"Hatuey", Sephardic and Klezmer Music in Havana 2017

Press Release
Contact: Ruth Behar 734-747-9197 ruthbeharauthor@gmail.com	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 22, 2016

Celebration of Jewish Culture in Cuba

Celebración de la cultura judía en Cuba

March 3-4, 2017

ANN ARBOR, MI:  The first public celebration of Jewish culture in Cuba will be a landmark event bringing together music, dance, opera, and literature. The idea originated with MacArthur Genius recipient and prize-winning scholar and writer Ruth Behar, who has been promoting cultural and artistic bridges between Cuba and the United States for over twenty years. Ruth is a renowned expert on the history and culture of the Jews of Cuba and wanted to share with a wide public the vibrancy of the Jewish Cuban heritage on the island.

The highlight of the celebration will be the premiere on March 3rd of the Yiddish-Cuban opera, Hatuey: Memory of Fire. The opera is based on a 1931 epic poem by the Ukranian-Jewish immigrant writer, Usher Penn (Oscar Pinis in Cuba), penned after he arrived to safety in Cuba. With the memory of the pogroms in Europe still fresh in his mind, Penn wrote about the suffering of the indigenous people of Cuba and their resistance to Spanish domination.

In a unique collaboration, La Opera de la Calle in Havana, which aims to make opera accessible to all Cubans, will perform the work, teaming up with American artists, drawing on the stunning libretto by Elise Thoron, original music by Grammy-award winning musician Frank London, and production support from Diane Wondisford and Michael Posnick, son-in-law of the author Usher Penn.

Ruth Behar met Michael Posnick in Havana in May, 2016. When Michael told her about the dream of bring Hatuey: Memory of Fire to the Cuban stage, Ruth Behar was determined to help make this dream come true. Her own maternal grandparents were Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Poland. Staging a Yiddish-Cuban opera in Cuba seemed an ideal way to honor the kindness and tolerance with which Cubans had welcomed Jewish immigrants to the island in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Ruth Behar reached out directly to Ulises Aquino, the director of La Opera de la Calle, in June, 2016 to ask if he would be interested in staging the work with his company. His immediate reply was enthusiastic, saying he was interested in considering the project. Ruth then arranged for a meeting in New York in August, 2016 with Elise Thoron, Frank London, Michael Posnick, and Diane Wondisford, and the opera project was launched.

The excitement surrounding the Hatuey production has garnered attention in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/arts/music/a-yiddish-cuban-opera-to-have-its-premiere-in-havana-in-march.html?_r=0

The Cuban press has also written favorably about the project:

http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2017/02/22/musicos-cubanos-y-estadounidenses-estrenaran-la-obra-hatuey/#.WK7pQLYrL-a

A concert of Klezmer and Sephardic music at the Patronato Synagogue on March 4th from 3-5pm will continue the celebration, featuring the Yuval Ron Ensemble and Frank London’s New York Mishpokhe playing separate concerts and ending with a joint jam session.

Ruth Behar, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, was born in Havana and immigrated with her Jewish-Cuban family to New York as a child in the early 1960s. She has been returning to the island for twenty-five years of cultural bridge-building, and has formed close ties with the Jewish community of Cuba. Ruth is the author of An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba, among other books. For more information, please visit http://www.ruthbehar.com/

A special concert of Yiddish and Sephardic music at the Patronato Synagogue

with the Yuval Ron Ensemble and Frank London's New York Yiddish Mishpokhe

Saturday,  March         4,2017

Yuval Ron and his ensemble will perform a concert of Sephardic music with guest Cuban children's choir Coro Lucecita.

Frank London's New York Yiddish Mishpokhe, to include Sarah Gordon and Zoe Christiansen, will perform klezmer music and Yiddish songs with special Cuban guests.

A video of the premier of "Hatuey; Memory of

Fire" in Havana by Opera de la Calle can be

seen by clicking here  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQOcVSAEpOU

For more background by librettist Elise Thoron, click here

https://elisethoron.com/hatuey.html

Personal Witness The Passing of Fidel

The Passing of Fidel

    by John McAuliff

After consulting Cuban friends upon hearing of Fidel Castro’s death, I made a last minute decision to fly to the island on the inaugural non-stop flight by Jet Blue from JFK to Havana.  (This would have been impractical to arrange so spontaneously and prohibitively costly before President Obama’s authorization of commercial flights and of the individual general license.)

