Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances

ARTS
Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances
By Roque Planas*
Credit:Roque Planas

NEW YORK, Jan 18, 2010 (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

ARTS: Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances - IPS ipsnews.net (19
January 2010)
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