Rock-and-Diamond Diplomacy Arrives in Cuba
CUBA, Spring, 1999 -- When a constellation of American and Cuban musicians ascends this evening on the stage of Havana's Karl Marx Theater, just 5,000 citizens in this country of 11 million will be able to listen. The historic "Music Bridges" concert here features an enormous roster of performers, from Bonnie Raitt and Burt Bacharach to renowned Cuban jazz pianist Churcho Valdes. But in keeping with the starved nature of this socialist nation's demand for American popular culture - be it entertainment or fashion - most Cubans will miss out on the performance because of the small venue and lack of coverage on state-controlled media.
But this afternoon's baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National Team won't lack for exposure. Cuban President Fidel Castro, after all, had a short-lived career as a baseball player, so he presumably has a strong personal as well as political interest in seeing his country's team face off against an American franchise. So Cuba's 11 million citizens will be able to follow the balls and strikes on Cuban radio and television - and it's a good bet that most of them will.
It's bread with only half of a circus - and not much more bread than a one-bun per person daily ration. Unfortunately, attention is focused on the match between baseball squads, where winning is the bottom line, rather than the collaborative concert, which will showcase songs written by American artists and their stunningly talented Cuban counterparts.
Both events present an historic opportunity to drown out through popular cheers the acid barbs that each country's government routinely directs at the other. It will be absorbing to note to what extent that actually happens, given that politics will seep unavoidably into the space these exchanges create.
Certainly, America's private-sector diplomats and Cuba's government have much more entertaining ideas than the rather clunky 1970s experiment in Cold War diplomacy that pitted China's crack ping-pong team against an American table -tennis squad. But after listening to a number of interested parties - on Havana's streets and in both Cuban and American seats of government - it's difficult to conclude that today will create a sturdy new fulcrum in the chronically imbalanced relations between the two nations.
Certainly the timing could be better. Not since Cuban MiG fighters shot down two planes of a Miami-based exile group in 1996 have tensions been more palpable in U.S.-Cuban relations. Things took a fresh turn for the worse in early January, when President Bill Clinton announced a series of relatively small changes to Washington's 38-year economic embargo. The administration continued its attempts to undermine Castro's government by augmenting people-to-people contact that might bolster or embolden Cuban"civil society," Almost immediately, Cuban leaders responded with new volleys of anti-American rhetoric. Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, decried "America's vicious economic commercial and financial war waged at all levels against our country. "At the same time, Alaron proudly announced that American leaders "know that Cuba is a baseball power. It is a challenge and an honor for any team to compete with the Cubans."
Other events complicate the situation. A dispute over finances led Cuba to restrict phone lines between the two nations. Castro's government has also sought to link anti-Castro exiles in Miami to a hotel bombing that killed an Italian tourist in 1997. The United States has been only slightly less vigorous in its anti-Cuban maneuvers, joining countries like Spain and Canada in condemning a recent crackdown on anti-Castro dissenters and the concurrent trial of four dissidents.
While Cuba says it wants normalized economic relations with the United States, American business and humanitarian interest groups continue trying to push Washington away from national policies that largely defer to Miam's anti-Castro exile community. But if policy makers from the two nations some how were to formulate a substantive change in relations, it will be an awkward reckoning.
Cuba Diplomacy
Having seen how Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist initiatives helped produce the fall of the Soviet Union, "this is a regime that is taking no chances that any reform process might get out of control" says Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John Hamilton. "{Cuban officials} are uncertain of their part, members of the Cuban government say they welcome cultural exchanges, though they clearly don't see them as any catalyst for change of their political system. "Of course, we don't have to fear anything from a ballgame or a concert -that's irrelevant," said Paul Caladrid, a vice minister for foreign investment. "We cannot see that isolated actions are a change -the United States still declares war on Cuba."
Despite promoters' efforts to keep politics out of the artistic and sports arenas, the political undertones are clear to the average Havana resident. While teams can play baseball for the joy of the game, they don't play to lose.
"This is political. It will be a reflection of the system, "said a 58-year old man who gave his name as Lazaro. The game will be the first against a U.S. team since Castro won power and so Cubans will interpret the result as a gauge of national worth be said. For that reason, Lazaro will root for Baltimore.
Asked about the concert, Lazaro screwed his eyes and tilted his head quizzically. As I spelled out the details of the event, and mentioned some of the featured performers - Jimmy Buffet, Ziggy Marley and the Indigo Girls - he replied that Music Bridges seemed more festive than political. That is debatable. Artists will, we hope, fly where they want despite the prevailing winds. Indeed, the possibility that the songs they perform will have political meaning is perhaps one reason that the event is underpublicized.
While Music Bridges founder and producer Alan Roy Scott insisted to international reporters that "I am just here to make music. We have no interest in politics," he did add that "an artist writes and creates best when there is something to be inspired about." It's not hard to read the code: Protocol prevents political talk, but clearly he desires that his project's goodwill will extend beyond the Hotel Nacional, where the artists have stayed and worked.
One way to raise the profile, joked the concert's Cuban artistic director, would be to invite the Orioles on stage to sing the Cuban classic "Guantanamera. "If nothing else, event organizers are preserving a sense of humor about these delicate cultural encounters. That in itself is a sign of welcome looseness in a still-tense atmosphere of Cold War-style confrontation.
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