 

Greeting the inaugural JFK-Havana Jet Blue flight

I wanted to witness and share a singular moment of Cuban history, without the filter of either country’s politicized media.   Much of the US press and political leaders seemed determined to wrap Fidel's death in every negative aspect of his domestic history and of his conflict with Washington.   So much for not speaking ill of the dead.  For Cuba and a large part of the globe, the passing of a larger than life hero dominated coverage and reminiscences.

I have never been an uncritical advocate of Fidel.  He did not shape my existence as he did all Cubans, for better or ill.  But his presence and his revolution has touched virtually my entire life starting with senior year of high school in Indianapolis (1959-60).  Agree with what he did or not, he was a defining figure of the second half of the 20^th century, particularly in third world nations and for those engaged with them via the Peace Corps and study abroad.   

An organized contingent at the mass event in Havana

Cuba was serious about mourning, and presumably had been preparing for it since life threatening illness forced Fidel’s retirement a decade ago: no public performances; no music outside the home and even there restrained; no sales of alcohol; full immersion TV, radio and print coverage of Fidel’s public life and of the county’s revolutionary history.  The passage of the funeral cortege from Havana to Santiago consumed TV, radio and press.  The best social parallel I could think of, albeit not in the context of modern media, was of the train taking Lincoln’s remains home to Illinois. 

Friends at the mass event in Havana

I was most involved with the grieving population during the mass events at the revolutionary squares in Havana and Santiago and on the first and last days of the cortege procession.  (They were personally linked by the adventure of a 14 hour overnight ride in a Viazul bus.)   I was not an official or invited guest so went on my own with Cuban friends.

Cuba excels at mass mobilizations (as with mass evacuations from hurricanes) and certainly part of the outpouring was organized from schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.  But I heard several times that no one was obligated to participate.  As I walked to and from public events, I saw people who did not feel obligated to leave their neighborhoods or even to watch the ceremonies on television.

Certainly the crowds I joined were of all ages and reflected the diversity of the country.  Couples, families and groups of friends were common.  For most people it was a solemn occasion, even, although not commonly, to the outpouring of tears.  Hours of waiting culminated in the momentary passing of Fidel’s ashes carried on a small trailer behind a military jeep.  At the end, the view was often limited because of the turnout.

The mass events were political rallies.  In Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution foreign heads of state and President Raul Castro spoke.  The most appreciated were the demeanor and words of the Presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia; less so were the appearances of their counterparts from Nicaragua and Venezuela.  Leaders of long time friends like South Africa, Vietnam and Brazil spoke but no one from Europe or North America.

 

Waiting for the cortege on Paseo in Havana

The comparable event in Santiago featured speeches by the heads of Cuba’s mass membership organizations such as the Women’s Federation, the Association of Small Farmers and the Student Federation.  Only President Raul Castro spoke on behalf of the government and the Communist Party.  He summarized Fidel’s historical achievements and his determination that no monuments were to be erected or streets named in his honor.

On the whole participants listened quietly and respectfully.  Families and groups of teenagers on the periphery sometimes conversed quietly among themselves.  In response to speakers there were chants of Viva Fidel, Yo soy Fidel (“I am Fidel”) and rhythmically “Raul, amigo, el pueblo esta contigo”.  (“Raul, friend, the people are with you.”  Its rhythm was the same as the Chilean chant, “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido”.)

After the event, thousands kept vigil in Santiago’s Plaza of the Revolution.  The interment of the ashes the next morning was limited to family members, high officials and foreign leaders.  They passed by the site, pausing momentarily and leaving a flower, the process broadcast on national television.  Almost immediately after that was over, a spontaneous stream of mourners began to pay personal respects at the tomb.  Fidel’s modest resting place, near the ornate international monument of Jose Marti, will be a long term domestic and international attraction.  (A friend just wrote, “there are many visitors going to Fidel's tomb, Cubans and foreigners, and still receiving official personalities.”)

 

The cortege arrives in Santiago

During the two weeks I was in Cuba, I found many opportunities to speak with friends and strangers about their personal reactions to Fidel’s death and the national mourning.

