mike fuller stories

On the Margin of the Periphery

2009-03-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Mar 28 (Prensa Latina) Outside a former colonial fortress a group of Cuban art students and professors support a colossal fusion of creative decolonizing power at the Havana Biennial.

The tenth edition of this exhibition from March 27 to April 30 includes over 200 artists from 40 countries concerned with integrating against homogenizing forces amid global complexity.

The pursuit of identity against the center without falling into its conceptual traps calls for interrogation of the core-periphery paradigm itself.

On the official bienalhabana website Nelson Herrera deconstructs that dynamic by affirming that artists from the so-called third world have always been contributors to universal culture, albeit historically marginalized.

A student and a professor from the National School of Art Instructors explained to Prensa Latina they have been backing up the Havana Biennial for over two weeks from a campground in a depression outside the bastion walls.

Darian Izquierdo laid his mallet next to a wood carving and said he and his classmates have helped out by hanging huge paintings, filling sand bags and much more.

His teacher Alfredo Duque said they've also done work in municipalities recovering from hurricanes, supporting major Cuban artists in that effort like Alexis Leyva (Kcho), known for his creative healing energy.

Duque nudged his work in progress, called Birth of the World, a reclined carving that rocks like a cradle from stretched cables. He said it has to do with rebirth, dislocation, and explained that his family is originally from the Congo, of Ganga Longoba ethnicity.

Questioned about its totemic qualities, the sculptor says he broke with verticality to show insecurity, like a "hernia of doubt" between generations of slaves that includes guarded secrets.

The close relationship between student and mentor is evident as Darian listens to his professors analysis of the work inside versus what they do with their chisels. "They are more conceptual, whereas in our work you can see the hand of the creator."

The wood chips on the ground are testimony to that, but there are plenty of well-crafted pieces inside and as the friendly teacher says about his own work, they refuse to be excluded.

Living, Thinking Revolution in Cuba

2009-02-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Feb 2 (Prensa Latina) The first workshop of a monthly series called Living the Cuban Revolution 50 Years after its Triumph opened with about a hundred participants called to build a complex but committed vision of the socialist project here.

A group of young academics set the discursive field by hanging open lists of expectations for people to complete as unedited Silvio Rodriguez music filled the Ministry of Culture"s Juan Marinello Center.

Organically inserted into the audience, the conceptual architects of the Gramsci professorate enunciated positions from their seats, energizing the critical mass before splitting into four groups.

A cluster of university aged Argentines sipped mate tea next to a grandmotherly Afro-Cuban, with local law students, provincial visitors, published academics and more to "explore and perfect the Cuban Revolution on its 50th year."

Some agreed that access may exist to mainstays like education and health care, but said work could be done to improve their quality.

There was consensus that the Revolution had produced profound and positive changes in socio-political structures, but recognition that it needed to provide greater inclusion today.

The humanist character of a process that has far surpassed the reality of its birth in 1959 was praised but the need for successive transformations within the system and non-state actors were cited as essential ingredients to fully change "bourgeois common sense."

Timelines of revolutionary memories were drawn and shared, framing as positive or negative historical moments like Fidel Castro"s speeches in the United Nations or the terrorist explosion of a Cuban passenger plane off Barbados on October 6, 1976. The latter killed 73 people and the National Security Archive has posted declassified documents that show the CIA learned previously of "plans of Cuban exile extremists to blow up a Cubana airliner."

The years of the US Bush administration bottomed out the table while the last Cuban university students congress flew off the chart with its call for a "new society in challenging times, erasing mechanistic thought and deep debate for solutions."

Cuban historian Juan Valdes Paz was one of the oldest participants, and said if his generation has more memory it is because it had more participation, and that space must be gained institutionally.
Known for his thought on new socialist paradigms, Valdes roamed the groups and reported solidarity seemed to still be a measured value here, but said he observed an agenda of unconformities that need to be changed.

He spoke of the need to rethink Marxism in terms of socialization, remember the concept of daily life and make operational findings by social scientists.

He said reduction of uncertainty and definition of goals can only be gained through a culture of political unity, which landed him a healthy round of applause from old and young alike.

The next workshop is scheduled for the end of February and will concentrate on the political system in the Revolution, participation and citizenship.

See www.cuba-urss.cult.cu for more information.

Dancing across Cultures in Cuba

2009-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Jan 19 (Prensa Latina) Glocalized choreographies by the Cuban Danza Contemporanea muscled modernity into representations it could never have made of itself.

On its 50th year this troupe offered a sweaty vision only possible from the bottom up as it deconstructed simple acts like fishing or the complex machinery of fascism.
Weaving multilingual operatic sound tracks with homemade and historical video segments, they hybridized images as powerful as a nuclear tsunami with the female nude.
Some of the first pieces in this commemorative year were Breath Fragment and Carmina Burana, performed at the Gran Teatro de la Habana this weekend after the latter opened to twelve thousand seats at the Mexico National Auditorium in November.
Common to both was a sophisticated critique of power, whether from an underwater view of a fish negotiating with the hook, or dancers mocking military march films in the background.

The strength created by fusing local imagery with world history is nothing new for transculturalized Cuba, and after 280 original pieces since its creation, this group can even put the apple back on the tree.

US Historians in Cuba on Slavery

2009-01-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

Mike Fuller

Havana, Jan 17 (Prensa Latina) US historians Ada Ferrer and Rebecca Scott gave a conference here on colonial powers and slavery in Haiti and Cuba, spanning over two centuries to issues of race addressed by Barack Obama last year.

After major upheavals in the United States and France, the Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 with a republic of African descent, but "left a gap in sugar production, which Cuba strove to fill," said Dr. Ada Ferrer from New York University, who compared the two countries as declining and growing slave societies, respectively.

At the Juan Marinello Cuban Institute for Cultural Investigation, she discussed "material, urgent and intimate" transactions of Spanish troops deployed from Cuba in Haiti against the French, and how they would illegally buy slaves to take back with them.

Ambiguous situations and illicit trade abounded between the nations as they defined themselves against colonial rule, which opened opportunities for a 19th century "with different limits," said Dr. Rebecca Scott from the University of Michigan.

With compelling micro histories of that turbulent time, she discussed the tenuous negotiations which people used to move from slavery to freedom and sometimes back again.

Based on documents discovered in 2005, she traced to the turn of last century data of the lives of normal civilians fleeing Haiti to Cuba with unclear legal status.

Captain's lists for ships of passengers categorized as servants or slaves were subject to interpretation, giving rise to extreme situations like people being forced to return to slavery after having lived a decade of freedom, she explained.

A Cuban participant commented on the humiliation of forced African emigrants bearing the last names of their new world owners, and it could be said that a slave is the ultimate Other.

Dr. Scott cited valiant attempts to redefine that alterity in the colonizing consciousness that created it, like legislating limits on physical punishment of slaves.

Prensa Latina commented on the value of sharing those untold stories of people seeking dignified positions and Scott said it is not only a case of "subaltern voices, rather a whole series of apparatuses to resist, including bureaucracy."

Fernando Martinez Heredia of the Marinello Institute applauded the courage of these border intellectuals, who on this Cuban foray abstained from direct political reference.

For that, Scott pointed to the March 2008 A More Perfect Union speech by Barack Obama, a son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas.

In that text he said that slavery stained the unfinished US Constitution, and only a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans can finish it, two-hundred and twenty one years later.

Cuban Culture in the Digital Era

2008-11-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina) Transdisciplinary specialists in Havana last week discussed equal access, new carriers of knowledge and digital security threats at the Juan Marinello Institute for Cultural Research.

Abel Ponce of the Jose Marti National Library spoke about access for the disabled, domination of English on the web, text readers and a new category of technologically disabled people, which includes those born out of reach of the digital revolution.

He mentioned projects with the United Nations and Spain's ONCE and reminded that the term disabled always refers to one specific activity and never is general.

Karina Benitez of the Center for Author's Rights spoke of copying and manipulation, open code software and access to protected content as issues of the originality-heterodiscursivity paradigm.

Carlos del Porto Blanco of the Office for Informatization said there is currently about one PC for every 20 Cubans, 1.3 million have e-mail and there are about 327,000 internet users.

He said the slowest, most expensive way to get online is through satellites, which Cuba must use as its national telephone company assets in the United States are frozen.

Since 1996 the US government has taken millions from that fund to pay families of failed aggressors against Cuba.

This situation has complicated connectivity, which should improve by 2011 with an underwater fiber-optic connection to Venezuela, said Porto Blanco.

His office practices "social, ordered, intensive use of connectivity, for the greatest population."

He discussed an on-line government portal, free software, e-commerce, food and agriculture pages, a digitalized Cuban encyclopedia, and sites for media and legal advice. Prensa Latina asked him what was the most sensitive point of friction from globalization, and he said digital aggression is a real threat.

"Major US software companies are linked to security agencies of that country, with considerable segments of its military dedicated to cyber war," he said.

Ana Hernandez Martin of the University of Havana Psychology department spoke on homogenization, refunctionalization, accelerated flows and the reconfiguration of daily life according to the market.

She discussed how children consume imported cultural products, senile adolescence, misogynies, dissolution of public and private spaces, new ways of socializing through mobile telephones and video games that electronically shock players who lose.

The psychologist prescribed transcending technology to center on human relations of belonging, identity and personal growth.

Rafael de la Osa of the Cubarte website said there are currently at least four computers in every public library, and the public computer youth clubs are being redimensioned with major changes set by 2012.

Participant and editor of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information's bulletin Manuel Linares told Prensa Latina that the "biggest cultural challenge of the digital era is the contradiction of it being an excellent medium of communication and at the same time a tool of manipulation."

Awareness of binary situations like that were voiced by other audience members, who said the change has already happened abroad and what needs to be done is catch up in a nontoxic way.

From the array of original thought and perspectives that could never be created from the digitally advanced elite, this event suggested a local capacity for going much further than that.

