Nursing and Health Care Focus

Cuba, anyone? After many trips, James Lewis in love with culture, people

By Tom Kellar
Special to The Union

ENLARGE

James Lewis is a local man with a passion for exploring Cuba. He's made more than 20 visits to the country since 1999.

Photo for The Union by John Hart

Ironic, isn't it, that of two southern neighbors in close proximity to the U.S., the drug cartels fomenting a reign of terror in a sizable portion of Mexico have made Cuba seem a much safer tourist destination?

And this is despite our having normalized relations with Mexico, while Cuba continues to be officially a communist nation with which the United States refuses to have diplomatic ties.

James Lewis is a local man with a passion for exploring Cuba. He's made more than 20 visits to the country since 1999.

Though the U.S. has made it difficult for its citizens to visit Cuba in the past, Lewis says the number of U.S. tourists legally traveling to Cuba is now at an all-time high.

According to Lewis' website on the subject, many Americans would be surprised to learn that “There are many licensed religious and educational groups that travel to Cuba on a regular basis. Even the AAA automobile association has conducted tours to Cuba in the past.”

Lewis retired to Nevada County in 1987, after having been an Intensive Care and Emergency Room nurse for 36 years. It is his medical experience that allows him to legally lead tours of Cuba for both tourists and health professionals.

The majority of his trips to Cuba have been associated with nursing projects and health research.

“In 1999, I was in Key West and met some Cubans there and I sort of assumed that all Cubans didn't want Americans to visit,” Lewis said. “But what I found out is that most Cubans do want Americans to visit. The Cubans that you hear about who do not want Americans to go to Cuba are in the minority, even in Miami.”

Lewis says his first trip to Cuba was prompted by an event that became front-page news around the world.

“I went to Cuba during the Elian Gonzalez affair and fell in love with the place and kept going back many different times,” Lewis said. “It's become kind of an obsession, really.”

Lewis admits to having had some apprehension during his first trip to Cuba.

“Landing in Havana and looking out and seeing all these Russian aircraft made it seem a very intriguing place,” Lewis said.

“But after a while, I realized that Australians and Canadians visit all the time. It's the Canadians' favorite place to visit.”

Though relations between Cuba and the U.S. are very complex and have been strained in the past, Lewis says big changes are taking place.

“The bottom line is that the Cuban government loves having American tourists and the United States is now encouraging Americans to go,” Lewis said.

“Most tours are now booked up to a year in advance and the prices are skyrocketing because of supply and demand. Much of this has happened in just the last year.”

Lewis seems to have fallen in love with both the Cuban people and their culture.

According to Lewis, Cuba has always figured prominently in American history, and it's interesting to see events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion talked about and remembered.

“There is a lot of American history there,” Lewis said. “San Juan Hill, the site where the battleship Maine was blown up, etc. It amazes you how much Cubans appreciate Americans. You see lots of American flags there.”

Registered nurses making the trip to Cuba via one of Lewis' tours can earn up to 30 Community Education contact hours, he said.

“The Cuban universal health care system is romanticized in this country and it does have a lot of good things associated with it,” Lewis said.

”But it's a little overrated because there is a shortage of supplies,

though that's not a surprise given the embargo.”

Lewis emphasizes that tourists can go to Cuba without feeling threatened.

“I've found that you can really go anyplace,” Lewis said. “You can go there and pretty much do what you want, as long as you're not advocating bringing down the government.”

Lewis believes it is time for those who have been hesitant to even consider Cuba as a vacation destination to reconsider. His many trips there have only deepened his appreciation for Cuba and its people.

“There is now a lot of foreign investment in Cuba,” Lewis said. “At the Hemingway Marina there, the Chinese and the Cubans are co-partnering to build a super luxury resort. Its target is to be wealthy American travelers.”

Visit www.jamesLewisRN.com to learn more about Lewis and the tours that he leads.

Tom Kellar is a freelance writer who lives in Cedar Ridge. He can be reached at thomaskellar@hotmail.com. 

http://www.theunion.com/article/20120715/NEWS/120719875/1053&parentprofile=1053

Farmer to Farmer

IL farmers travel to Cuba to learn about potential trading

JULY 07, 2012 3:07 PM  •  BY LENORE SOBOTA | LSOBOTA@PANTAGRAPH.COM

NORMAL — Cuba has “tremendous potential” as a market for Illinois agriculture, according to two Illinois Farm Bureau officials who returned this week from a trip to the island nation.

