Reciben con satisfacción nominaciones de grupos cubanos al Grammy

La Habana, 9 Ene (Notimex).- El gobierno de Cuba recibió con satisfacción las nominaciones de los tres grupos locales La Aragón, Orishas y Maraca en los premios Grammy cuya ceremonia se celebrará el próximo 23 de febrero en la ciudad estadounidense de Nueva York.

La legendaria orquesta Aragón, los raperos de Orishas y el flautista Maraca y su conjunto Proyecto figuran entre los nominados a los Grammy 2003, señaló la agencia cubana Prensa Latina, al publicar una corta reseña de las carreras artísticas de los tres grupos.

La Aragón compite en mejor música tropical tradicional con el disco "En Route", mientras Orishas, una de la agrupaciones de hip hop más populares en la Isla, discute en la categoría de mejor álbum alternativo de rock con su álbum "Emigrante".

El diario Gramma anotó que el ex Irakere, Orlando Valle (Maracas), uno de los más creativos músicos de jazz del mundo, va a los Grammy con "Tremenda rumba", en donde compite con Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz y The Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

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September 23, 2002

Message from the Cuban Artists Nominated for the 2002 Latin Grammy to the American People

The Cuban artists who were nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards 2002 have seen with indignation the attitude of the United States government of denying visas for our delegation to travel for the event.

This denial not only deprived us of attending the program - which we were entitled to participate in - but also kept us from delivering, free of charge, our art to the American people as we had planned.

The Cuban musicians are men and women of peace who represent a people that harbors no hatred at all against the American citizens, a people that respects, knows and feels as their own the culture and the noblest causes of Lincoln's homeland.

Last year, when our delegation was already in the United States to participate in the 2001 Grammy's ceremony, they witnessed the abominable September 11th crime. The attitude of our colleagues was to donate their blood to help the victims. That is what we Cubans are like.

It is precisely because we believe in ideas, because we believe in the value of culture as a way to promote fraternity and communication among people, that we cannot accept being denied the possibility to contribute to that noble purpose.

We will continue to work so that the message of Cuban culture reaches you all, just as it spreads across the world today.

The day will come when these restrictions and this aggressive and unjust policy will cease to exist, when US citizens will not be kept from traveling freely to our beautiful and hospitable island, and when the fruit of our talent - which is our art - will not be denied to you, who always receive it so gratefully.

Together, we will surmount those obstacles; together, we will make those dreams come true.

Signed:

Grupo "Vocal Sampling"
Grupo "Síntesis"
X Alfonso
Rey Guerra
Ana Lourdes Martínez
Lázaro Ross
Chucho Valdés

Havana City, September 23rd, 2002

SalsaPower readers: Nothing has gotten any better since July. The U.S. continues to deny visas to top recording artists, many of whom have been to the U.S. on numerous occasions in the past.
What you can do: Let your legislators know you don't agree with this policy.

07/26/02 - Press Release - "Cuban Performing Artists being denied entry to US"

NEW SECURITY REGULATIONS ISSUED BY THE BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS CAUSING EXTREME FINANCIAL HARDSHIP TO ARTS PRESENTERS

July 25, 2002 – Law Office of William Martínez, San Francisco, CA

On Tuesday, July 23, 2002, our office, which represents several arts presenters who petitioned for visas for Cuban artists, was notified of a new security regulation issued by the Bureau of Consular Affairs which requires the U.S. Interests Section (the equivalent of a consulate) in Havana to delay the approval of visa applications pending additional clearances. This regulation was issued without any advance notice to us or the consular administrators.

When we were notified of the delay, we immediately contacted the Non-Immigrant Visa Chief of the U.S. Interests Section, Tom Kelly. Mr. Kelly stated that he was surprised by this new regulation and that he was awaiting guidelines from Washington. He recommended that we check with the Cuba Desk of the State Department for additional clarification. All he could tell us for now is that all visa applicants would now have to await additional security clearances from Washington. He could not provide us with an anticipated timetable for completing the security clearances. We have been told that the additional clearances by the State Department would take between 21 and 30 days. Since at least four groups were due to depart Cuba in the next few days, this security requirement essentially cancels the pending tours, causing extreme financial hardship and loss of reputation to non-profit cultural centers and arts presenters across the country.

