In Cuba, an opera singer's enterprise
* National, local governments now promoting private ventures
* El Cabildo believed to be Cuba 's largest private business
* More private cabarets, theaters in the works
By Marc Frank
(Reuters) - Cuban performers ranging from Broadway-style
dancers to classical opera singers are packing them in at El Cabildo, a
recently opened entertainment center that is pushing the limits of the
communist country's still-unfolding economic reforms.
With about 130 employees, the club tucked into one of Havana 's posher neighborhoods is believed to be the
largest private business in Havana
and perhaps a harbinger of things to come under the initiatives of President
Raul Castro.
El Cabildo, which has an outdoor theater, bar and 150-seat
restaurant, is a throwback to life before Cuba 's
1959 revolution, when Havana
teemed with cabarets and theaters.
It has nightly entertainment, anchored by an eclectic troupe
called "Opera of the Street" that mixes traditional opera with Cuban
song and dance and popular music from abroad.
On Sunday evenings, disco music reigns and other nights four
opera tenors perform.
Unlike the ritzy clubs of the pre-revolutionary past, El
Cabildo is built atop the ruins of a fallen building and a thatched roof covers
part of the area.
RUBBLE TRANSFORMED
El Cabildo is the product of one man's moxie and of changes
in government policy aimed at improving Cuba 's struggling economy.
Ulises Aquino, a 50-year-old opera singer who founded Opera
in the Street in 2006, was looking for a home for the company, so when
President Castro announced a series of reforms two years ago promoting private
businesses he decided to seize the opportunity.
One reform designed to promote municipal development
encouraged local leaders to come up with their own ideas instead of waiting for
direction from the national government.
In 2011, Aquino, whose performers were accustomed to playing
in rudimentary conditions, including in the street, convinced authorities in Havana 's upscale Playa
district to let him use the remnants of one of the city's many collapsed
buildings.
Aquino, a stocky, barrel-chested man who has a powerful
baritone voice onstage but speaks softly when he is off, transformed the rubble
into a permanent venue for his group.
"The country has moved on from a tendency to degrade
things," he said on a recent night at El Cabildo. "The government's
policy is to support this type of phenomena and that an artist, or a worker, or
a farmer can put his own means of production to work to help meet the goals of
the nation."
Aquino kept the company afloat financially by taking it
abroad and performing in local tourist venues to earn hard currency, and became
adept at working within the Cuban system.
While Castro's reforms have encouraged private initiative,
they come with loaded with restrictions to try to ensure that Cuba does not
return to a society of haves and have nots. Aquino mixes individual initiative
with community activism, hosting free children's activities weekend mornings
and keeping his prices affordable.
The new entrepreneurs had to get a license for their
business and private restaurants were limited to a maximum of 50 seats.
Aquino got around the limit by taking out three restaurant
licenses, which enabled him to put in 150 seats, and then another as an
"organizer of events and other activities."
Using the latter, he plans to expand the business by
offering boat rides on the Almendares River , which flows beside El Cabildo just before
opening into the Straits of Florida .
"It is not enough to have an ugly socialism. It has to
be more beautiful than the other systems so everyone will embrace the
idea," he said.
GOOD SALARIES; HIGH COSTS
El Cabildo is no mom-and-pop operation. Aquino has 60
performers and 26 support staff in Opera of the Street, plus 43 employees in
the bar and restaurant.
They all earn 1,800-2,000 pesos a month, about four times Cuba 's average
monthly salary of 450 pesos, equivalent to $19, he said.
Aquino pays about 20,000 pesos, equivalent to $833, a month
for his licenses and sales taxes, but does not know yet how much his annual
income tax will be.
Running costs are high, mostly because he like other private
business owners has to buy all food, beverages and other items from state
stores at retail prices.
It is a common complaint that the state provides goods at
wholesale prices for government businesses, but not yet to the private sector.
The vast majority of El Cabildo's clients are Cuban, paying
a 50 peso cover charge, the equivalent of $2, while tourists pay the equivalent
of a $10 cover Sunday through Thursday and $25 for the show on weekends.
