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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Madrid a Haven for Cubans Tired of Miami vs. Havana Debates

Published Sunday, August 5, 2007
Madrid a Haven for Cubans Tired of Miami vs. Havana Debates

By MIRTA OJITO
The New York Times

MADRID - This is surely not the only city in the world where a handful
of Cubans can spend a day together and avoid talking politics. But it is
certainly the preferred one for Cuban artists and intellectuals of all
political stripes, who find the freedom here that they could never have
in Havana and the opportunities that may elude them in Miami, both
polarizing cities in the endless debate about Fidel Castro and the
nature of exile.

To wit: In a nondescript musical studio here recently, two Cubans who
for years were separated by politics got together to record an album and
announce their first joint concert tour of Spain. They were the
legendary pianist Bebo Valdes, 88, who left Cuba in 1960 and has vowed
not to return until there is a democratic government in place, and his
son, the jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, 65, who keeps a home in Havana and
still informs the Cuban Ministry of Culture of his artistic whereabouts.

With two Cuban exiles from Miami, the producer Nat Chediak and his wife,
Conchita Espinosa, and a Cuban-American filmmaker, Carlos Carcas, who
was raised in Miami and lives in Madrid, they talked mostly about music,
not an unusual scene in a city that has become a welcoming neutral
ground for the great many Cuban artists and intellectuals who live here.

"Madrid has been one of the few places in the world where they have been
able to find a breather," Chediak said.

Cultural expressions - from literature to music - that cannot possibly
take place in Havana because of government censorship and may be
difficult to negotiate in Miami because of the fervent politics of some
Cuban exiles are finding an outlet and an audience in the country many
Cubans still call, and not always in jest, la madre patria, the mother
country.

The reasons vary, and range from Cuba's shared heritage and language
with Spain to the fact that for many Cubans, Havana and Miami continue
to be the two extremes of a political spectrum that forces Cubans to
define themselves by making only one, but crucial, decision: the
rejection or acceptance of the Castro brothers' government by opting for
exile or staying on the island. Madrid accepts ambiguity.

"In Cuba and Miami, there is no middle ground," said Boris Larramendi,
37, one of the lead musicians of Habana Abierta, a group that has
already released three albums in Madrid and has played both in Cuba and
Miami. "Here you can feel somewhat distant from both extremes and take
certain positions that would be difficult to maintain in Havana or
Miami, particularly in Cuba, where I know that if I said the things I
say here, I'd be jailed."

Cuban performers and intellectuals who live in Madrid say they do not
necessarily reject the option of living in South Florida. Spain has
simply become an increasingly easier country to get to because the Cuban
government is more lenient with exit permits to Europe than to the
United States.

Those who decide to stay here find a welcoming attitude because of the
familiar ties that for generations have bound the two countries together.

Washington's policies, too, have contributed to the mushrooming presence
of Cuban intellectuals here. While a decade ago, under President
Clinton, Cuban academics and artists freely traveled to cities like New
York, Chicago and Miami, and returned to the island, or not, the Bush
administration has severely curtailed such cultural exchanges. They are
happening, instead, in Spain's universities, cafes and concert halls.

It is difficult to determine who among the Cubans here intends to stay
or is just passing through. Kelvis Ochoa, one of the lead musicians of
Habana Abierta, for example, is now in Cuba. Larramendi said he did not
know if Ochoa planned to return or stay. He has not asked.

Some writers and musicians say they will never live in Cuba again under
the Castro government; others are reluctant to commit publicly to any
political position for fear they will not be allowed to return to their
families on the island. The result is a revolving door of Cuban
intellectuals and artists that keeps the local media busy writing about
Cuban-themed events.

"Here, what's important is your work, not your biography," said Antonio
Jose Ponte, a 42-year-old Cuban writer who has lived in Madrid for one
year. "In a city like Miami, people want to know who you are, what you
think, when you left. They want to know who they are talking to. Here,
the outlines are fuzzier."

Yet, Ponte said he understood that eagerness to know: "It's the nature
of the altered and confusing state of being an exile."

http://www.theledger.com/article/20070805/NEWS/708050441/-1/LIFE0201

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