Saturday Night Television in Cuba

2008-10-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Oct 27 (Prensa Latina) Typical Saturday night Cuban television programming could include a historical film on the horrors of colonialism, dialogues of the Brazilian middle class or an obscure suspense movie, with no commercials in between.
I snuggled into my favorite chair this weekend to watch Zapata, Dream of a Hero, by Alfonso Arau, the biography of Emiliano Zapata, who fought in the Mexican Revolution against the sadistic Spanish colonialists.
The film showed how those early capitalists preferred to grow sugar to corn on the land they stole from the indigenous, and one could understand why over 100 years later Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation found inspiration in him.
As that trussed hero was being fed feet first into a raging oven by the Spanish Generalisimo, a technique that could make even acontemporary torturer cringe, my son changed the channel to the Brazilian drama series.
Most members of my Cuban family claim to be noveleros, and are addicted to the current Mujeres Apasionadas telenovela of glamorous women, beaches and men with checkerboard stomachs at the volleyball net.
This particular series portrays serious themes like violence against women or alcoholism, and Cuban academics have praised it for providing a forum for social issues but criticized it for being superficial.
When the novela ended my family was reunited and managed to sit through the feature film Ripley Underground, a murder and art forgery thriller directed by Canadian-born Roger Spottiswoode, which was not very popular with us.
Spottiswoode was quoted on the Internet Movie Data Base website as saying that "The movies I want to make are not people's priority. Nobody would touch them. They cost a lot of money, and studios no longer finance development, so if I didn't pay for them myself they wouldn't happen."
His distancing from the profit motive may have had to do with the film's prime time slot designation from a culture industry whose Minister Abel Prieto has pronounced against "canned TV programs fromthe United States."
In the last few weeks Cuba has aired cinema dealing with European hatred of those who cross its borders and anxiety in the United States inspired by its deteriorating relationship with the Islamic world.
Revolution, frivolity and oblique drama from abroad were broadcast last weekend during peak viewing hours, in a sometimes overlapping display of mixed origin media.
Hybrid programming is not uncommon in postcolonial nations but it is often commercially oriented, and can include overt copying, morphing or plagiarism of international material into the local context formarket success, as Divya McMillin says in International Media Studies (2007).
Cuban mediators in this genre seem to respect original content and formats, and even subtitle films instead of dubbing, as if arranging the representations on a platter for interpretation.
It is the prerogative of any nation to regulate the flows of global media that enter it, but it seems like the Saturday evening splash here is relatively balanced and like all other time slots is absolutely free of commercial advertising.
Better scheduling, more professionalism, interaction and relevance were addressed in recent self-critiques of the industry, but one who has tasted market-based entertainment media may appreciate this flavor of Cuban television.

UN Supports Global South from Cuba

2008-10-31T12:08:00.001-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Oct 29 (Prensa Latina) In Havana this week a film about progress on the Millennium Development Goals was shown on the 63rd birthday of the United Nations, the night before its vote on the resolution against the US blockade of Cuba.
The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and according to its charter strives to "maintain international peace, cooperation and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."
The MDGs range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, and were set in 2000 by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions.
They include Ending Poverty and Hunger, Universal Education, Gender Equality, Child Health, Maternal Health, Combat HIV/AIDS, Environmental Sustainability and Global Partnership.
The United Nations System Resident Coordinator in Cuba, Susan McDade said on stage last night at the opening of 8, a film by eight world directors broken into eight segments dedicated to each of the MDGs, that the "different stories strive to show the human side of the suffering."
Right after premiering at the Rome Film Festival the movie aims to raise awareness of world poverty through the cameras of Gael Garcia Bernal, Gus Van Sant, Mira Nair, Jan Kounen, Abderrahmane Sissako, Gaspar Noe, Jane Campion and Wim Wenders.
McDade congratulated Cuba for having officially fulfilled several MDGs and the film opened with scenes of increasingly acute North-South disparity, using inversed gender roles in a divorce scene, a parched dam and bleeding mother to get across some of the messages.
The African schoolgirl Tiya told her teacher in the film that she was skeptical about fulfilment of the top goal to eradicate poverty, because to do that "we need to share the wealth, and people don't like that."
Some progress is being made in sharing with NGO microfinance projects, and the film featured the Mohammed Yunnis global partnership project from Bangladesh to provide direct loans from the haves to the have nots.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the 2008 Millennium Development Goals report that the global economic slowdown, food security crisis and global warming will directly affect efforts to reduce
poverty.
McDade told Prensa Latina the crisis would affect official assistance flows, but said that it is not a justification for unfulfilment of the MDGs by 2015.
Ban Ki-moon said it is urgent to "put all countries, together, firmly on track towards a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable world," and McDade agrees "that is a shared responsibility, and governments alone can't handle it."
Clearly a contradiction to MDG 8, Global Partnerships for Development, the United States has maintained an economic blockade against Cuba since 1962, against which the United Nations has overwhelmingly voted for 16 consecutive years.
One year ago today, the General Assembly voted 184-4 in favor of ending the 45-year-old United States trade embargo against Cuba, which has caused billions in losses and humanitarian suffering for the island, and is expected to do the same today.

"We're looking forward to it," said McDade to Prensa Latina.

NOTE: For the 17th time, the UN General Assembly voted 185 in favor of ending the blockade, 3 against (US, Israel and Palau) and two abstentions (Micronesia, Marshall Islands).

United Nations Doubles Cuba Relief

2008-10-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Sep 27 (Prensa Latina) The United Nations System has more than doubled its commitment to hurricane relief in Cuba from 3.687 to 8.6 million dollars, an official source confirmed on Saturday.

"With the assigned resources, we are cooperating with local authorities in food aid, shelter, agriculture reactivation, sanitation, environmental hygiene, safe drinking water and other recovery issues," UN Resident Coordinator in Cuba, Susan McDade, told Prensa Latina.

For recovery from hurricane Gustav in August, UN agencies in Cuba committed 1.2 million in regular funds, to which were added 2.487 million for a total of 3.687 million dollars by UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which then added another 4.88 million dollars to recover from hurricane Ike this month.

The Resident Coordinator leads the application for these resources.

After "hard lessons that showed we had to be more agile in mobilizing disaster relief funds," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs established the CERF two and a half years ago, McDade explained.

That standing support has to date provided .97 billion dollars to world countries.

McDade explains that the Cuban government did not request the funds, which are being distributed to different UN agencies here.

In fact, it is a UN system response to a natural catastrophe, she said.

"Before the world's upward disaster trend created a need for CERF, Cuba received UN funding through other mechanisms," said McDade, an 18 year veteran of the United Nations.

Although the bustling United Nations is immersed in providing relief to a country that was hit by the worst storms in decades, McDade says the UN is still committed to post-humanitarian matters, which will become development issues like food security.

"We're here for the long haul," she said.

Conceptualizing Che Guevara in Cuba

2008-07-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Jul 21 (Prensa Latina) Over 80 local and world academics attended this month at a cultural research center in Havana a workshop called Power and Project, the Life of Ernest Guevara 80 Years Later.

It was sponsored by the Antonio Gramsci School of the Ministry of Culture's Juan Marinello Institute of Cultural Investigation, which filled the lecture hall with black and white photos of the iconic guerrilla fighter, born June 14, 1928.

The rich legacy left by Che in his union of theory and practice, his ability to distinguish contradictions in revolutionary society, his challenge to US hegemony and belief that individual freedom begins with liberation of others were served up at the opening panel on Che in 1968 by Hiram Hernandez, editor of Temas magazine.

Havana University and art school professors, philosophers, medical faculty, local publishers and others came together with guests from Spain, Peru, Chile, Colombia and more for two days of panels, music, videos and discourse shared on bulletin boards.

The director of Temas, Rafael Hernandez said Che has often been used as an example of a hard liner, which is part of the myth, and reminded how Cuban revolutionary praxis in the late 1960's was influenced by manuals imported from the Soviet Union.

Former diplomat and director of Prensa Latina Manuel Yepe contextualized Che's thinking at that time with other world hot spots like France and Prague and bemoaned the existence of dogmatic marxism anywhere.

The Brecht Forum in New York held a similar forum last October on the anniversary of Guevara's murder in Bolivia, which it reminded was backed by the CIA.

After being informed about the Havana encounter, Raissa Ange-Gaelle A. Dally from that group responded to Prensa Latina that their investigation sought to "get behind the iconic figure, and examine the multi-faceted man."

Disamis Arcia of the Che Guevara Studies Center here commented on the strength of the symbol, but said Cubans have always considered his thinking profound as well.

The depth of Marxist thought in Cuba is accompanied by the breadth of those who have interpreted it, and Marta Nunez of the University of Havana recalled enormous debates in the 1960's with her colleagues over less traditional thinkers like Lukacs, Marcuse and Althusser.

But they weren't the only ones concerned with the course of Cuban politics.

After almost 50 years of interference by his predecessors, US President George Bush said in 2007 that Cuba needs a "transition from a shattered society to a free country," but Nunez claimed academics here started that idea long before his plan and theirs will be a transition to socialism.

Olga Perez Soto of Havana University said on the Political Economy panel that "economy is not a neutral science," and that Che's idea of voluntary work was a challenge to alienated labor.

She said market fetishism was difficult to fight, but mentioned as viable alternatives the current process of Latin American integration, the indigenous as classic carriers of change and a desire to critique prevailing forms of alienation.

Another UH economist, Rafael Sorhegui, said that "by deconstructing politics and economy, we increase our understanding of political economy," which he illustrated with a triangular figure.

The Gramsci School organizers Fernando Martinez and Julio Cesar Guanche were careful to keep the discussion on task and on the second day there were small group sessions.

These later pronounced on Che's paradigm of honesty, his commitment to participation and ability to mobilize, his views on government, economy and socialism as a common front in this region.

Che Guevara served as Cuban Minister of Industry in the early 1960's, and an audio of thunderous applause was played as workers of that ministry gave him a diploma of appreciation.

Author Luis Suarez Salazar of the Che in Latin America panel said that over the last 500 years a multiplicity of contradictions has arisen, including deepening social crises and greater dependence on imperialism.

He said there has been disarticulation of blocks of change and even the "socialism of the 21st century" has been affected.