Per Mr. Kelly’s recommendation, we spoke with Juliana Aynes of the State Department’s Cuba Desk. As with Mr. Kelly, Ms. Aynes also said that she was awaiting additional guidance from her superiors. We described the devastating impact that this is causing to the arts presenters. While she sympathized with our plight, she could not offer any solace. As she informed us, the new regulations apply no matter which country was involved. She added, however, that, due to the threat of terrorism, especially from the seven named terrorist countries such as Cuba, the additional security requirements are even more necessary now. She said her hands were tied and there was nothing we could do to expedite the processing of the pending visas.

The four groups affected by this sudden new law are:

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas (the legendary folkloric group which was to perform in Atlanta and Puerto Rico; their INS petition was already approved several weeks ago); petitioner: LMG Productions (Atlanta).

Valle Son (a folkloric group that was to immediately begin their national tour; their INS petition was due to be approved); petitioner: Mimbres Regional Arts Center (New Mexico).

Sintesis (Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban rock group that was to headline a show for the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, as well as several other community-based performances; their INS petition was already approved); petitioner: Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

María Victoria y Su Latin Son (one of Cuba’s most exciting performers who was just about to make a major breakthrough in the U.S., eagerly anticipated by the media, art critics and a growing public; their INS petition was already approved); petitioner: Ochupua Productions.

These are only four of the many groups and presenters impacted severely by this new security requirement. Within each tour are literally hundreds of other organizations and individuals who will also suffer extreme financial hardships because of the instant, unanticipated imposition of this regulation. With no guidelines, no firm timetables, no notice nor opportunity to respond, no due process, the petitioners are left with little recourse.

We, therefore, seek your urgent assistance in advocating for immediate expedited processing. All of these artists have already demonstrated their stature as culturally unique or internationally-recognized artists with an unblemished history of international travel.

While we all recognize the need for national security, we plead as a matter of fundamental fairness, that a rule of reasonableness be applied to the process. We urge you to please assist us in this dire situation.

If there are any questions in this regard, please contact us at: (415) 433-1420; fax (415) 433-1421 or e-mail: billmartinez@earthlink.net.

Foreign Performers and U.S. Gigs: Getting Here Is a Tougher Ticket
By Mike Boehm, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times July 22, 2002

The aftermath of Sept. 11 has created a new kind of MIA: foreign performers missing their engagements in the United States.

Immigration authorities at home and officers at U.S. embassies abroad have intensified security checks to keep out potential terrorists; consequently it can take months longer to issue the clearances foreigners need to get into the country. Some have been denied entry; others haven't made it through the maze in time.

Since June, venues from Lincoln Center in New York to California Plaza and the Conga Room in Los Angeles have felt the impact. Those unable to gain entry have included a Welsh harpist who was going to perform at a small festival in Pennsylvania and an English player of the sackbut, a medieval wind instrument, who failed to make it to UC Berkeley. Eliso Virsaladze and Alexander Melnikov, two pianists from the former Soviet Union were supposed to help the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island uphold its tradition of presenting U.S. debuts of classical musicians. Not this time.

The Lincoln Center Festival has been hit hardest: 10 players in a 28-member Iranian theater troupe, including one of the lead actors, did not make it past the U.S. consulate in the United Arab Emirates. Officials there ruled that the 10 were a risk to remain illegally in America, festival director Nigel Redden said. That forced Lincoln Center to reconfigure its U.S. premiere of a cycle of "Ta'ziyeh" plays, traditional musical-theater works based on Shiite lore.

The Lincoln Center Festival took a second hit when the Paris-based Algerian singer-guitarist Souad Massi bowed out. Redden said that her partner, a Moroccan, was held up because of a waiting period imposed after Sept. 11 on visa applicants from 26 Muslim nations in North Africa, the Middle East and East Asia; Massi did not want to travel without him.

