Mick and Cuba (1999)

[michelej1]

[This is from an article about Peace Without Borders. They are planning a concert in Havana today and this article discusses how a similar effort 10 years ago went wrong. This is an excerpt]

Naples News http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/...s-cuba-concer/

As the “Piano Man” serenaded the crowd at the Karl Marx Theater and Stephen Stills concluded his introductory speech with an energetic “Viva la revolucion,” Fidel Castro’s regime was arming and training guerrilla movements like the IRA, the PLO and FARC, which has plagued Juanes’ native Colombia with violence throughout the span of his life.

The jam didn’t stop the Cuban government from jailing prominent dissidents and clamping down on its citizens for possession of “dangerous, anti-revolutionary materials,” such as Led Zeppelin albums.

It was nothing more than a public-relations stunt carried out by a regime that subscribes to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’ “big lie” techniques — if audacious enough and repeated often, the masses will believe it.

In 1999, a group spearheaded by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame, new Dolphins’ minority owner Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt and two-thirds of the band Police, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, flew to Cuba, labeling the futile affair “Bridges Over Troubled Waters.” That was under the auspices of the Clinton White House.

Only a few months after the performance, Cuban opposition leader Oscar Elias Biscet was detained and beaten by Cuban police. I vividly remember Raitt’s response when then-“Tonight Show” host Jay Leno questioned her about the trip” “Rock on, Fidel!” she said. It was right out of “The Twilight Zone.”

Could the plight of over 1 million Cubans who have fled the island not be compelling enough for the rock gods?

It’s not just musicians who are willing to be useful tools for a despotic regime. Robert Duval, Bill Murray and James Caan recently accompanied Benicio del Toro to Cuba to receive an award for his portrayal in Steven Soderbergh’s droning epic, “Che.”

I expect that Juanes’ concert will have no effect on Cuba’s draconian laws. The Obama administration’s attempts to thaw iced U.S.-Cuba relations will prove fruitless. What these attempts do is give the world the false impression of a willingness by the Cuban regime to open its heavily sealed door, buying more time for the Castro brothers’ reign.

As a product of the gospel of rock ’n’ roll, my faith is shaken. As the son and grandson of Cuban exiles, my heart is broken. And as an American, I am outraged.

Cardona is an independent filmmaker who resides in Miami. He premiered his documentary on the late Cuban salsa singing legend Celia Cruz, “Celia the Queen,” at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts last September. This essay first appeared in the Miami Herald. Readers can e-mail Cardona at jccigar@aol.com.