Events tackle suffering caused by family separations in Cuba

Posted on Fri, May. 12, 2006

U.S. CUBA POLICY
Events tackle suffering caused by family separations in Cuba
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON - It is an emotional strain Cubans on both sides of the
Florida Straits know all too well: sons and daughters unable to attend a
parent's burial; aging grandparents longing to see their grandchildren;
long-separated cousins drifting apart.

Two cultural events unveiled in Washington this week are highlighting
the pain of Cuba's separated families, but with different political
undertones. One attacks President Bush's Cuba policy, while the
promoters of another argue that Cuban leader Fidel Castro is the one
causing family suffering.

On Thursday, two groups opposed to U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba
launched a photo exhibit with 20 testimonies of everyday Cuban Americans
affected by the Bush administration's 2004 decision to tighten family
visits to Cuba. The exhibit opened in the Rayburn House Office Building
before moving to Arlington, Va.

''The exhibit really puts a face on the consequences of our current Cuba
policy,'' said Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who was one of
four members of Congress backing the display. ``Our policy seems to be
hurting some of these families much more than it's hurting Castro's
regime.''

At another event, actor Andy Garcia teamed up with Republican Sen. Mel
Martinez of Florida on Wednesday evening for the Washington premiere of
The Lost City, which centers on a Cuban family in the early days of
Castro's revolution.

CASTRO, THE `DIVIDER'

Martinez, who left Cuba when he was 15, initially without his parents,
turned the event into a defense of Bush's Cuba policy.

''The head family divider is Fidel Castro because at age 15 he divided
my family,'' said Martinez, who never returned to Cuba. ``The
circumstances he has created in Cuba have been dividing families in all
these years. Frankly, this policy is trying to reunite families under a
free Cuba.''

Garcia, who left Cuba when he was 5, directed, produced and plays a
leading role in the film.

''I think about going back every day,'' he said. ``It's about impossible
love, having to leave the thing you most cherish.''

The photo exhibit is critical of Bush's tightened travel regulations.
Under the new rules, family visits are permitted only once every three
years instead of once a year, with no humanitarian exceptions for family
emergencies. Relatives can only visit for a maximum of two weeks.

NEW FRUSTRATIONS

Juan-Sí González, a photographer who lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, took
some of the photos and is featured in one of them. He says he left Cuba
in 1992, when the government grew intolerant of his artistic expressions.

''I was a dissident in Cuba, and now I'm a dissident here,'' he said.

The exhibit was organized by the Latin America Working Group Educational
Fund and the Washington Office on Latin America, two left-leaning
advocacy organizations.

Both events come weeks before Bush is expected to announce new measures
that seek to hasten the demise of the Cuban communist government,
depending on the recommendations of the second Commission for Assistance
to a Free Cuba, a government interagency effort that revises U.S. policy
on Cuba. The first report recommended the 2004 travel restrictions.

At The Lost City event, Martinez said critics of Bush's travel policies
were ''misplacing the burden'' and noted that the policy was ''broadly''
supported by the Cuban American community.

''The fact is the victim of Castro's Cuba is the Cuban family,'' he said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/14560353.htm