A Peruvian visitor said it seems like in her country people "either die from hunger or a bullet."

Ramiro Abreu, the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee Representative for Central America, said the current landscape of Latin America has little to do with that of Che and that no single country can take on bourgeois society.

He said that the struggle against capitalism means leaving behind dogma, but being well aware of "the sensitive aggression of our enemies."

Professor Julio Fernandez Estrada spoke of revolutionary Latin American constitutionalism, how the State cannot monopolize the law, and a growing respect for new plurality.

He mentioned how Bolivia is creating a new social subject, and individual rights there are less important than those of the collective.

Ariel Dacal of the Martin Luther King Center spoke of two major social movements in Latin America today, the post NAFTA anti-neoliberals and excluded groups seeking to articulate the power of their diversity.

"Power and how it is appropriated and expropriated is the issue," said Hiram Hernandez in a closing comment, referring to the iconographic influence of the famous Alberto Korda photo of Che Guevara.

That strength was evidenced in a collection of 40 children's paintings of Che hung in the halls from a local art project called Coloring My Neighborhood, done by memory as explained to Prensa Latina by their organizer Jorge Jorge Gonzalez.

In a studio of a peripheral Havana neighborhood, where he says there are virtually no spaces for cultural practice, this university professor combines the visual creation with history lessons and explained that "the children usually know more about Che Guevara than visiting adults."

Anthropologist Backs LatAm Identity

2008-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Jul 1 (Prensa Latina) Mexican anthropologist Mariano Baez Landa told dozens of Cubans at a cultural study center here that the science of diversity can be applied to overcome a conspiracy against Latin American identity.
"The time is ripe to build alternatives," said Dr. Baez Landa at the Juan Marinello Institute of Cuban Cultural Investigations, after a lengthy paper on Academia, Politics and Action.
Based on his original The Impossible Science, he traced the dilemma of anthropology that maintains and foments indigenous civilizations or that which improves their material conditions.
Practical anthropology did not have its first congress until 2005 in Mexico, where one out of every ten people is indigenous, and he listed several reasons why.
He traced the "deep epistemological divide" that opened last century when most of the academic writing on Guatemalan indigenous people was in English.
Baez Landa lamented a pervasive theoretical contempt for practical application, which he confessed can have some relation to funding.
He said scientific cultural study without application has had serious faults and cited the 50 years of anthropology carried out by major institutions like the US Smithsonian or Harvard Project, which failed to predict the 1994 uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.
But social investigation can be constructive, not only academic, he said, basing himself on seminal works like the 1952 Action Anthropology by Sol Tax.
He mentioned the importance of Marxism, critical anthropology and revolutionary capacity to counter neoliberal theories, and admitted some appearance of pluricultural discourse in state policy, with the opening of an indigenous coordination office in Chiapas.
He described resistance by regional power elites, a phenomenon to which Bolivia is no stranger in its attempt to integrate indigenous voices into the national decision making process.
Prensa Latina asked Baez Landa if he thought the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) could be the "new theory" which he said was necessary to balance globalized interests.
The US-sponsored Free Trade Agreement of the Americas was buried over two years ago at the America's Summit in Argentina, and ALBA was born at the parallel People's Summit, as an "anti-capitalist, revolutionary and endogenous alternative for integration."
Much of it has to do with indigenous principles of reciprocity with the community and nature, and Baez Landa said the time is ripe for a proposal like this and anthropology applied to make Latin American cultures visible.

Havana Artists Look at Mass Media

2008-06-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Jun 9, Havana (Prensa Latina) Havana visual artists and scholars leveled their gaze at social communication this month in a juried show and debate on understanding contemporary Cuba through mass-media.
"All that is solid vanishes into air," quoted Havana University Communications professor Rainer Rubira from the Communist Manifesto at the 17th City Salon of the Provincial Center for Visual Arts and Design.
The panel member said that today's "unions of disunions are uncertain, adventurous and potentially destructive," but the collection of nine finalists managed to creatively represent a coherent critique of the local and international media elite.
The Center director Ana Gonzalez told Prensa Latina they promote the "youngest, most emerging artists, the most polysemic," and this exhibit was the result of 108 submissions by capital creators, with considerable cash awards from the gallery and several local institutions.
Multiple meanings abounded in the selections, and grand prize winner Yaniezki Bernal submitted a video of separately photographed Jose Marti busts, each digitally blending into the next in a continual chain of readings.
Marti is considered a national hero of the struggle for Cuban independence and was also a journalist who said ideas were stronger than stones in a battle.
Rubira explained much of the curriculum planning at the University is framed in a context of ideological battle, and in the same debate Lazaro Rodriguez said culture is an important source of power for citizens.
Coordinator of the Juan Marinello cultural policy think tank, he said the media must form a part of culture, and bemoaned the "absence of inclusive, organic and coherent guidelines to empower active citizens here."
Last month the Cuban legislature unveiled a civic education plan to "reaffirm citizen consciousness, form values and raise general knowledge of society." The leading Commission members are Assembly delegates and professionals who work in the fields of science, education and culture.
Rodriguez spoke about media and socialization, the vacuity of imperialism, audience formation and reception studies in a profound review of contemporary cultural logic in Cuba.
Artist Lisandra Ramirez had a digital animation in the show called Paulito and Manolo, with colorful plastic figures in scenes of daily existence including a trip in the car, stop at the house, eating dinner and evening television with brutal news scenes and ads for household appliances.
Panel member and local television journalist Meysis Carmenati commented on symbolic violence in the media, and spoke of "art that disturbs western hegemonic culture and alternative discourses to globalized media."
She urged for a greater institutional role in opening spaces for debate and praised this exhibit of "art that the media does not promote."
Artist Jesus Hernandez agreed from the audience on that note, complaining about media silence, which was the underlying theme behind his multiple prize winning piece Reports from Real Life.
Disguised as a mainstream Cuban news spot with the same music and format, Hernandez submitted what appeared to be serious reports of a successful transportation initiative, captured violent criminal and control of a reappeared disease, which were never covered by the top channels. Hernandez is a student at Havana's Higher Arts Institute, and a professor from that institution spoke on the panel.
Abdel Hernandez traced the paths of contemporary media in social spaces and its complex mediation of ontologies between multiple audiences. He spoke of television as the "harmonization of heterogeneity," and fragmentation of the internet, where "the decoders become the new producers."
The ordering of separate pieces of information was key to the installation by Marcel Marquez, who in History Will Absorb Us pasted on a black panel hundreds of cutouts from the Today in History newspaper column.
The painstaking labor of that piece was equaled by the efforts of the gallery, and co-curator Hector Frometa told Prensa Latina their work was consensual, thus complicated.
We spoke after the theoretical event, which he said tied together two exhausting years of conception, jury calls, controversial selection processes and technological struggle to provide a glimpse of "an emerging art that bears the seeds of a new vocabulary."
"Maybe next time we'll do landscapes," he said with a smile.

* Mike Fuller studied visual arts for seven years in US universities and has worked twice as long in Cuban media.

Cuban Event for Mediating Inclusion

2008-05-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, May 29 (Prensa Latina) An international gender and communication encounter here this week sponsored by Cuban journalists and the national Women's Federation laid bare patriarchal hegemony and opened spaces for otherness.
Seasoned Cuban science reporter Aixa Hevia took a minute from the bustling organizing committee to explain to Prensa Latina that over 100 participants from 11 countries were present at the 8th Ibero-American Gender and Communication Encounter, sponsored by the Cuban Union of Journalists, Women's Federation and Cuban Association of Social Communicators.
Next to a massive portrait of Jose Marti at the International Institute of Journalism by the same name, she said "We are here to reflect on gender from traditional and alternative points of view. There are many Latin American projects underway in this field and we have the presence of the Spanish Association of Professional Women in Media and Communication."
She said that by February, 111 papers had been received from all over Cuba and 29 were selected for the event, dealing with the general lack of women's voices in media and high profile issues like the denial of visas to spouses of the Cuban Five antiterrorists in US jails.
Other topics include diversity, masculinity studies, the culture of peace, antiglobalization, new technologies, advertising, ecology, sexual health and reproduction.
She said Mexico has a serious problem of violence against women and in the lecture hall next door Carlos Vargas from that country gave a paper on legislation to protect women in that country against violence and stereotype generators.
He spoke in favor of creating a "consciousness of gender, training media workers, improving business ethics committees and the negative image of women shown on Mexican teledrama series."
Argentine psychologist and resident of Cuba Jeannette Via Ampuero spoke on linguistic sexism in education for social communicators, and neatly dissected the androcentric vision of a university text on General Psychology. She said the women in that volume were consistently associated with themes like children, emotions and private spaces, while the men were given free reign of the public domain.
She finished her presentation with the incisive figure of 301 references to men in the text, and to women, two.
The coordinator of the scientific committee, Isabel Moya, gave a paper on Otherness and Social Cohesion, and wondered if it were possible to fulfill plans for social programs when the media itself is against those goals. "Media constructs society," said Moya, versed in the language of contemporary media studies, and spoke of creating "parallel paths of interrelated plural images that tell their own stories."
Cuban television has shown the US television series Dr. House for some time, and Moya mentioned an episode where the lead in that program was temporarily cured of his limp, which returned shortly after.
Moya also has some physical challenges and said with a smile "It's a good thing he's back to his cane," in favor of a diverse vision in mainstream programming.
She gave a compelling argument in her paper for a transition of the concept of politically correct to social policy that is truly inclusive.
Isabel Moya told Prensa Latina afterward that "at this moment there is an explosion in the hegemony of new technology and computers have become as commonplace as household appliances."
As such, she said it is important to demand "plural and diverse messages that reaffirm peace and harmony, not violence, discrimination and fear."
She said "this is the millennium to promote difference not as inferior, rather diverse, and the media must educate in that respect."