The meeting-filled, four-day visit included 18 farmers from around Illinois. There were no farmers from The Pantagraph area.

The goal of the market-study tours to various countries “is to train a cadre of leaders” on the issues involving exports and foreign markets and “make them more articulate spokesmen,” explained Tamara Nelson, senior director of commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau that organized the trip.

“We came away from this trip seeing that there is tremendous potential for U.S. investment in Cuba and tremendous potential for U.S. sales beyond agricultural commodities,” added Adam Nielsen, the bureau’s national legislative director.

A 2010 study by the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M University estimated that lifting the embargo would increase Illinois agricultural exports to Cuba by $6.6 million annually — a 15 percent increase over the state’s 2009 exports of $42.5 million.

Although sales of agricultural commodities to Cuba are permitted, U.S. regulations are cumbersome.

Nelsen said Cuba is required to pay cash up front before a ship leaves the United States and the money has to go through a third-party, non-U.S. bank, such as Canada or France, “adding unneeded regulatory burdens to both sides.”

Attempts to lift or ease trade and travel restrictions — such as allowing Cuba to pay after goods arrive — have met with little success. Nielsen offered no guess on when that might change.

Noting that the United States has normal trade relations with countries such as China and Vietnam, he questioned the logic of the continued embargo against Cuba. Nelsen said Illinois is a recognized presence in Cuba because of the numerous trade groups that have visited. “They think of Illinois for corn and soybeans,” she said.

Opening the market would have value for Illinois because of its huge exports and the decreased transportation cost of getting goods to a country as close as Cuba, Nelsen said, adding it also would help diversify and balance Illinois markets.

Nielsen noted that Cuba imports about 80 percent of its food.

“When you fly into Cuba, you see how little of their land is in ag production,” he said. “They are just one crisis, one horrible hurricane away from disaster.”

http://m.pantagraph.com/news/local/il-farmers-travel-to-cuba-to-learn-about-potential-trading/article_9882ede0-c86f-11e1-a53f-001a4bcf887a.html

UCLA Alumni Traveler Sees Good and Bad

Cuba is the neighbor we don't quite know

By Doris Sosin

July 06, 2012

Recently I stepped into a Grimm's fairy tale akin to "The Sleeping Beauty." Remember how she lay hidden for years in an overgrown forest near the decaying palace which was her home?

The beautiful illustrations by Arthur Rackham from my childhood books came to mind as I explored the island of Cuba. To be transported to a time 65 years earlier is a rare and wonderful treat. I remember what life was like in the 1950s, and in many fantasies, I've wanted to return to an earlier period. I was delighted that no billboards or advertisements are allowed on the island; that there are miles of untouched beaches; that hardly anyone smokes (they can't afford cigarettes); that there are very few cars on the highways.

Once you leave Havana, one discovers tranquil, small colonial towns, still untouched by time, with winding cobblestone streets and central plazas which serve as social meeting places.

What I had anticipated: '50s cars, colonial architecture, The Tropicana nightclub, Alicia Alonso's Ballet National de Cuba, rice and beans, fried plantains, mojitos, sexy women, Caribbean music, blue skies and ocean, heat and humidity.

What I discovered: a beautiful island with innocent people on the verge of being thrown unprepared into our global society. Under the inept dictatorship of Castro, the life of Cuba is isolated in a time warp. Buildings are decaying and unsafe; streets, sidewalks, curbs, steps, railings are crumbling. There is no money or materials to repair them. Castro has not taken care of his country or its people, and the U.S. embargo has added oppressive measures, as well.

Our congenial group from UCLA Alumni Travel carried needed medical supplies, soaps, toiletries, clothes and children's toys. These were given out at clinics, schools and the Jewish synagogue. Our guide was phenomenal, bright, clever, funny and scholarly. We lucked out!

