa that allowed it
to accept a booking there.
The group performed at the Hostos Center for Arts and
Culture in the Bronx in early November. It was the first
Cuban band to play in New York since 2004, when the
George W. Bush administration began systematically
denying Cuban musicians cultural exchange visas.
The concert kicked off a month-long tour that was taking
the band to Puerto Rico, Chicago, Miami and California.
Politics seemed far from the minds of fans as they sang
along to the Septeto Nacional classic "Echale Salsita"
and clapped to the beat of the clave, the percussion
instrument that anchors Cuban rhythm. Indeed, some in
the audience made no connection between politics and
music.
"Forget about that stuff, Bay of Pigs and all those
things, come on man! Give 'em a break," said an
energetic retired music teacher who asked to be
identified only as Papa Frita, or French Fry.
Though no fan of longtime ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro,
he credited Castro for investing in music education.
"Here we've got all this rap and people don't know much.
Over there people know how to read music," he said. "The
best music comes from Cuba."
"I don't see any reason why we should keep them out of
the country," listener Jim Buoie said of Cuban
musicians. "The music isn't dangerous; it's not a
threat. So I think that's one way to build up
understanding between the two countries."
Thaw?
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cuban musicians like
the Muñequitos de Matanzas, the Buena Vista Social Club
and Los Van Van played regularly in the United States.
The Hostos Center brought "maybe 10 groups" from Cuba
between 1996 and 2003, according to Director Walter
Edgecombe.
Then, in early 2004, the Bush administration stopped
approving cultural exchange visas for musicians, without
ever announcing an official policy change. The measure
coincided with general tightening of the half century-
old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Cuban-Americans'
ability to travel to Cuba or send money to relatives
living there was restricted, and long-ignored laws
prohibiting the Cuban government from circulating the
dollar began to be enforced.
"After that, we didn't bring any Cuban groups up,"
Edgecombe said. "Since they were employees of the state,
they were deemed to be Communist or anti-American or
whatever, I don't know."
Likewise without announcing any shift, the Barack Obama
administration began approving Cuban cultural exchange
visas in October 2009. The U.S. State Department
approved Cuban folk singer Pablo Milanés' visa to play a
concert in Puerto Rico.
Singer Omara Portuondo became the first Cuban ever to
come to the United States to receive a Latin Grammy
award, after her album "Gracias" was awarded "Best
Tropical Music Performance".
U.S. government officials have not clarified whether
these changes augur a broader reevaluation of U.S.
policies toward Cuba.
"We are neither actively promoting nor actively impeding
these artistic exchanges," a State Department official
told The New York Times last fall.
Cuba, with Iran, Sudan and Syria, is one of four
countries on the U.S. government's "state sponsors of
terrorism" list for allegedly supporting rebels in
Colombia and Spain, and for refusing to extradite U.S.
citizens wanted by U.S. authorities.
The blacklist status makes applying for a cultural
exchange visa tedious, according to a report music
scholar Ned Sublette produced for the Cuba Research and
Analysis Group (CRAG), a group that supports U.S.-Cuba
cultural exchanges.
Cuban musicians must first present an application to the
U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the diplomatic mission
the U.S. government maintains in Cuba instead of an
embassy. The sponsoring venue generally pays 1,000
dollars to expedite the process, though it can still
drag on for months. Then the application is turned over
to the State Department for security clearance. Since
2004, most such applications have died there.
San Francisco attorney Bill Martínez, who ushered
through Septeto Nacional's visas, called the group's
approval "a breakthrough". But Martinez, who has
specialised in Cuban cultural exchange visas since 1983,
is cautious about what that augurs for future visits.
"We're glad we can finally get anybody in," he said. But
he "had nail-biting moments" with Septeto Nacional,
whose visa too eight months to secure. He said the group
had nearly been rejected on the grounds that it wasn't
"culturally unique".
The long legacy of the Cold War has set the entry
barrier higher for Cubans than for visitors from nearly
anywhere else, said Robert Browning, of New York City's
World Music Institute.
"We've consistently brought in people from the so-called
'Evil Axis' countries," he said, referring to Bush's
notorious label for Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The Cuba
policy is "just kind of left over" from the 1960s, he
said.
Clubs and theatres are reluctant to promote shows that
might be canceled if visas are denied, or approved too
late. So, despite apparently thawing U.S. policy, Cuban
bands aren't seen as likely to flood into the United
States any time soon.
"I think that the Obama administration has made it clear
that they would like to see more cultural relations,"
said Sublette, in a telephone interview. But until the
"arcane system" of approvals is changed, it will always
be financially hazardous for U.S. venues to work with
Cuban musicians, he added. "One can only hope that it
will get a lot easier."
*Special to IPS from from NYU Livewire |
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