Small Solutions Top Cuba Agro Event

2008-05-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, May 14 (Prensa Latina) The buses were parked for blocks around the Hotel Nacional as over 500 Cuban and foreign participants at the 8th Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Encounter this week brainstormed for healthy ways to grow food in a hostile world.
The posters hung in four simultaneous sessions explained the use of magnetically treated water for bigger tomatoes, sunflowers as pest barriers, honey and color traps to combat aphids and even dried and ground earthworms as nutritive flour for human consumption.
A gnarled hand pointed to a volume on cooperativism lying on the book table with others. "I have that one," said its owner, who admired with his friend the collection on display by Cuban, the UN Food and Agriculture and many non-governmental organizations.
Literature on shortened cycles, extended agro-calendars, project startup guides, accounting, semi protected crops, dehydration techniques, bio-gas, seed production and entomofauna was a formidable testimony to the progress of organic and sustainable agriculture in Cuba over the last 15 years.

BORN FROM NEED, HERE TO STAY

"It began in the early 1990's when individuals started growing their own poultry, rabbits and pigs," said to Prensa Latina Dr. Jose Emilio Llibre of the Cuban Animal Production Association, who chaired the Urban Agriculture meeting.
They also produced vegetables, and by 1994 he said the State saw the phenomenon as a source of labor, food security and way to occupy people left idle after the collapse of the socialist bloc.
A national group of urban farmers was formed and Llibre said that even now with slightly better economic indicators "it looks like urban agriculture is here to stay."
Training, chemical free production and cooperation with Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries have made Havana a world reference of urban agriculture and currently allow it to produce 80% of its vegetables.
Llibre said profit-driven violations of organic codes and unsympathetic priorities of decision makers for some grassroots initiatives are part of a complex panorama in sustainable culture here, which he reminds was born spontaneously from need.

PROFOUND CULTURAL IMPACT

Adolfo Rodriguez of the Institute of Fundamental Investigations in Tropical Agriculture chaired the Urban Agriculture workshop, citing thousands of tons of organic food produced in the last decade, intense training, permaculture awareness, 300,000 new jobs, childrens clubs and new diets as part of the cultural impact of urban agriculture in Cuba.
He specifically mentioned several star operators of "reference gardens" from the audience, who stood for applause.
Individuals, cooperatives, municipal, provincial and national levels all were represented at the event, and Dr. Luis Vazquez of the Institute of Investigations in Vegetable Health gave a fascinating paper on experimental agriculture in Cuba.
Sharing data from Credit and Services Cooperatives, Farm Production Cooperatives, and Basic Units of Cooperative Production, he explained the importance of context in each case, and said it was important to avoid myopic solutions and vital to seek compatibility.
At the end of the first day Mario Gonzalez Novo of the Cuban Association of Forestry and Agricultural Technicians, of the organizing committee told Prensa Latina that 400 Cubans had come from all over the country, and 125 foreigners from 25 nations.

SMALL SOLUTONS TO WORLD FOOD CRISIS

When asked what had been the best moment so far, he quickly said "when Dr. Peter Rossett said the time has come for food sovereignty."
This US proponent of small solutions to the world food security crisis said he has been in Cuba over 20 times, and is known for his work with Food First, the Institute for Food and Development Policy and Via Campesina.
Rossett said in his presentation that "Three decades of neoliberal policy and free trade, dismantling of national food production systems, exporting and subsidies are enemies of family agriculture and campesina sectors."
He explained their tactic is to first flood a local market with cheap imports, then once it is captured substitute with more expensive products.
In a special comment to Prensa Latina he said the current decentralization of Cuban agricultural decisions to a more local level is good.
"Imagine a State Minister is told to increase agricultural quotas by a certain amount in a given time. That is much more complicated than on the municipal level, which is how things are to be done now in Cuba with the new measures implemented by Raul Castro."
When asked if he had any particular message for a US reader, the author of What's So Beautiful about Small Farms smiled and said "I think all countries have something to learn from Cuba."

Havana Dogs Have Their Day

2008-04-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

Images and text by Mike Fuller

Apr 14, Havana (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Canine Federation held its spring show in western Havana this weekend, drawing dog breeders, judges and lovers from half a dozen countries and about 30 different breeds.
The organizations true name is the Cuban Cynological Federation, and the word cynology technically means canine related sciences, or dog breeding, which began to gain ground seriously in the late 1800s.
The origin of the word is probably linked to the root cynic, which describes followers of the 300 BC Greek philosopher Diogenes, who Wikipedia says was a beggar that made a virtue of extreme poverty. "He debunked social values, ate in the marketplace and urinated on people who insulted him," it claims.
The pooches at the stadium in general had much better manners and showed great prowess in obedience exercises like heeling without a leash, handler accompanied sprints and more.
Enrique Comendeiro, a 12 year old owner said his husky Kina sleeps under his bed and is very sensitive. He said once she witnessed a chow chow attack a stray, and her hair bristled as she tried to help from inside the house, but couldnt and was depressed for three days after.
Abel Canizares, a 30 year-old dalmation trainer and accountant said his dog is very intelligent and brings her empty plate when hungry. He commented on the mostly voluntary nature of thoroughbred trainers in Cuba, and claimed their main drive is love of dogs, not money.

THE JUDGES SPEAK

Melba Castro was a judge from the Dominican Republic and self-proclaimed addict to canine culture. She echoed the reference to spirituality versus economy, and said "Look at how hard things are in Cuba and there are still so many of us here."
Costa Rican Luis Vargas said this was a "meeting of people crazy about dogs."
Javier Ramirez from Mexico, a dog show judge for 15 years, said he owns 20 dogs, but is trying to get down to six.
Top Cuba arbiter Nelson Borroto said he loves dog breeding, which he described as "a scientific factor that unites us all. Cynology is very demanding, especially the genetic work."
His eyes glowed as he described his canophile adventures, one of which included a Brazil show he was judging when an angry participant took a bite out of the rear of his suit.

CANINE CULTURE IN CUBA

The organizing committee had 13 members, with nine ring commissioners, eight international judges and dozens of groups, sections, races and ages, sponsored by at least 10 Cuban entities from civil society and government.
There are at least 15 different dog associations in Cuba, including those for poodles, boxers, collies, great danes and the famous Bichon Habanero, a lap dog created in Cuba.
The dalmation contingent proudly explained their breed is the only that can cross over any of the 13 categories, can run a full marathon, is agile and a known firefighter helper.
Luis Laza Tamayo of the Federation directive board and journalist by profession, has a hairless Mexican xoloitzcuintle named Dobaolo that has won its category more times than one has fingers. He said this breed is a favorite in Cuba, and there are more than 200 in the club and over five thousand in Cuba.
As a matter of fact, they can be seen among others in the pedigreeless packs that roam the streets, who also visited this fair to get a look at the well-groomed members of their species.
The event appeared to be well-organized with tents, several concession stands from local restaurants, a first aid post and clearly cordoned competition areas.
The show program opened with a story by Paulo Coelho about an owner who died with his dog and at the pearly gates the animal companion was denied entry.
The keeper at the second set of gates allowed them in, explaining that the first was actually hell, where anyone who abandons his best friend is bound to go.

Cubans Speak from New Bus

2008-03-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuban city bus riders speak with a Prensa Latina reporter from the core of a gleaming articulated Chinese vehicle in rush hour traffic.
An incredible range of transportation experiences provide a hard-earned point of view for Cubans, who have invented phenomenon like "marking" ones place in a huge waiting line, which this media worker did last Friday afternoon during the most hectic hour of the week.
Two buses passed in 19 minutes, and the first was full but the second was accessible after some pushing into a space filled with the voice of pop singer Alvaro Torres, who crooned "remember that everything in this world has a price."
The speakers worked, but a man complained that the public address system was "already broken" and the driver was unable to ask people to push to the back of the long articulated cavern, with capacity for over 100 people.
When queried whether he liked the recently purchased transit bus, one of thousands being imported to Cuba from Yutong manufacturers in China, his negativity softened and he agreed they were very fast. The companys website boasts receiving a High-speed Bus Model Award, for "power as well as Chinese bus charm."
The former complainer gripped the hand ring as the vehicle swiftly negotiated the busy streets and said the new coaches were safe too.
One of the enemies of these new-fangled people movers is the old-fashioned potholes, and word on the streets says there are zones that have the low-floored buses waiting for road work to be completed before the vehicles are released.
But the P-4 route is in full swing, and a Havana University professor is happy about that. The 43 year-old Mirta said the best thing about these new means of transportation is the music, which she claimed is almost always Cuban bolero.
She recalled a story from less than a year ago, when beast-like tractor trailers called camels were modified with seats and stuffed full of people. Those standing on the unbearably slow runs often set their heavy bags on the laps of those seated, and she said one day someone trusted her with a sack. When the passenger finally got off, the edible goods were accidentally left with Mirta, who did not deny salvaging them in her kitchen.
Claudio, an acting student at the Higher Arts Institute, says from the articulation in the middle of the folding vehicle that some memories like bad odors and petty crime still remain, but when asked if he has had a hand explore his pockets on the new buses he said no.
He defended public responsibility in preserving these recent acquisitions, and so does the State, which has been documented in Granma newspaper as sentencing vandals to years of prison for breaking windshields. These cost 900 dollars to replace and worse still, may remove the bus from service for days.
According to www.chinabuses.com, Cuban workers have completed training at Yutong, and more is scheduled as part of the sustainable company policy to "not only give fish, but to teach how to fish."
For certain one is hard strapped to find grounded criticism about the changes underway in Cuban transportation and even Claudio says that comparatively, things are "much, much better."
As this reporter steps off the bus, the bolero lyrics from the bus remain in his head "suddenly I am falling in love again."

Cuban Actor Remembered for Truth

2008-03-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

By Mike Fuller

A legendary story of deception, love, alcoholism and self-discovery writhes out of the psyche of the deceased Adolfo Llaurado, portrayed in a theater of the same name by Lester Martinez in Ay, Mi Amor, directed by Carlos Diaz.

"Did you see that your mother just slept with your godfather?!" raged the staggering father figure with a huge phallic symbol emerging from between his legs, as the confused boy cried in the opening scene "No, that's a lie!"

"That is when I became an actor," documents the voice of Llaurado, a celebrated Cuban film and stage star who died in 2001.