The Cuban people enjoy the privileges of universal healthcare and education. They are given coupons to buy food and every worker has a salary. However, the payments are low, money and food are scarce and it is almost impossible for Cubans to cover the costs of food, housing, clothing and electricity. Gas is very expensive and the cars are shared and used as taxis. I was charmed by the '40s and '50s cars, but driving in one is rocky. The floor boards and upholstery are gone, the paint job is pealing, and the taxi stops every few streets to either pick up or let off a rider. The ride is bumpy on the gutted cobblestone streets.

Once out of Havana, on the highways built by the Russians, are miles of virgin beaches, (just waiting to become another Miami). The old, colonial provinces dating to the 16th century are tranquil. People are not in a hurry and friends and neighbors greet each other on the street and in the plazas.

Sancti Spiritus is my favorite town, founded by Diego Velazquez in the early 1500s. Like Trinidad, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourist attraction; Sancti Spiritus has historic architectural attractions, pastel colored centuries-old mansions, tiled red roofs and narrow cobblestone streets. We stayed overnight in an exquisite colonial hotel built in 1818, situated on the main village square. The town's people were congregating on benches, promenading and enjoying life — until 2 a.m. It was too hot and humid to be in their homes without air conditioning. We could hear their voices as we slept in our room with the windows open. I felt as if I was part of the town for that one evening and savored the experience, all but the itching of the mosquito bites. I must admit that it was tempting to think of living in a bygone time, where life was slow, safe and friendly.

We went to The Tropicana, at one time the most elaborate cabaret in the world, for an evening of music and dancing, which began at 10 p.m. A huge outdoor garden arena greeted us. Included in the price of admission was a bottle of rum for every four people! The dancers came out extravagantly costumed on many stages of different heights. The girls were tall and lithe and wore thongs with elaborate head dresses and all sorts of finery on their upper torsos and arms. They were butterflies, birds, Carmen Mirandas, slaves, Africans, Tarzans, animals, etc. The band was loud and continuous and I sat there with my jaw hung open. Three hours of kitschy choreography; repetitive mamba which included, ever so often, a step where the girls bend over for the audience. Probably a new form of mamba — moon ba perhaps? It was a hoot.

In contrast, the Cuban National Ballet in the gracious, old, decaying Gran Teatro was original and moving. We were so lucky to attend the night when Alicia Alonso sat in the balcony. I was thrilled to see my revered prima ballerina dressed in bright red, and I threw her kisses, sure she recognized me as one of her longtime, American admirers. I used to throw roses on stage after she performed. The contemporary choreography and music were thrilling. The dancing was great.

Oh, the joy and excitement of the paladares, private restaurants created by the ingenuity of the Cubans. These are located in grand, historic, decaying mansions with the bygone era of romance. In some cases, the first and second floors have been taken over and divided into small living spaces by Cuban families who have lost their homes. We climbed to the third floor (no elevators) on long, winding stairways with crumbling hand rails to find colonial décor, garden patios with views of the city, delicious food, and, of course, mojitos and mamba bands. We were lucky to experience several paladares in Havana, and their savory food and old world surroundings.

Having my niece, Laurie, along was a great plus. Her enthusiasm and wit added to the enjoyment of the tour. As the hot and humid week wore on, rum with all the sweet, sugary juices lost its attraction. In the end, we were happy with "rum, straight, on the rocks."

Doris Sosin is an activist, founder of the North of Montana Association and co-founder of the Santa Monica Conservancy.

http://www.smdp.com/Articles-travel-c-2012-07-05-74337.113116-Cuba-is-the-neighbor-we-dont-quite-know.html

Raves About a Collette Vacations Trip

Rich cultural history highlight of local group's trip to Cuba

JUNE 30, 2012 12:01 AM  •  BY ANNIE GETSINGER - H&R STAFF WRITER

DECATUR — Thirty area residents who visited Cuba in April are still talking about the trip of a lifetime. Tour groups have been scarce in the country since a U.S. trade embargo was imposed 50 years ago, but it has long been on Linda Roberts’ list of places to visit.

Recent policy changes to encourage more cultural exchange between the United States and Cuba have opened up new opportunities for Americans interested in taking educational trips to the country through companies such as Collette Vacations, which led the local group several months ago.

Roberts, a Mount Zion travel agent, attended the trip as a guest, along with others from the area.