 

A prominent writer in Cienfuegos who is in regular dialog with local dissidents recounted how they had asked his assistance to be able to join the crowd honoring the passing of Fidel’s ashes.  Being known in the community, they hesitated to go lest it be thought they were there to protest.  However, they distinguished between their sorrow about the death of Fidel and their opposition to communism.   Following my friend’s assurance, they took part without incident.

 

A response to the cortege arrival

A 28 year old primary school teacher and singer in Santiago told me her sadness had grown as the mourning period progressed.  A veterinary student on the bus from Santiago for a conference said she had learned things about her country’s history from the TV coverage.  The owner of a bed and breakfast in Santiago expressed fear about what Fidel’s absence might mean for the future of the country.  Women in their 20s at a disco in Cienfuegos, recently reopened, spoke of how strongly they felt when the cortege came through the city.

Of all my interlocutors, only one expressed skepticism about how people really felt and ascribed some of the turnout to social and political pressure.

Unquestionably Cuba’s leaders orchestrated a well prepared national response to Fidel’s death that benefited from their total control of mass media and public forums.  However, they built on a real emotional and social foundation.  As frustrated as many Cubans are by the uneven and slow process of economic and political reform, most seem genuinely convinced that Fidel’s vision and determination inspired and protected their unique revolution and helped make them who they are.

Now that Fidel is no longer injecting his skeptical views about US goals through articles in Granma, conservatives cannot make him a rallying point for resistance to change.  Nor can they easily challenge the moral authority of Raul as the repository of his brother’s legacy.

 

The mass event in Santiago

Not surprisingly even after death Fidel is an omnipresent heroic figure in Cuban media, providing a focus for national identity during a period of ideological contradiction and change.  However, he is very seldom mentioned in the US media.  Hopefully the spasm of mainstream resurrected outrage attending his passing cleared the way for a more rational US approach to the country he shaped.

It is hard to know how much Fidel’s excesses were inherent in his personality and ideology, and how much were reaction to unrelenting hostility from an inescapable super-power neighbor aspiring to restore economic and political dominion.  In any case the histories and cultures of our peoples are forever intertwined, with the memory of Fidel a touchstone of hopefully diminishing differences.

2/15/17

A poster for sale in the Plaza de Armas, Havana

all photos by John McAuliff

Types and Costs of Cuban Visas

Cuban Tourist Card-Visa which can be obtained through a US travel service provider:

Applicable for stays 30 days and less.

Can be renewed in Cuba for additional 30 days through a Cuban immigration office at an additional fee

Not applicable for anyone born in Cuba

COST (subject to change):

Marazul: 

$55 per person for those making air and/or land arrangements through Marazul

$75 per person for those only getting visas through Marazul

Cost does not include FedEx charge ($25) for delivery

JetBlue $50 at the airport (JFK or Fort Lauderdale) 

Delta $50 at the airport (JFK or Atlanta or Miami) 

United $50 at the airport (EWR) plus $25 CTS service fee

American $50 at the airport plus $50 CTS service fee

$50 plus $35 CTS service fee plus $40 delivery fee if secured through CTS prior to departure 

Alaska Does not provide visa. 

Spirit Does not provide visa.

Southwest $50 at the airport plus service fee

Silver $75 at the airport

There are several special purpose Cuban visas or entry documents:

The following must be arranged and applied for via Marazul (HE-11 Permits and assistance with 

Cuban passports) or the Cuban Embassy in Washington or through an educational or religious 

institution or the appropriate Ministry in Cuba

HE-11 Permits For Cuban born travelers who left Cuba prior to 1971 and hold U.S. citizenship

Habilitated valid Cuban passport: For Cuban born travelers

Press Visas For working journalists and support personnel 

Business Visas For business people exploring business possibilities or engaging in business 

negotiations

Academic Visas For those taking classes in Cuba or for academics conducting research 

and need special access (archives, libraries, etc)

Religious Visas For those traveling on religious missions and/or members of the clergy officiating 

at services in Cuba

MINSAP Visas For health professionals engaging in professional activities and services

MINREX Visas For guests of the Cuban Government

Prepared by Marazul.

Note:  Cuban tourist cards or visas are sometimes confused with US licenses which have twelve categories of authorized travel for US citizens.

Guidelines for individual P2P travel   http://tinyurl.com/P2Pindiv