Including the Audience

Carlos Diaz's troupe is called El Publico, which means The Audience in Spanish, and he is a master of including spectators in his plays.

In A Streetcar Named Desire he sat viewers around the actors and in the Respectable Prostitute he intimidated the theater goers with a towering jail cell climbed upon by leather clad prison guards.
In this production there was a huge mirror in the middle of this stage, and at one moment waiters served shots of rum to the audience.

Carlos Diaz explained to Prensa Latina that he's used to doing bigger shows, but his usual Trianon theater is currently closed for repairs, so he has adapted to the intimate Llaurado space.

The mixed crowd loved the piece, and a man in a dress complained about the almost non-stop photography of this reporter, a grievance taken to heart in spite of the images accompanying this text.

"This is a true story," said Diaz after the show, "about a myth in Cuban theater and cinema. By telling his story we are telling ours, and I think Llaurado was a revolution in theater, in love and in enjoyment."
Diaz said all the text is original from the legendary actor, a monologue recently released by his widow Jacqueline Meppiel, who said in the program that Llaurado would be proud and happy to come back to the stage in a theater with his name.
Llaurado worked with Daisy Granados in Retrato de Teresa, and Profecias de Amanda, both about strong women forging out an existence under adverse conditions.

Rant against Absurdity

The Llaurado monologue is a rant against "absurdity in this country, aiming at distrust and irresponsibility in Cuba, the Heart of Our America," a scathing critique, and rebellious as Diaz said. The piece delves into the darker side of Llaurado's past, like serious alcoholism in his family "my granddad was the biggest drunk ever," and a memory of selling his body to both women and men.

The piece also parodies what many here have truly experienced as international travel to the former Soviet Union, for which Lester Martinez bundles up in front of a mock landscape in Moscow and extracts tears of laughter from The Audience.

Llaurado's voice said "that stuff used to exist, and now it's gone. But it existed, and without it I wouldn't exist. Maybe I have to wait a little to say nice things but I have faith and I am totally Revolutionary."
That is a cultural more in Cuba, known as "being clear," and even though it seems bitter on the surface the revolutionary fervor is almost arrogant as played by Lester Martinez.

Bearded Heroes

At one point in the performance Llaurado-Martinez lathered up in a pathetic attempt to shave and stimulate growth of a beard as worn by many heroes of this country.

The recorded voice of a Che Guevara speech filled the theater, pronouncing "we must always admit our errors to learn. We have to be open. Each one of us is responsible for what he or she does and what the Cuban Revolution does."

The actor came clean and said he never could grow a full set of whiskers, but neither could Che, "and I loved him nevertheless. I am falling in love with so many things in you Che," said the voice of Llaurado, "I wish you were awake so I could tell you all."

Authentic Young Actor

For the real Llaurado the two most important things in life were love and acting, and when Lester Martinez sat down after the show to talk about the piece, his love for the stage was clear.
With glowing eyes he explained that sometimes "a script provokes an actor to do excellent work," which he did in a creative way like when he showed a Llaurado memory of a rudimentary asthma treatment as a boy.
Martinez wheezed all over the stage into a roll that inverted him in a headstand on triangulated forearms, simulating being flipped over by an adult and submerged in a barrel of water. He stood there on his head, emitting bubbling sounds, and was totally convincing as a child doing anything possible to overcome the tortures of a breathing disorder.
In the monolog Llaurado wished one could start life old and go backward, going out with a young body and experienced mind, and it seemed like Martinez has done this. His director Carlos Diaz said this was his best work in ten years,
Martinez said he wasn't preying on Llaurado, who he never met, rather he was simply trying to share pieces of his extraordinary life with others.
Prensa Latina asked him if he had any messages to share with our readers and the 27 year-old said "I would say actors cannot be false in life. When one is false in life then one no longer is actor."

Cuban Drama, US Expert on Fear

2008-02-26T22:51:00.000-08:00

Text and images by Mike Fuller

Havana, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) Cuban playwright Edgar Estaco said the United States "threatens us psychologically," which Boston psychoanalyst Stephen Soldz explained has profound effects, especially when the fear that can generate is of "the greatest power on earth."

At a Havana performance of his piece November by Teatro D'Subito, dramaturgist Edgar Estaco told Prensa Latina it is not strange for conscriptees to sit for days with bulletless guns in the woods, facing no more than enemy mosquitoes.

The trauma of a "War of All the People," and state of perpetual readiness to fight it lie beneath this tragedy of jealousy at the Llaurado Theater, directed by Pedro Vera, the other half of a thespian "binomial" that has been heating up Cuban stages for the last two years.

Vera explained to this reporter that they dissolve the traditional distance between authors and directors, and have designed this moving piece in a forest around a huge tree stump. Two brothers in fatigues roll, stand up and sit on it, creating a jealous tension over the missing Matilde, who they both love.

All that's left of her is an ephemeral ghost, thanks to brother Alejo, who killed their former sweetheart in a fit of jealousy inspired by his slower smitten sibling.

"What are we doing here? We don't even have bullets," asks the mentally-challenged brother Martin, played by Gregorio Reyna, and the self-assured Alejo, acted by Carlos Ramos, answers "We're here to survive. War is like that."

Psychological Warfare

Edgar Estaco told Prensa Latina that "Cuba has been in a psychological war for 40 years. It has almost become a custom to be on the alert and truthfully it is not unheard of for men to be sent off to the countryside on drills with nothing but wooden rifles."

Estaco is a hydraulic engineer by profession, and another casualty related to US aggression against Cuba has been the eroding infrastructure, which includes leaky pipes and other headaches which surely have plagued this creator.

"This work is a parody of the Cuban psyche, but the covert threat really exists and these maneuvers may be of some value," he says, explaining "the United States threatens us psychologically and we defend ourselves psychologically."

When the Tears Dry

The brothers banter about insects, hunting lizards for snacks and the invisible enemy, as the specter of Matilde floats in and out, played by Lenia Maria Perez in a mottled robe.

She urges them to leave their anxiety behind, to come home, begging in her feminine voice of wisdom, "you don't know what a woman is capable of saying when her tears dry."

Alejo, who originally had planned on bumping off his brother Martin in the woods with the one loaded gun, ends up directing the shot to his own head in a tragic suicide and the white flag is raised by Matilde to a Frank Delgado tune written especially for this piece.

No White Flag for Cubans

But there is no surrender by the people in the theater, faced with the concrete intimidations of the faceless enemy depicted in this play.

The website Cuba vs. the Blockade explains how the US blockade threatens to some degree practically all realms of life here from music, family visits, education, travel and sports to banking, including billions lost in trade, energy and telecommunications.

Perhaps some of the most distressing bullying is that of the health care services, and "the impossibility of acquiring the necessary medicines or equipment has sometimes prevented Cuban doctors from saving lives or relieving suffering."

Just today in Havana the visiting Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the blockade was "immoral, irresponsible and illogical," waged by a difficult foe to which Cuba cannot and will not admit defeat.

Deep Effects of Chronic Anxiety

After Prensa Latina shared information with him about the psychological warfare addressed in this play and some examples of adversity caused by the US blockade, Stephen Soldz, Professor at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, said he was not surprised to hear about how widespread the tension is in the Cuban population.

He said "To the extent that people live in chronic underlying fear of a vague threat, it has profound effects," and that he would be interested in studying those with psychologists here.

The courageous PhD holder must know the taste of fear after visiting and confronting top US military brass responsible for "abusive interrogations" at the prison on its illegal base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Dr. Soldz said the consequences of living in a state of constant alarm include "both emotionally and cognitively, low-level anxiety and difficulty concentrating, among other effects."

He explained that the US has many connotations, not just intimidation, but also longing.

That craving is created and fueled in hostile campaigns like the pro-US propaganda broadcast from Radio Marti, promises of aid to a "transition" government or instant citizenship to any Cuban who makes it to the border with dry feet.

Soldz summed up the pathos of this situation and said "When fear is of the greatest power on earth, which also has many desirable features, it can confuse one's sense of place in the world."

So in the psychoanalytical terms laid out by this US specialist, it is disturbing to be scared of something that also attracts, which like the tale of the two brothers in a love triangle gone awry, is a tragedy.

US Thinktank on Guantanamo, Leak

2008-02-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Mike Fuller, Special for Prensa Latina

Havana, Feb 10 (Prensa Latina) After a top commander admitted this week that there is a hidden prison on an illegal US Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the director of a tireless watchdog group tells Prensa Latina about how it exposes lawless violations of human rights in the alleged War on Terror.
The University of California at Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas has built up since fall 2005 a massive data base on the darker side of US policy in this part of the world, and its director Almerindo Ojeda bravely agreed to share on this theme with Cuban media.

US Holds 275 Terror Suspects in Cuba

We first asked him to explain to someone who has absolutely no idea what the United States does on the island of Cuba in its Guantanamo base, and he said "At this moment, the United States holds, at its Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, about 275 individuals as prisoners of its War on Terror.
"These individuals and the 503 others that were once held there have been denied all of the protections of both national and international law, and are held and interrogated in conditions that the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and all human rights organizations deem tantamount to torture.
"Guantanamo was chosen as the place of detention in order to create the fiction that United States law did not apply there," he said.

Secret Camp within the Base

Ojeda had told Prensa Latina this week"s admission of a secret camp in Guantanamo was related to testimony from a detainee there named Majid Khan, who in a document on www.humanrights.ucdavis.edu said "the US made a big mistake. and had no option but to make me top secret detainee to cover up... so the public won"t know about the crime that Bush administration had committed."
Prensa Latina asked Mr. Ojeda to specifically describe the Center"s dealings with Khan and other outstanding victims of the US war on terror and how that relates to this week"s startling release by the Associated Press.
That important story says Kahn was a resident of Baltimore held for supposed plans to bomb gas stations in the United States, and was locked up in "a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret."

