Wrestling match
in Miami     


August, 1998 The 2nd Midem Latino, based in Miami and performing artists coming from Cuba, has been the scene of a serious wrestling match.

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Please read the best articles from the US press :

Miami awaits big Cuban concert ; Cubans await visas,
by Esteban Israel,
Miami, August 24, REUTERS

In Miami Beach, the bands played on,
by Esteban Israel and Martin Langfield,
Washington Post, Thursday, August 27, 1998

Cuban music takes stage at MIDEM,
by Pedro Portal, Leila Cobo-Hanlon, Fernado Gonzalez,
Miami Herald, Thursday, August 27, 1998

Miami awaits big Cuban concert ;
Cubans await visas


by Esteban Israel

MIAMI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Bureaucracy permitting, music will bridge a deep political divide this week in Miami, where star musicians from communist Cuba are due to take the stage in the heartland of exile opposition to President Fidel Castro.

If last-minute visa snags are overcome, a planned concert in Miami Beach, arranged as part of an annual industry fair called the MIDEM Latin and Caribbean Music Market, will be the biggest concert by Cuba-based talent yet seen in Miami.

Several dozen Cubans were slated to take part in the international music get-together, though most were still in Havana late on Monday, waiting for their visas from U.S. authorities, who blamed the delay on a bureaucratic foul-up.

"This is not a political problem. It's a procedural issue,'' one U.S. official said, explaining that the musicians had applied for the wrong sort of visa.

Among the Cuba-based musicians scheduled to play a special MIDEM ``Cuban Legends Jam Session'' were pianist Chucho Valdes, together with his group Irakere, and 90-year-old singer-guitarist Compay Segundo, featured on a hit album recorded in Havana in 1996 by American guitarist Ry Cooder.

MIDEM organisers said Compay Segundo already had his visa and Valdes was expected to get his in time to perform.

In Havana, though, officials said some of the musicians would probably not arrive in time for Tuesday's concert. MIDEM runs through Friday.

Whenever they play, the musicians will face protests -- though perhaps less virulent ones than in the past.  Cuban exile leaders say musicians who continue to live in Cuba help support the island's communist government by giving part of their earnings to the Cuban state. "They collect dollars and take them back to the (Castro) regime,'' representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

He accused the Clinton administration of giving too many visas to Cuban musicians.   `They are part of the whole slave economy,'' he said. ``I don't like them playing in the United States.''

Miami Beach police said on Monday they had set aside special areas for protests against the concert.

``Even though the Miami Beach Police Department only expects peaceful demonstrations during MIDEM, steps have been taken to prevent any potentially difficult situation,'' police spokesman Al Boza said.

Washington maintains a 36-year-old economic embargo on Cuba, but artists from the island can perform in the United States if the shows are presented as cultural exchanges, not commercial ventures.

Still, most have stayed away from Miami. Two years ago, an angry mob spat at and scuffled with concert-goers when Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba performed in Miami. Shortly after the near riot at that concert, a restaurant featuring a Cuban singer was firebombed.

Local political pressure prevented Cuban artists from appearing last year at the first MIDEM fair held in Miami.

That ignited a debate over freedom of speech in which critics accused the exiles of behaving as repressively as the forces they opposed. The France-based MIDEM threatened not to return to Miami, seen by many as the de facto capital of Latin America, if Cuban musicians and music impresarios were not allowed to take part.

Political analysts say hardline opposition to Castro in Miami has been weakened by the death late last year of Jorge Mas Canosa, founder of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation, and by a call for reconciliation among Cubans issued by Pope John Paul during his historic visit to Cuba in January.

Diaz-Balart rejected that view, saying the sheer number of visas given by the Clinton administration to Cuba-based musicians had made protesting against every concert increasingly difficult.


In Miami Beach, the bands played on
by Esteban Israel and Martin Langfield,

in WASHINGTON POST
Thursday, August 27, 1998

MIAMI BEACH, Aug. 26
A dazzling array of Cuba-based musicians overcame red tape, protests and a bomb threat to play an unprecedented concert tonight in Miami, the center of exile opposition to Fidel Castro.

Pianists Jesus "Chucho" Valdes and Guillermo Rubalcaba, with their bands Irakere and La Charanga Rubalcaba, took the stage at an international music industry fair and thrilled an audience of several hundred at Miami Beach's convention center.
They were joined by singer Omara Portuondo and 90-year-old singer and guitarist Compay Segundo in the highest-profile concert here by Cuba-based musicians in years.

Anti-Castro exiles among south Florida's 800,000-strong Cuban community have traditionally opposed concerts in Miami by musicians based in Cuba, saying they prop up Castro's regime with dollars earned abroad.