“It’s really, really hard to get into Cuba,” she said, adding that travelers to the country must be going with a licensed operator, such as Collette.

Roberts and the others engaged in a wealth of cultural, educational opportunities with the help of the company’s guides and locals who helped enhance the experiences with their intimate knowledge of the communities.

“That’s why you travel is to see the different cultures,” Roberts said.

The group’s journey began in Trinidad, Cuba, and progressed to the capital city of Havana.

Some of the highlights of the journey were seeing cigar and linen factories, visiting historical sites, such as the Bay of Pigs Museum at Playa Girón and places frequented by American author Ernest Hemingway, and taking in the culture with a baseball game and other activities.

“The interaction with the people was the real key of it,” said Martha Floyd, who went on the trip with her husband, Don, and son Mark.

Floyd said she and others got many chances to talk to local residents about their lives, their history and their dreams. Roberts and Floyd remarked on the evidence of extreme poverty — also extreme happiness — that they encountered on their journey.

The visitors enjoyed cheering during a baseball game at the Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, home of the Industriales, a team in the Cuban National Series.

“My husband loved the ballgame,” Floyd said.

In Havana, just about every other car was a classic, Roberts said. The tour group’s members had fun riding in, posing with and photographing the ’55, ’56, ’57 cars found throughout the city.

“All of the men just loved that part of it, seeing all of those old cars,” Floyd said. “It was kind of like going to a car show.”

Many of the guys on the trip also enjoyed smoking Cuban cigars just about everywhere they went, said the two women.

“The cigar factory we went to was really interesting,” Roberts said.

“People were sitting at their little stations working and smoking,” Floyd said.

A visit to Ernest Hemingway’s farm, Finca Vigía, offered breathtaking views and a chance to see the surroundings that inspired “The Old Man and the Sea.” El Floridita, a Havana bar frequented by the legendary author, was another popular stop.

Roberts said she has visited many of Hemingway’s favorite spots around the world.

“We’ve always kind of followed those along,” she said.

The opportunity to experience the culture and people of Cuba fulfilled a dream 28 years in the making, she said.

agetsinger@herald-review.com

http://m.herald-review.com/news/local/rich-cultural-history-highlight-of-local-group-s-trip-to/article_d5e36c9e-c25e-11e1-b09b-001a4bcf887a.html

Opera de la Calle a New Model for Performance (Update, And Controversy)

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

HAVANA | Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:27am EDT

(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.

Cuba has always had an active nightlife of theater, cabaret and music shows, including the famous Tropicana night club which is popular with tourists. But performers have traditionally worked for state-run operations, with the exception of an elite group of artists and musicians allowed to earn their own pay.

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.

Cuba says it now has 387,000 self-employed workers, most of whom have tiny home-based businesses.

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)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/uk-cuba-theater-reform-idUSLNE86A00T20120711

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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)

  http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/cuba-theater-reform-idINL2E8IU8AZ20120801

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Opera Unfolds When A Cuban Cabaret Is Shut Down

By Nick MiroffJuly 31, 2012

Listen to this story

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/

http://www.wbur.org/npr/157656452/opera-unfolds-when-a-cuban-caberat-is-shut-down

Program of Opera de la Calle

Opera de la Calle

Origins

After performing in Europe and the US, Ulises Aquino returned to Cuba as a soloist in the National Lyric Theater but wanted to go in a new direction.  In April 2006 he launched a project called “Opera de la Calle” and became its General Director. The company started working without costumes and with just a keyboard accompaniment.  They steadily improved with exposure to audiences and the assistance of musical director Emilio Vega, chorus director Natasha Prado and Ruben Rodriguez, dance director and choreographer.  Opera toured Cuba, seen by three million people, and then Colombia.

About The Performers

Opera de la Calle began with mostly amateur performers “from the street”, but now all of the people involved are professionals who receive a state salary.  The show itself and the dinner theater El Cabildo are part of the non-state sector.  On stage, there are roughly forty people,  plus six musicians and four show directors as well as technicians, producers, costume designers, and others. There are about the same number of men and women. Although they rehearse according to Mr. Aquino’s directions, there is plenty of improvisation and people have their own interpretations of his guidance.