Inscrutable Ethics, Depth

Almerindo Ojeda said his Center has been carrying out a Guantanamo Testimonials Project for some time, and its goal is to gather declassified or publicly available information on prisoner abuse at the Guantanamo Naval Base, to organize it in ways that make it accessible and relevant, then post it on its website for posterity.
He said "We get our information from press reports, from lawyers that are defending the prisoners, and from prisoners that have been released. Our project has now gathered hundreds of testimonies from a score of diverse sources like prisoners and their lawyers, lawyers for the United States Government, chaplains, translators, guards, interrogators, CIA moles, the FBI, the Red Cross, military physicians, psychiatrists, and foreign intelligence personnel. The volume, detail, and diversity of the testimony we have gathered makes the allegations of abuse hard to deny.
"It was gathering the testimony from the lawyers of Majid Khan, a United States resident now held at Guantanamo, that we learned of the existence of Camp 7, a hitherto classified facility at the base," he said.
In notes from a December 2007 meeting with his attorneys available on the Center"s website, it is explained that Majid chewed through the artery in his left arm in January 2006, has been on hunger strikes, lives in Camp 7, and suffers from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
According to AP, Guantanamo commanders say that maximum security lockup is for important al-Qaida members to keep them from harming other prisoner-informants and to prevent its targeting for terrorist attack.

Future Supporters, not Adversaries

Even without taking a position on guilt or innocence, as the Center claims, anyone who studies the relationship of the United States government to human rights in the Americas is bound to run into friction.
Prensa Latina asks the thoughtful Almerindo Ojeda what he would say if he had the opportunity to direct a respectful but sincere comment to the greatest adversary of his work group.
"Our center does not have adversaries, only future supporters. To them we say this. Guantanamo may or may not hold dangerous terrorists. Yet these individuals are entitled, in either case, to a set of fundamental, inalienable, rights as individuals held during an armed conflict, as prisoners in general, and as ordinary human beings. Individuals do not cease to be human when they become terrorists, let alone terrorism suspects, which is all we have in Guantanamo."

Outside the Barbed Wire

The human beings outside the mine fields and razor wire of the US base in their country challenged at the United Nations whether their rights were being respected, and last October that international body condemned the US blockade of Cuba in a vote of 184 to 4, with one abstention. That policy also threatens other countries while weakening and depriving the people here of essential medication, communication, family unity and much more.
On the website www.cubavsbloqueo.cu detailed descriptions can be found in English of how that hostile policy aims at damaging the collective Cuban psyche through intervening in education, banking, music, internet, sports, visual arts and religion.
The use of a War on Terror to justify illegal interventions in Central America is nothing new, and in his book Hegemony or Survival: America"s Quest for Global Dominance, Noam Chomsky traces it back to the era of Ronald Reagan.
He opened an "Office of Public Diplomacy to manufacture consent for its murderous policies in Central America. a huge psychological operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in denied or enemy territory."
Sound familiar?
The scientifically vigorous Almerindo Ojeda agreed "the economic blockade of Cuba is a universally decried form of economic pressure."
He cannot and did not directly say what the United States does to Cuba is psychological torture, which he characterized as "something that should be defined narrowly."

But he may be a future supporter of the idea.

Havana Hip Hoppers for Peace

2008-02-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

By Mike Fuller

Havana (Feb 6) For over 20 years the Madriguera performance space in Central Havana has promoted tendencies that were of “lesser interests to power centers” and last night the duo Hermanazos hosted a friendly hip hop battle there with the groups Lazaro, La Conjunta, Aparecido and Mateus "Fenomeno."

As members of the “warring” groups opened and closed the door to the back office, filling and draining the air with deep lyrics and a bass that made the desk vibrate, Roberto Rossell of Hermanazos said that constructive energy is what he likes most about Hip Hop.

Together since 2001, Hermanazos has given him and Danny Velázquez a way to “improve humanity through music,” and they called for peace many times throughout the night.

In the essay “The True Meaning of Hip-Hop Culture,” by Afrika Bambaataa, considered one of the main founders of the movement, converting negative energy like gang fighting into something more positive for the community is key.

Rossell seemed to agree with that and said “hip hop has taught me much about forgiveness, and I believe that if we can’t be friends, we can at least respect each other.”

Hip hop also takes the forms of breakdancing and turntable mixing, which were absent from this performance, but the locale was filled with rich graffiti-based murals.

The rapping, or singing on top of previously recorded melodies, stole the show, and Rossell, who did not formally study music and is a licensed physiotherapist, said that through hip hop we can “educate, recover values and change from bad to good.”

He cited influences as diverse as the US Talib Kweli, a 32 year-old African American intellectual from New York with professor parents and brother clerking on the US Supreme Court, who said “for trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted.”

At the same time Rossell listed as another inspiration Cuba’s Grammy-winning Los Van Van, the first Cuban group to use synthesizers and drum machines, and rumba music in general.

The Hermanos Saiz Association operates this space, and its Havana President Jorge Enrique Rodriguez, a poet and historian, explained that the venue is committed to providing stage access for low-budget, unconventional performers.

He listed tolerance, freedom to be spontaneous and autonomous thinking as important values, and said “I don’t look for consensus from others, rather reflection for the benefit of all.” He claims to work on a “creator to creator” level, said he has managed to include many “risky artists” in the programming like Los Aldeanos or Porno Para Ricardo.

He said the only censorship in the Madriguera is aesthetic, and they do not appreciate poor quality performers.

Lazaro, a solo hip hopper called Aparecido, said “This is the best place for a rapper. This is a thermometer, and here we have the possibility to express our street reality. It’s like a big family where we all learn.” Asked if he could articulate a message for his biggest enemy, he said “The only thing war cries bring is war. I hope one day enemies disappear because we are killing each other.”

His message and those of the other groups seemed to be understood as the fans danced with peace signs into the night.

Danish Act Motherly Love in Cuba

2008-01-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

“Nobody is born old,” said Iben Nagel Rasmussen to this Havana audience in a performance of Esther’s Book here by the Odin Teatret from Denmark, giving voice to her recently passed away 85 year-old mother and creatively coping with aging, loneliness and separation.
The piece opened with images on a center stage screen of the funeral procession, a white coffin with pall bearers in a final pastoral setting. Flanked on the left by the brilliant Rasmussen as her mother behind a typewriter and Elena Floris as the daughter on the right, playing a real violin, the still and moving images showed Iben’s family life until her mother’s final days of senile dementia. There was a quiet frenzy in the air at the Adolfo Llaurado theater, a space for the very dedicated, sold out with plastic seats in the aisles holding a cult of dread locks, same-sex couples, local theater stars and folks still talking about the art installation in an adjoining gallery.
The 63 year-old Iben Nagel Rasmussen would have made her mother proud, the Danish accent in Spanish hardly noticeable, and singing in her native tongue with a voice that betrayed her age. “Those were crazy times to have babies,” said Iben as her mother, who married three days before the German invasion of Copenhagen, “but we loved life and desired it with a thirst. We were optimists and adored the sun.”
The slide of a pregnant mother came next in the deeply sophisticated portrait that traced with images and text her mom’s writers association meetings, the end of the war, images of condemned nazis, the working class neighborhood in Copenhagen, family park scenes, horses plowing fields, babies being washed and kids chalking the sidewalk.
Havanans love dogs and chuckled at the family pet pictures of jowley bulldogs and petrified cats hanging from trees, a personal drama cast by the top member of the Odin Teatret, founded by Eugenio Barba.
In the program notes he was thankful for this piece and accepted for the first time not to be Iben’s director. He said in March 2006 that Iben was Esther’s gift to the troupe, and remembered how the mother actually came to live at their headquarters.
The ensemble’s website http://www.odinteatret.dk/ explains it “performs on famous international stages, but also in geographically remote and socially discriminated areas.” It has “never tried to be a political theatre, it always was one, thanks to its ability to freely ask questions concerning established orders.”
Iben says in the program the piece is “a reflection on becoming old in present day Denmark, about loneliness and separation,” which are personal and political themes on the island of Cuba, a geographically and socially discriminated area for decades, greatly thanks to US interference.
How many times has the issue of an aged mother living with a child been broached in the family dialogs of Cubans? And how much more complicated can that idea be here, where the legislation of the world’s most powerful country specifically limits the possibility for family unification?
Even this author’s mother has been personally reminded by those authorities she can only come to see me and her grandson once every three years, a story all too familiar to we who choose to live here.
This tragicomical dialog between the typing mother and violinist daughter finds a receptive community for its message that “Life is a good and bad moment.” Perhaps the final videos of the mom prancing around a living room, play-fencing with what appears to one of her older children, provide a common testimony to the memory of motherly love, which gives all us children the strength to carry on.

Images and text by Mike Fuller, an ex-artist, writer and occasional member of Havana's theater crowd.

Passion, Pardon Fill Havana Stage

2007-07-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Havana, Jun 25 Obsessions, death and pardon are explored by El Publico theater group in the 1677 Jean Racine tragedy Phaedra, which Cuban director Carlos Diaz says “represents powerful passion that overrides reason.”