World music fans in L.A. last month missed what was to have been the Southern California debut of Toto La Momposina, a Colombian singer-dancer billed as "The Queen of Cumbia." Her agent, Alison Loerke, described a bureaucratic nightmare of documents being misplaced and delayed by immigration authorities; the mess could not be untangled in time for Momposina's scheduled June 24 concert at the Conga Room.

Cheika Rimitti, an Algerian rai singer, made it to California Plaza for a free concert on July 13, but she was missing her keyboard player and a guest singer, Cheb Sahraoui. They were held up by the new 20-day security waiting period for North Africans and Middle Easterners, said Walter Nick Durkacz, the New York City festival director who handled visa arrangements for Rimitti's tour.

Durkacz, who has directed the Central Park Summerstage series for 17 years, said that delays he encountered this year included having the Immigration and Naturalization Service bounce back visa applications because he had signed them in black ink rather than blue, and because he mistakenly had written a check for $135--$5 more than the required application fee.

The INS has been criticized since Sept. 11 for, among other things, granting student visas to the two pilots who felled the World Trade Center--six months after they died carrying out their attack.

"There has been a lot of criticism and they're playing it extremely by the book because they don't want to make mistakes," Durkacz said. "I can't blame them. We all do things differently now."

Presenters point to June 1, 2001, as well as Sept. 11 as a milestone on the road to uncertainty for importers of foreign talent. That's when the INS began offering to ramrod visa applications through the system in 15 days--for those willing to pay a $1,000 fee. Executives of service organizations such as Opera America and the American Symphony Orchestra League say that many of their members can't afford the fee and that visa approvals that could be obtained in 30 to 60 days early in 2001 now take 100 days or more.

Ron Johnson, a supervisor at the California Service Center in Laguna Niguel, one of four INS centers nationwide that process visa applications, acknowledges the average time for unexpedited visa approval has increased from 75 days early in 2001 to more than 100 days now. The culprit, he said, is global terrorism, not the "premium processing fee" criticized by arts groups.

It takes five to 10 minutes to run post-Sept. 11 computerized security checks on each visa applicant, Johnson said--a big reason for the slowdown.

In June, he said, the California Service Center received 9,500 applications for temporary worker visas--about 500 of them for artists. Their American presenters must persuade the INS that the performers possess "extraordinary ability" or are "culturally unique" --a process that for many years has generated periodic instances of esteemed but not-so-famous performers being denied entry.

Once the INS has OKd a performer, it is up to officers at U.S. consulates around the world to decide whether they are trustworthy. Are they apt to break the law? Is there a risk that they will try to use a temporary visa as a portal to illegal immigration? Besides the 20-day security waiting period for those from "countries considered problematic," as the State Department's consular affairs spokesman, Edward Dickens, put it, all male visa-seekers ages 16 to 45 must now provide detailed biographical information.

Charlotte Lee, who handles visas for IMG Artists, which has a large roster of classical musicians, said it recently took her more than five hours to help a client from China complete the form.

Jan Denton, executive director of the American Arts Alliance, is trying to educate INS officials about the unique needs of arts presenters--and the potential damage to their reputations and pocketbooks when advertised performers fail to appear. She hopes that will lead to more consistent procedures for evaluating visa applications for artists and more flexible ways of handling emergencies and preventing no-shows.

"We understand that [immigration authorities] are very, very beleaguered. Maybe they'll understand what we're up against."

The INS is not about to streamline anything in ways that would compromise security, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the service's Western Region. "Nobody wants to make a mistake that has awful repercussions."

Arts presenters fear that without relief from visa delays, some foreign performers may give up on the U.S.--and that some American producers may balk at booking lesser-known artists, or ones from hot-spot nations, for fear they won't get through the system.

"The last thing I want is to let that be a decisive factor in what we program," said Redden, the Lincoln Center Festival director. "But at some point it may come to that."

 

 

 

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