The concept  of the show

Opera de la Calle is a little bit of everything. We have an enormous amount of different colors. It’s a little bit of African culture, a little bit of Spanish culture, and some American culture. In other words, it is a symbiosis.  In some ways it is like a Broadway musical with a difference. Broadway is not like an opera; and there is always a storyline in Broadway. There is no beginning or end in Opera de la Calle, we pass from one thing to another, from African slaves to Spanish culture – that’s Cuba. We want to show Cuba to the world.

I think that it changes a little bit how opera is seen worldwide. Opera is almost always in a theater, with an orchestra, with costumes like those from the 19^th century, and the manners of the theater that are so different from our contemporary ways of expressing ourselves. We dance, and we sing like opera singers, and we have a beautiful band that sounds just like an orchestra.

                                                                                                               --Claudia Aquino

The elements of a performance (constantly evolving so tonight may be different)

* musical opening.

* selection from Handel’s Messiah

* elegua singing, an African call

*  the cabildo from “Maria la O”, a part from a zarzuela (a kind of Spanish operetta with singing and talking)

* a song from the Yoruba culture of Africa, brought by slaves

*. “From Havana to Matanzas”, a rumba song with a little salsa. The theme for this song is honoring the rumba musicians who play in Cuba. It’s a new song, but about the past.

*  “When The Lights Go Out”, a very popular contemporary song by Frank Delgado

*  “The Fantasy of Amalia Batista”, a zarzuela telling a very contemporary story with modern costumes of a girl who gets married to a successful Cuban.

* slave singing from “Cecilia Valdés”, a zarzuela by Cirilo Villaverde. The slave tells how he will never see his land, his wife, and his children again. His love, he says is far, far away. This starts a little rebellion where the slaves start to dance and protest against mistreatment.

*  “Havana March” from “Cecilia Valdés”, about a rich boy who has everything and is loved by the girls.

* “Regina Coeli” from the opera Cavalera Rusticana, a song to the Catholic Lord.

 * “Bohemian Rhapsody” brought into a Cuban context through Africans and whites fighting over a girl who has been killed. It ends with a girl who earlier killed someone finding peace after being executed.

*  Queen’s “Somebody to Love” about how people work and worry about all sorts of things in life, but just want to find somebody to love.

* “Imagine” by John Lennon, a peace song,

* “Zambra”, a Spanish song.  A party with Spanish dance; a girl who wants to find a guy who loves her, a fight over a guy

*“Por Amor” (For Love), a Dominican song by Rafael Solano.

The Piano Bar

“Opera de la Calle” is performed on Friday and Saturday evenings.  The Piano Bar is entertainment on other nights where members of the company show personal projects.  There are different things going on all the time. For now, the Piano Bar is on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but it is planned for all week except Friday and Saturday and on Sunday which is a disco.

To reserve tickets for dinner and a performance, call (537) 207-6885

Teatro El Cabildo, Calle 4,  numero 707, e/ 7 & 9

Opera de la Calle is on Facebook

In the US for more information or to obtain a DVD,
 contact director@ffrd.org

August P2P @ $1200

Dates:             August 4 to 11, 2012

What:             Cuba People to People

How much:   $1200.00 including air from Miami to Havana, hotel, meals as listed, entry visa, program, transportation, guide, program fees

Apply:            $200.00 deposit due now.  Write to info@commongroundtravel for application and inquiries

Travel to Cuba this summer -- yes, in a few short weeks -- for a People to People Educational program in Cuba, as follows:

Cuba:  People to People

Saturday         August 4

09:00 am         Check in to Concourse G, Miami International Airport, Gulfstream Charters. 

01:00 pm         Depart on SkyKing flight 5K-252, arriving Havana at approximately 2:00 pm

04:00 pm         Meet Amistur guide and transfer to the Hotel. 

Check in at Bruzón Hotel

07:00 pm         Welcome dinner and party with a neighborhood CDR group.

Sunday           August 5

08:00 am         Breakfast at the Hotel 

10:00 am         Visit to the community of Las Terrazas in Artemisa province. Meet with the inhabitants of this rural community built in the late 1960s and converted by its residents into a model of ecology.