“Here is my heart. This is the place to strike… lend me your sword, if not your arm,” says in a deep voice the Queen Phaedra, played by Alexis Diaz de Villegas.
The unanswered fervor of an abandoned monarch for her stepson, who in truth loves the only surviving lass of his fathers enemy, leads to a double death that makes the immoral King forgive all three and adopt the surviving girl as his own.
The director explained to Prensa Latina that the first-rate male lead was cast as queen because that’s the way things were done in the original tragic theater.
Cuban poet Norge Espinosa Mendoza says in the program that “Love is an impure action that can lead us to more pure acts,” which Diaz explains could be that the Queen finally confesses her true feelings.
Unfortunately these unleash a wrathful Kingly curse that gets the son bumped off by a sea monster. The director explained they worked hard to deconstruct the noble image of the father, stressing his womanizing and abuse of what may be one of the deepest drag queens to grace a Havana stage.
Profound like the Boswell translation suggests, the suicidal Phaedra says after making life miserable for the unenthusiastic prince “Hating me more I loved you none the less: new charms were lent to you by your misfortunes.”
Diaz said this piece involved tireless commitment from the troupe, witnessed by this reporter at the Trianon theater on an air conditioner-less June night, and told a story of how during rehearsals the actors all wanted to relax on the royal mattress in the center of the stage.
He reminded that is a complete no-no in the culture of Cuba, where mothers scold their kids for sitting on the bed “in street clothes.”
Carlos Diaz appreciates the previous Cuban playwrights to put Racine on stage, like Virgilio Pinera, who died in the 1980s, or Anton Arrufat, still alive.
The director says his company El Publico is baptized after a play by the same name of Garcia Lorca, who declared “doors of the theater never close,” and said the group can be reached at: elpublic@cubarte.cult.cu

Mexicans Bash US at Havana Office

2007-07-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

Havana - Right under the nose of their object, five outstanding Mexican academics put forth in front of the US Interests Section in Havana a solid platform of reasons to defend Cuba and their own dignity against US meddling.
Well-ordered throngs of Cuban and foreign participants carefully filed into the space between the US Interests Section in Havana (USINT) and the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribune to listen to Gilberto Lopez Ribas, Gustavo Iruegas, Carlos Fazio, Martin Hernandez and Miguel Alvarez.
At the event titled "Intellectuals for Sovereignty and against the Empire," these academics challenged extra-territorialism from a stage next to a space recently appropriated by Cuba from a parking lot of the Interests Section of the United States.
A week before the beautiful area was designed, that US-directed office had installed a meter high billboard on one of its upper floors, providing the city with promises not to take Cuban homes in case of an intervention or Martin Luther King quotes taken out of context.The Cuban answer was poetic, an in-your-face lightning response in the form of a sculpture of billowing black flags to commemorate victims of US terrorism.
The wind blasts the banners into a wall of counter-discourse that effectively hushes the pathetic claims from the North.
Now called Dignity Plaza, what was previously a highly guarded parking area and diplomatic grey area has become a nodal point of intellectual debate with frequent events.The US messages still glow across the nighttime sky, proclaiming fantasies like the possibility of Hugo Chavez not winning the next Venezuela election.
The five Mexicans sat on the stage with the audience between them and a banner dedicated to five other Cuban intellectuals who have given the last seven years of their lives for ideals and may be about to be freed. Lopez Ribas and Irruegas are members of the Benito Juarez Tribunal, a group "tasked with judging, from an ethical and judicial standpoint, the activities of the United States of America in the international arena."
They and their three compatriots criticized the recent Sheraton hotel incident, linking it to a permanent history of interventionism that includes what Irruegas called "a systematic attitude of the US applying its laws on other countries."
These five were all miffed about the recent ouster of a group of Cuban businesspeople from a Sheraton hotel in Mexico, which included confiscation of their deposit. But they were not without resources and discussed reactivation of "antidote laws" to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future.
The glowing red letters on the USINT quietly rolled past the fifth floor of that building, offering links to blogs supporting the Cuban "journalists" who were imprisoned here after being proven to have accepted money from the USINT to write destabilizing material against the island, a constitutional offense.
Quite a different situation from the Cuban Five, who were working against terrorism to save lives and not against the US.
The Mexicans said the US attitude is worse than ever, and the border wall under construction is tantamount to humiliation.
Carlos Fascio said the US won't really block out Mexicans because it needs their cheap labor, and compared the situation to the apartheid between Israel and Palestine.
Throughout the pleasant evening, the US billboard continued to pump out important information for Cubans, like a website whose main advertisers are the National Security and Central Intelligence Agencies, an "essential job board for Hispanic and bilingual professionals."
Martin Hernandez, a warmhearted member of a solidarity group based on teachings of murdered Salvadorean Archbishop Arnulfo Romero said he brought Christian greetings against the "bullets of the Empire."
He said "to defend Cuban dignity is to defend Mexican dignity," and that for the USINT to misappropriate quotes from Martin Luther King is like the Roman emperor quoting the bible while slaying Christians.
He pointed out that Cuba and Mexico share the condition of foreign remittances playing a large part in the national economy, and made an appeal for "the poor of the earth."
Miguel Alvarez, from an NGO linked to Chiapas, spoke of a new sense of resistance and construction of alternatives, with Zapatism as a reference. He said that movement has proven it is possible to "step out and build a new identity based on collectivity, and hope is now key in construction of actors from within and without."
Alvarez praised the new ways of creating society, fresh from Cuba, and expressed deep solidarity with this country.
As he spoke, perhaps one of the most cynical messages floated across the USINT message board. An advertisement for a website for orders of US food through the internet, complete with dream prices of 10 times more than what the same pork would cost here.
The irony is that all of the Mexican participants began their interventions with a reference to the expulsion of Cubans from one of their country´s hotels, but the meeting was organized by the US - Cuba Trade Association, something the former doesn't really seem to want.

HIV/AIDS Education across Cuba

2007-07-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Cuba fulfilled the 2005 World AIDS Day’s promise to fight AIDS with a week of educational activities organized by the national team for the management and fight against HIV/AIDS. This multidisciplinary team - GOPELS according to its Spanish acronym - comprises major ministries, media and civil groups.
The main thrust for December 2005 was to “educate, educate and educate,” said Dr. Rosaida Ochoa, Director of Cuba’s National Center for Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS. “We are trying to work on the relationship between individuals and their communities,” explained Ochoa, a designer of the prevention strategy contributing to Cuba’s low prevalence rate, which is rising but is still less than 10% of the Caribbean rate of 1.6% as cited by UNAIDS (2005).
Dr. José Juanes, member of GOPELS, explained in an organizational meeting for World AIDS Day, that Cuba has screened for the disease since 1986, testing all blood donors, pregnant women and those requesting anonymous HIV tests. Dr. Juanes also cited the importance of universal free access to antiretroviral therapy here for those needing it. He said that to date in Cuba there have been 6,682 cases of HIV, with 2,784 developing into AIDS and a total of 1,314 deaths. Males are still the predominant carriers of the disease here, at 80.4% percent of cases; of those, 85% are men who have sex with men.
Community Education Health promoter Zulima Fis On the eve of World AIDS Day the agenda was packed, with some street work highlighting prevention in downtown Havana carried out by young health promoters, which was boosted to a full-fledged campaign all over the country the next day. Trained youth sat at information tables or stood with boxes of condoms and leaflets, educating passersby about the most effective ways to prevent the disease.These volunteers had participated in workshops on sensitivity training, group dynamics, face-to-face consulting and telephone techniques for their 24-hour AIDS hotline, in place all over the country. Promoter Zulima Fis, involved with the project for two years said, “all our community prevention tours in the AIDS van have been well received, and I hope people use the condoms.” In Cuba, when they’re not being given out free like today, condoms only cost five cents apiece.

International and Homegrown Initiatives

World AIDS Day has been celebrated in Cuba since 1988 when the World Health Organization first declared it in London, and international cooperation has been decisive at various moments in Cuban AIDS history. Current and past collaborators include UNDP, UNESCO and UNAIDS, as well as NGO’s like Doctors Without Borders, Hivos and Population Services International. Nevertheless, many initiatives are homegrown now, with Cuba producing generic antiretrovirals since 2001, and HIV/AIDS prevention centers and related offices, hotlines, promoters and events all over the country. A couple of days later, the Hope Awards for prevention, mutual support and solidarity were given at Cuba’s National Theater, with performances by visual artists, musicians, dancers and actors. Lianett Rodríguez and Mardelis Martínez, a duo from the internationally renowned troupe Danza Contemporanea, told MEDICC Review their choreography was designed to help “raise consciousness and support self esteem.” They explained how both are particularly important to people with HIV, who “suffer from rejection by uninformed people,” and that their mission is to “give AIDS a face.”
Daniel Vila, Coordinator of the Amigos del Este HIV/AIDS support group, told MEDICC Review that he had unprotected sex with a woman one night eight years ago and contracted the HIV virus. When his test came out positive he said he felt the world was falling apart and was thankful a psychologist was there to help him learn how to cope.“It took me a long time to assimilate,” he said, “and at first I ran around trying to finish as many things as possible.”
That is what is called the “elaboration of grief,” he explained, now well-versed in the language of catharsis and an international speaker on the Cuban experience. There are 31 self-help groups in Havana and 79 in Cuba, and he said there is a palpable commitment from the government to actively fight and inform about AIDS.
“Without that, words fade off into inaction,” he said, “everyone has a particular situation but at least national policy supports us, and we all have our meds.” As Daniel walked off the risers at Havana’s National Theater, MEDICC Review asked when was his best moment during almost a decade of HIV infection.
Without skipping a beat the award winner said: “Today.”

MEDICC Review March/April 2006

US and Cuban Volunteers Build Playgrounds

2007-07-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

Havana - A group of 49 US citizens is in Havana this week, not at the beach but digging holes, sorting nuts and bolts and putting together some pretty heavy equipment for children as a show of friendship between the people."It´s Just the Kids" project is back to put up four new playgrounds for children here with extensive collaboration from Cuban organizations. In May 2003, they had put up three parks, this time have slated four, and have permission from US authorities to do four more in the future.Bill Hauf, project coordinator, says this week´s goal may have been too ambitious, but it is being fulfilled."This is a partnership and there is equal contribution from both sides," he says, explaining how the US brigade brought 200,000 dollars in high-tech plastic playground equipment and Cuba is providing ground transportation, workers, snacks and concrete.He said the members of the brigade fundraised and personally donated the cash, most of which came from him, and none from the US government.Hauf was pleased with the level of cooperation from Cuba, and as an example points to a power line in the middle of the current site in Guanabacoa.The local hosts considered it dangerous and were having it removed as we spoke. Dodging post holes at the Guanabacoa site, one is overcome by gleaming yellow tubes, blue climbing walls, and bouncy platforms to be assembled by Cuban and US volunteers into a kid’s paradise. And one that will last.The park they built two years ago in Regla, Bill’s favorite, is still in tip top condition. The name of the organization says it all."It´s Just the Kids" (www.itsjustthekids.org) is a licensed US non-profit approved by the Cuban government "to do just one thing, to work in partnership with Cuban families and municipalities to provide fun, safe places for Cuban children to play." In outlying Havana neighborhoods, one wonders why they are so far off the beaten track. But Hauf explains that the Havana parks and recreation department carefully proposed 12 possible sites where they would be most needed and his group picked its favorites from the list.A young US woman says in Spanish "you can carry that over there." A burly Cuban volunteer scoops dirt out of a deep hole. Mike Roberts and his 17 year-old daughter Katie say this is about "connecting with people and deepening understanding."The cooperation is palpable and its result is worth it. When asked about why he really does this, Bill points to the margin of the bustling crew and equipment and says "Look at that little girl. She’s waiting until we finish. The joy on their faces is worth it all."

