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I just finished reading Manuel Ramy’s blog note in Spanish, “State Department playing daisies.” You know the story, she loves me, she loves me not… In it he mentions Cuban mega star Silvio Rodriguez and his intentions of flying to New York City from Europe to celebrate Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday. Sadly, it appears this will not be happening. The U.S. has yet to issue Rodriguez’ entry visa to the U.S. Too bad. And we thought the U.S. and Cuba were getting along better…

I don’t understand why keep out Silvio (as most every Cuban knows him). The most danger the known around the world songster and poet might cause in this country is to belt out a song during Seeger’s celebration. Speaking of Pete Seeger, we are running a reprint of an article that appears in The Nation celebrating this most-American individual in this Thursday’s Progreso Weekly and Semanal.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

5-4-2009
I also wanted to share Silvio’s message to his sister in Havana regarding this visa fiasco:

Today is May 1 an d it is 8:40pm in Paris. I just connected online to the United States Embassy site in France, where information is published regarding visa solicitations. My visa application is listed as being in process, the same status that it has maintained since I made the application. Today being the day that I was to fly to New York, and given that the visa has still not appeared, tomorrow I will leave instead for Havana.

You can pass this message to Pete’s grandson Tao, and to Bill the attorney, along with my gratitude for their efforts as well as my sorrow resulting from the lack of respect shown by the State Department to them for having invited me to celebrate the 90th birthday of our dear friend Pete Seeger, living legend of North American song.

I believe that the attitude of the State Department is very contradictory, given the desire expressed by President Obama to bring the United States closer to Cuba. As a Cuban cultural worker, I continue to feel blockaded and discriminated against by other governments. Hopefully this will truly change someday.

Thanks for your help.

Silvio

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Cuba still on terrorist list — they forgot to include the U.S.

alvaro | Cuba, U.S. | Friday, May 1st, 2009

In today’s Miami Herald, Lesley Clark reports that “Cuba stays on the list of states that sponsor terrorism.” Interesting, I thought, wondering what guidelines the U.S. uses to measure who is a terrorist nation — or not. So I read on. The report states that Cuba “no longer actively supports armed struggle in Latin America and other parts of the world …” But, and here comes the kicker, the [Cuban] government “continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists.”

I mulled over the concept of terrorism in my head and determined that the U.S. should be on the list… For years, we’ve been actively supporting armed struggles in other parts of the world. Or what would you call Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on? As for providing safe haven to terrorists. Well, let’s start in Miami, for example. There are many more than two, but we can mention Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, two documented terrorists who walk freely down our streets and have even been lauded by some of our representatives in Washington, D.C. Most notably: Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, together with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

At this point, I am not sure what to make of this, really. Then again, there might be a point to Cuba’s inclusion in the terrorist list. For years Fidel Castro, for example, has terrorized U.S. presidents. Yes, the bearded fellow down south seems to give U.S. leaders nightmares. To the point that he managed to turn the U.S.’s strategy up on its head. During the past 50 years, this country has tried to isolate Cuba from the rest of the hemisphere and the world, but at this point, the only one that seems isolated from most of the rest of the world is the U.S.

No wonder U.S. presidents have not slept well for 50 years. These Castros sure know how to play this game of geopolitics. If I was president, I’d be terrorized too.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

5-1-2009

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