According to Rafael Betancourt, a specialist on local
development at the National Association of Cuban Economists, a number of
similar private entertainment projects are in the works pointing to the
importance that individual initiative will play in building Cuba 's future.
"There are many artists that want to do projects like
this," he said. "El Cabildo is just the beginning." (Editing by
Jeff Franks and David Adams; Desking by Cynthia Osterman)
*******************************
Cuban opera singer
challenges "jealous" bureaucrats over closed theater
Thu Aug 2, 2012 3:39am IST
*
Cultural center raid surprises patrons and staff
*
Owner challenges government action as contrary to Castro reforms
By
Marc Frank
HAVANA,
Aug 1 (Reuters) - The Cuban government has closed a privately run cultural
center, causing consternation among artists and intellectuals in what is
shaping up to be the latest test of President Raul Castro's loosening of
controls over everyday life.
A
week ago government inspectors burst into the El Cabildo cultural center to the
shock of patrons, artists and staff attending musical performed by its theater
company, the "Opera in the Street."
The
local authorities, citing a recent Reuters story on the center that mentioned a
cover charge for customers, took away El Cabildo's license on the grounds of
"illicit enrichment."
The
vast majority of El Cabildo's clients were Cuban, paying a 50-peso cover
charge, the equivalent of $2, while foreigners paid more.
The
inspectors searched El Cabildo for hours and interrogated its young artists and
restaurant staff, but found nothing more amiss than two cooks working on a
trial basis without proper papers, employees said.
A
protest letter circulating among members of Cuba's National Union of Artists
and Writers, and written by owner Ulises Aquino, defends the cultural center
against the enrichment charges and instead turns the tables on unnamed
bureaucrats.
"The
poet says: 'who questions the honorable, clearly signals that he is not,' and a
proverb says, 'The thief thinks that everyone is the same as he,'"
Aquino's letter said.
Officials
at the Cuban government's press office did not immediately respond to a request
seeking an official explanation for El Cabildo's closure.
STATE
BUREAUCRATS UNDER ATTACK
For
many within Cuba's cultural and intellectual circles, the cultural center's
fate has become a litmus test of efforts by Castro to grow the state's small private
sector while drastically reducing the state bureaucracy.
Since
taking over for his ailing older brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro, 81, has
liberalized regulations for small businesses and farming, and begun leasing
small state retail outlets to employees.
Aquino,
a 50-year-old opera singer, founded the theater company Opera in the Street in
2006, and taking advantage of loosened regulations on small business and
government encouragement of local development projects, opened El Cabildo as a
permanent venue for the youthful troupe.
A
staunch advocate of socialism, Aquino charged in his letter that the forces
behind the closing of his center were "jealous" of its success.
"Those
who fear that the worker, the intellectual and the artist might find their own
productive road are not revolutionaries, they are conservatives," he
wrote.
"They
enjoy the benefits of power that gives them the ability, as in this case, to
decide the destiny of human works, not to help them flourish, but to destroy
them," Aquino charged.
The
Reuters story characterized El Cabildo as "perhaps the largest private
business in Havana," with the Opera of the Street's 86 artists and support
staff, plus 43 other employees in its bar and restaurant.
After
the article appeared, the Communist Party's Ideology Department phoned Aquino
to ask how El Cabildo worked.
Aquino
told reporters that he provided a full explanation and believed all was well,
only to be raided by a "commando" of inspectors later in the week.
BUILT
FROM SCRATCH
Aquino,
a stocky, barrel-chested man who has a powerful baritone voice onstage but
speaks softly when he is off, built from scratch the eclectic theater company
that mixes traditional opera with Cuban song and dance and popular music from
abroad.
He
also built the cultural center, investing his savings earned abroad as an opera
singer, on the ruins of a collapsed building in Playa, one of Havana's
relatively well off districts.
Reuters
also had reported that El Cabildo's proceeds were shared after expenses, taxes,
and investments, resulting in monthly wages four times greater than the
country's 450 pesos average, or around $19.
"The
earnings of the Opera of the Street are divided among everyone ... including me
... All the artists perform with a subsidy from the Culture Ministry, but as
our president has said, salaries do not correspond with the cost of
living," Aquino said in his letter.