US Republican Supports Cuban Five

2007-07-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

An unlikely supporter of five Cubans locked up in US jails, a former Arizona attorney general and member of the Republican Party takes time out from million dollar corporate trials to explain why he thinks the trial of the Cuban Five in Miami was politically biased.

Born half a century ago, young Republican Grant Woods became a politician in 1989 when he announced his candidacy for Arizona Attorney General, but says the job meant more than just seeking votes.
His office embraced all of the 1990's and included massive suits against tobacco companies, challenging fellow party members over immigration issues and what he described in a March 2004 article in Arizona Attorney as “doing what he believes is correct and letting the chips fall as they may.”
Mr. Woods explains in his seminal article “Out with the Timid” that for politicians life can be deeper than it appears, but that sometimes it takes guts to do the right thing.
“Build relationships, motivate the troops and remember what’s important,” he advises after coming of age, and explains that he currently has a successful career as a trial lawyer since leaving public office in 1999.
Another busy man of law, the Speaker of Cuba´s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, shared the story of five Cubans unfairly imprisoned in the US with Mr.
Woods while he visited here a couple of years ago.
Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez and Fernando Gonzalez, universally known as the Cuban Five, were rounded up in 1998 in a federal sting operation after collecting data for Cuba on violent efforts organized by extreme groups of Cuban origin in Southern Florida. This included information sharing on terrorist activities that would have been dangerous for Cuban and US civilians.
The men were convicted for political reasons in Miami, a hotbed of anti-Cuban sentiment, where they were sentenced to multiple life sentences, solitary confinement and denied visiting rights.
The integrity of the FBI case agent who first nabbed them, conspicuous lack of key evidence, extreme sentences, impaired access to defense documents and what has essentially been a “criminalization of the political” have marked this mammoth case from the beginning.
The Five applied for moving the case away from a venue now recognized as entirely unsuitable and annulment of the trial, which has already been recommended by three members of the Federal Appeals Court. What’s more, a working group on arbitrary detention set up by the UN Human Rights Commission declared the incarceration arbitrary and illegal.

Unfair Trial in Miami

Grant Woods, a former public defender, judge pro tempore and Attorney General, says he has researched this unique sequence of events, and “there is no question in my mind that these Five did not receive a fair trial because the case was tried in Miami.”
After repeated telephone calls and emails, Mr. Woods keys in to Havana from his handheld computer, explaining how most days he is either in court or preparing cases for trial.
“It is my hope that the federal judges in Atlanta will overturn these convictions,” he explained.
It is his understanding that they were monitoring “activities of radicals in Miami who had previously been involved in acts of violence against Cuba and Cubans.”
Mr. Woods implies it may not be easy to find an impartial jury to accept that, but very clearly says “they had every right to present it to one that came into the case with no preconceived opinions or prejudices. In fact, Miami was probably the worst place in the world to present this defense.”

American Justice

“One of the basic tenets of our American system of justice is that you can walk into the courtroom and have your case heard impartially on the merits of your argument, regardless of your ethnicity, national origin, or political views,” explains Mr. Woods.
He says the original trial venue could have easily been changed to a neighboring county whose “views toward Cuba and these Five were more in line with the rest of the country.”
“It cannot matter whether defendants are from a country with which the United States has an ongoing dispute or whether or not we approve of the political regime in the country of origin for defendants,” he says, reminding that “what matters are the facts of the case. I hope our appellate court in Atlanta will see this and let these men be judged fairly once and for all.”

On Liberty and Safety

Asked if he has any favorite quotes that could apply to this case, Grant Woods replies that Ben Franklin once said: "Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
These five men were sentenced in December 2001, just two months after the world was changed forever by the world trade center attack, which was repudiated by the five Cubans the same day it happened.
Nevertheless, in that month of fear and confusion these men were laden with a total of three life sentences, one of them double, and more than 60 years behind bars.
“It is tempting,” he says, “to compromise in these times when people are more fearful for their safety.
But it is exactly in these times that we must remain true to the fundamental tenets of our Constitution or else we risk going down a slippery slope from which there may be no going back.”
Regarding how fear may have affected this trial, he says “Compromise and rationalization in this case may have made a good political result for some in Florida, but I believe it reflected quite poorly on our system of justice.” Politics Have No Place in the Courtroom
“This case has thus far been all about politics and not about the law,” elaborates Grant Woods. “Each defendant, regardless of his personal politics, deserves the guarantees of a fair trial that our Constitution provides.”
“As Attorney General, I told my prosecutors that I wanted to win cases based on their merit, not because I had used the rules or the system to stack the deck against defendants. That is easily done and often tempting to achieve a particular result. But it"s not right,” he says.
This week the defense will argue before the full 12 judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that the 93-page decision by the three member panel from that court was correct in its analysis of Miami as a “perfect storm of prejudice,” and that the men should have been tried elsewhere.
In a telephone conversation last December from New York to his Florida office, defense chief Richard Klugh explained to Prensa Latina exactly why he believes his clients should be set free.
“They’ve all served extremely long sentences,” says the lawyer, “and I don’t even think the government thinks they should be tried again. They clearly did not act in a criminal way, and when someone has suffered as much as they have, it’s best to just release them.”
Grant Woods seems to listen to his own sage advice on remembering what’s important regardless of its political value, and says “Changing the venue to assure a fair trial for these men was the right thing to do and I believed it was essential under our Constitution.”
“The system is great, but it is not perfect. That's why we have appellate courts, and I am hopeful that they will set a higher standard and correct this wrong.”

This version was taken from http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/3365/1/165/

Cuban Art Happening

2007-07-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Rethinking a Cocktail Party

By Mike Fuller

Cubanow.net - Havana artist Adriana Arronte deconstructed a traditional human gathering by radically altering glass cups into sculptural forms, filling them with wine and inviting people to imbibe.
"Please, start drinking," she said into a microphone, encouraging participants at the invitation-only cocktail party to refill and interchange cups. As with all her work, there was crystal clear evidence of a passion for the medium, an obsession for detail that comes off with stunningly beautiful productions.
From her seductive photos of birth control paraphernalia at the Alamar Biennial last year, to the painstakingly wrought brass leaves she hung in a Havana gallery to her sculptural participation in the Havana Biennial this year, her commitment to theory is forever accompanied by a rich love for craft.
She is extremely formal, hyper-committed to repetitive visual display for carrying her messages, which shatter ritual and incite reflection in those who participate.
This intervention included physical intoxication, awkward positions, plenty of spilt wine and, miraculously, not one broken glass. The message is neither in the object nor the spectators, rather in the relationships they both form," she explains to Prensa Latina. Her objectives were to "take a common object, denaturalize it, subvert and pervert its typical action and create a new relation."
Mirta Ibarra, star of the film Strawberry and Chocolate, was part of those new ways of relating and posed for some shots with Adriana at the Institute of Cuban Film and Cinema Arts venue.
"Institutional anarchy, codified objects, eccentric abstraction, consumption of sensations, aesthetic obscenity, articulations of human behavior and detonation of process" are conversational terms for Arronte, who said she thought a great deal about using real alcohol in the piece. "As with the objects, I wanted to disinhibit the people and exaggerate their natural tendencies," she explains.
Citing works like Meret Oppenheim´s Fur-Lined Teacup, she says her ouevre proposes "active but morbid relations, deeply promiscuous, almost fetishistic."
There is nothing more agreeable than listening to an artworker who loves her material, and when Adriana Arronte speaks of glass blowing, it is enough to make one want to learn.
"I discovered how the air from my body gave body to the cups, passing through the glass, leaving its impression," she says, and mentions Marcel Duchamp´s glass bubble of Paris Air.
She explains the cups have not only been modeled by her own air, but are handed over to be breathed, sweated and salivated, which all makes up part of the piece.
This spectacle within a spectacle lasted less than two hours, consumed 24 bottles of red wine, and changed the way a significant group of people feel about art.

July 31, 2006

Sartre Returns to Havana

2007-06-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

Cuban theater director Carlos Diaz gathers people around a cage to understand what is happening within as part of his production of Jean Paul Sartre´s The Respectable Prostitute.

The importance of groups with common goals, as opposed to series of independent individuals, is an important quality of Sartre´s later oeuvre.One is drawn into Havana´s Trianon theater by a team of sado-masochist garbed men dancing around iron bars on the stage, inside of which a drama will be played that addresses the collapse of freedom when choice is controlled by others.

The 1946 play was written three years before the French author ever paid Cuba a visit, which he did again in 1960, immediately after the people of this country had decided to take liberty into their own hands.

The stunning prostitute Lizzie, played by Yailene Sierra, trades her body for leverage in the world, but that is not enough to stave off the power elite.

That oppression comes to her in the form of a Senator and his nephew successfully use their power to make the sex worker betray her values.

As the story goes, she had previously witnessed a white man kill a black, but the ruling class duo manage to bribe, threaten and ultimately convince her that it´s better to let the man of color fall guilty, because that´s what people expect anyway.

The power wielders use police as their right hand men and Diaz introduces the most brutish, cruel and horniest gang of law enforcement officers I have ever seen on a stage, in leather and chains and fucking anything that moves.

Sound familiar?

Evidence of bonding in the audience was very clear. Those who didn"t want to be part of the group simply left. And there were plenty.

But those of us who stayed were rewarded with a reminder of oppression and choice.Which sometimes is not so traumatic, and Diaz injects the Cuban response into the last seconds of the piece: a massive conga line that included the entire audience dancing on stage with the actors as a collective light bulb lit above our heads