                        Swimming in San Juan River ¨El arroyo de la sierra me complace más que el mar¨ Marti´s poem ¨the river in the mountains pleases me more than the sea¨

Mid day           Lunch at Casa del Campesino.

03:00 pm         Back to Havana.

07:00 pm         Dinner at the Hotel

Monday           August 6

07:00 am         Breakfast at the Hotel

09:00 am         Exchange with a Historian about Henry Reeve, one of the first U.S. Americans to extend the

hand of friendship to the Cuban people, volunteering for the Ejército Mambi in 1868 at the age of 18 and killed on August 4, 1876 in his 400^th battle for the liberation of Cuba from Spain at the side of the Cuban people.

11:00 am         Depart for San Pedro in Bauta Municipality, where General Antonio Maceo y Grajales was killed in combat by the Spaniard colonialist. Then to El Cacahual Monument where Maceo was buried

Lunch on your own

03:00 pm         People to People exchange in the neighborhood of Atarés, home of Los Marqueses, one of the most important and historic carnival dance crews in Havana and also where a local community group called the Atarés-Pilar Transformation Workshop does organizing work with women in self-esteem, with local Afro-Cuban religious leaders on restoration of community values, and with young people on anti-violence leadership. 

Evening           Return to the Hotel and Dinner

Tuesday          August 7

08:00 am         Breakfast at the hotel. 

09:00 am         Meet at the Headquarters of ICAP

11:00 am        Meet with members of the Henry Reeves Cuban Medical Brigade who have volunteered in Haiti 

Opportunity to hear about their experiences and exchange views

01:00 pm         Lunch at Casa de la Amistad in Vedado.  

Tour of the high points of the city by bus:  Revolution Square, the Malecón and then Old

Havana with a visit to the City Museum

                        A walking tour of Old Havana, stopping to talk to residents and find out how they view the transformation of their historic neighborhood

Free time in Old Havana

Evening           Return to the Hotel and Dinner

Wednesday     August 8

07:00 am         Breakfast at the Hotel.

10:00 am    Visit to the Women & Family Services House, Calle 2 entre 21 y 23, one of many throughout the country organized by the Federation of Cuban Women. Opportunity to exchange with Cuban women at the House

01:00 pm         Lunch on your own 

03:00 pm         Meeting at CENESEX, the Cuban National Center for Sexual Education

06:00 pm         Back to the Hotel and dinner.

Thursday        August 9

07:00 am         Breakfast at the Hotel.

09:00 am         Visit to a policlinic and family doctor

11:00 am        Visit a community project to meet with the residents and exchange views and experiences.

Lunch on your own 

02:00 pm        Visit to the Museum of the Revolution

Afternoon        Free time in Havana

07:00 pm         Return to the Hotel Dinner.

Friday             August 10

07:00 am         Breakfast at the hotel.

09:00 am         Drive into Havana and Ciudad Libertad, School City.  Visit to the Literacy Museum.  .

11:00 am        Exchange with teachers and members of Cuban Association of Teachers.

12:00 pm         Lunch on your own

02:00 pm         Opportunity to explore Havana in small groups, with the goal of interacting with people met on the street to gather impressions.

04:00 pm         Meeting with representatives from ICAP, the Institute of Friendship, for a chance to sum up the visit, ask questions, offer comments.

                        Return to the Hotel. 

08:00 pm        Farewell Dinner at a Local restaurant

Saturday         August 11

07:00 am         Breakfast at the hotel.

11:00 am         Transfer to airport.

The August 4^th Cuba People to People program coincides with the death in battle of Henry Reeve, one of the first U.S. American visitors to travel to Cuba and forge friendship with the Cuban people.  Reeve, born in 1850 in Brooklyn, NY, visited Cuba and joined the Mambi Army at the age of 18.  He rose to the rank of Major General before being killed in battle on August 4^th, 1876 in his 400^th battle. 

The Cuba People to People program is sponsored by the Center for Cuban Studies with Common Ground Education & Travel and designed to be an affordable trip promoting people to people contact with the Cuban people.

Merriam Ansara

Director, Common Ground

359 Main Street, #2A

Easthampton, MA  01027

Tel 413-203-1125 Fax 413-529-1119

www.commongroundtravel.com