A
government insider said the Playa district's architect and perhaps other
officials were opposed to the El Cabildo for various reasons and had apparently
used the Reuters story as an excuse to shut it down.
A
Cuban economist said El Cabildo's cover charge may have fallen into a gray area
in Cuban law. Though private establishments were not prohibited from having
cover charges, establishments associated with the Culture Ministry, such as
such as El Cabildo, might be more restricted in what they can charge. (Editing
by David Adams)
Opera
Unfolds When A Cuban Cabaret Is Shut Down
By Nick MiroffJuly 31, 2012
Cuban
performers ranging from dancers to opera singers were packing in audiences at
Havana's El Cabildo restaurant and cabaret. In a case seen as a test of Raul
Castro's commitment to economic changes, government inspectors recently closed
the restaurant. (Desmond Boylan / Reuters /Landov)
Ulises
Aquino was already one of Cuba's best-known baritones when he founded his own
company, Opera de la Calle, or Opera of the Street, in 2006. By combining Cuban
rhythms and dance with his formal musical training, he won fans at home and
abroad.
Aquino
also considers himself a good "revolucionario," meaning he's a loyal
supporter of Cuba's socialist system. And when President Raul Castro urged
Cubans to increase productivity by starting small businesses, Aquino answered
the call.
He
cleaned up a vacant, trash-strewn lot in Havana and built a restaurant and
cabaret, El Cabildo, where his Opera of the Street could finally have a home.
(Nick
Miroff for NPR)
It
was a big hit. And true to socialist principles, Aquino split earnings among
his 130 employees, held free children's theater on weekends and kept his prices
low.
But
it didn't last a year.
Aquino
says a team of inspectors sent by Havana city authorities interrupted the show
on July 21 as the stunned audience looked on.
"They
ordered me off the stage and began a four-hour inspection," he says.
"They told us to shut down the kitchen and freeze all sales."
Owner
Blames Bureaucrats, Not Castro
The
officials ordered El Cabildo closed and Aquino's business licenses revoked for
two years. His supplies lacked proper receipts, they said, and he had too many
chairs. But the most severe charge was personal enrichment, meaning he wasn't
authorized to charge a $2 cover at the door.
No
hearing. No appeal. Just a stern letter from officials who weren't interested
in helping bring Aquino into compliance. But he's not blaming Raul Castro.
"This
kind of thing is the exact opposite of what our government has been telling
us," Aquino says. "The people behind this are the midlevel
bureaucrats who see Cuba changing and know that they're going to lose their
power. They are the ones holding our country back."
Raul
Castro himself told Cubans in a recent speech that bureaucrats who stand in the
way of change will be swept aside. He's laid out plans to resuscitate Cuba's
state-run economy by creating millions of jobs in new small businesses and
cooperatives.
But
the process is dragging. Closing El Cabildo has eliminated 130 of the jobs
created for Cubans like Angel Basterrechea, who fears he may have lost the
highest-paying job he'll ever have.
"Life
has changed for me and for my family since I started working here," says
Basterrechea, who Aquino hired to help build El Cabildo and work as a night
watchman. "I've made $120 — even $160 — a month and that's more than I've
ever made."
A
Test For Reforms
No
one is getting rich on that sort of wage in Cuba, where the average state
salary is a meager $20 a month. But even a modest display of success may have
led to Aquino's downfall.
Just
before Aquino was busted, the cabaret was featured in a Reuters article that
called it "Cuba's largest private business" and laid out his
profit-sharing model for socialist enterprise.
Aquino
insists he broke no laws and that he's the one on the side of the Cuban
Revolution, not the local officials who shut him down.
"I
am a revolutionary because I'm not a conservative," he says. "This
was done by people who pretend to be revolutionary but are fakers, lacking in
any ethical principles. This is not what the revolution is about."
Aquino's
case is a test for Castro and his reformers as they begin an experiment
converting state-owned companies into employee-run cooperatives. If they
intervene and help Aquino reopen, it'll send a message to lower-level officials
that small businesses that create jobs deserve support.
If
they let El Cabildo remain shuttered, they'll be sending a different signal:
that the skeptics are right, and Cuba hasn't changed much after all.
Copyright
2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/
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