Although open only to fair participants and the press rather than the general public, the concert was a test of exiles' reaction to a call by Pope John Paul II during a visit to Havana in January for reconciliation among all Cubans.
The concert had been planned for Tuesday but only Compay Segundo performed that day after a visa snarl-up left the others stuck in Havana until barely two hours before they were due to take the stage.

His Tuesday performance of mesmeric son cubano numbers was interrupted for about 30 minutes by an anonymous bomb threat that led police to evacuate the auditorium. No bomb was found.

Protesters accusing the musicians of promoting communism and earning money for the coffers of Castro's government picketed the convention center on both days but police reported no incidents today.

"This is the capital of America," Compay Segundo, who rose to fame after appearing on a Grammy-winning album recorded by U.S. guitarist Ry Cooder in Havana in 1996, told the audience at the end of the show tonight.
"Music is universal, Cuban music is one music, it belongs to Cubans," Valdes said after the concert. "It is the most valuable part of those who live in Cuba, in Japan, in Australia or on the moon, it is our roots, our identity and that must be respected."
He said he hoped Cuba-based musicians would be able to perform in Miami without difficulty "soon, very soon."

The musicians were expected to return to Cuba on Thursday.
U.S. officials said in Havana that the holdup until late Tuesday in getting visas for the musicians was procedural, not political -- they had applied for the wrong kind of document.
Compay Segundo was not affected because he flew to Miami from Spain, where he had been on tour.
But since the musicians were originally scheduled to leave last weekend, Cuban authorities alleged that political pressure from Cuban exiles might have been brought to bear.

Washington maintains a 36-year-old economic embargo on Cuba, but artists from the island can perform in the United States if their shows are presented as cultural exchanges, not commercial ventures.

Still, most have stayed away from Miami. Two years ago, an angry mob spat at and scuffled with concertgoers when Rubalcaba's son Gonzalo, also a prominent musician, performed there.
Shortly after the near riot at that concert, a restaurant featuring a Cuban singer was firebombed.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba lives in Florida but does not denounce Castro's government, earning him the wrath of some exiles.
The annual MIDEM Latin and Caribbean Music Market was being held
for the second year in a row in Miami.

Last year the fair featured no Cuba-based musicians because of local political pressure. The organization threatened not to return this year unless Cuban musicians from the island were allowed to perform.

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company


Cuban music takes stage at MIDEM
by Pedro Portal, Leila Cobo-Hanlon, Fernado Gonzalez,

in MIAMI HEARLD
Thursday, August 27, 1998

A protest-free concert by musicians from Cuba took place Wednesday night at the Miami Beach Convention Center, part of the MIDEM Latin American & Caribbean Music Market convention.

The ensemble Charanga Rubalcaba, singer Omara Portuondo, guitarist Compay Segundo, and jazz pianist Chucho Valdes and his band Irakere played for an appreciative audience that gave standing ovations at every turn. All acts had been slated to perform the day before in the same location, but with the exception of Compay, visa problems delayed their arrival in Miami.

Unlike Tuesday evening, when about 400 people demonstrated across the street from the convention center and a bomb threat forced a temporary evacuation of the concert, only a few people protested the Cubans' appearance. At 7 p.m., four people stood behind the yellow police tape that marked the protest area.

MIDEM President Xavier Roy was pleased that the concert went off without problems and indicated that MIDEM will return to South Florida next June.
``In this business, especially dealing with entertainment, you have to expect the unexpected, but I will never forget this, ever,'' Roy said. ``Tonight was the most important in my professional life. I am very proud of this. It would not have been possible to have MIDEM here again without Cuban music.''

Miami Beach Police still took precautions; concertgoers' bags were checked as they entered the convention center. But in general, the security profile was low.
``We didn't want people coming to Miami Beach and to the convention center feeling like they were in a police state,'' said police Capt. Charles Garabedian, who added that Tuesday night's demonstrators were ``well-behaved.''

Wednesday's performance began about 5:40 p.m. and ended about 7:30 p.m. Charanga Rubalcaba, led by Guillermo Rubalcaba (pianist Gonzalo's father), started the evening with a touching set of old Cuban dance songs. Notwithstanding its leader's prowess, the group is enjoying its current position of dance-hall band elevated to concert-hall status.

The same can be said of cuatro (guitar) player Compay. This, however, hasn't seemed to affect audiences dazzled by the rather mundane playing. And parts of the evening were dazzling, like Portuondo's breathtaking a cappella rendition of Amiga, a homage to the vocal quartet Las de Aida. The group was popular in the '50s and was made up of Portuondo, Elena Burke, Moraima Secada (Jon's aunt) and Portuondo's sister.

But the coup of the evening was Irakere, the superb Latin jazz fusion group led by Chucho Valdes, one of the best jazz pianists alive. The band played its trademark intricate fusion, blending African jazz and world sounds. Indeed, the musicians' superb technique made up for the band's sometimes dated fusion sound. The evening ended with all performers onstage for an impromptu jam session.

Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald

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