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Letter from US Artists and Scholars in support of Cultural Relations with CUBA

posted by F Espinoza | 17.12.2007 23:06 | Anti-militarism | Culture

More than 500 U.S. artists and academics demand an end to the blockade...





More than 500 U.S. artists and academics demand an end to the blockade...


They respond to a message sent by Alicia Alonso

By Pedro de la Hoz —Granma daily staff writer—


MORE than 500 prominent artists, writers and academics in the United States have signed a message addressed to U.S. President George W. Bush, asking him to end the blockade against Cuba and to stop preventing cultural exchange between the two nations.
“We are writing you as representatives of the cultural sphere in the U.S. We write you as American citizens. We write to express our dismay at your administration's continuing hostility towards Cuba. We write to express our opposition to policies that keep us divided from our Cuban counterparts, preventing cultural interchange between our two countries. We believe the time has come to move towards cooperation and constructive relations with Cuba,” the letter said.
The initiative, sponsored by an organization called U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchange, was taken after many of the letter’s signatories received a letter sent on October 26 by Cuban prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, asking them to speak out against the blockade and work together “so that Cuban artists and writers can take their talent to the United States and so that you do not prevent your artists and writers from coming to our Island to share their knowledge and values; so that a song, a book, a scientific study and a choreographic work won’t be thought of, irrationally, as a crime.”
Those who signed the message to Bush include popular actors Sean Penn (2004 Oscar for Mystic River), Peter Coyote (ET and Erin Brocovich), Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, and celebrated writers Alice Walker (The Color Purple), William Kennedy (1983 Pulitzer for Ironweed), Gore Vidal (Juliano and Williwaw) and Cristina García (National Book Award finalist 1992 for Dreaming in Cuban).
Many of the signatories are musicians and music industry executives, such as legendary rocker Carlos Santana, composer and singer Tom Waits, producer and guitarist Ry Cooder, who led the first Buenavista Social Club; musicans Tre Cool (Green Day), Mickey Hart (former drummer with the Grateful Dead) and Tom Morello (formerly of Rage Against the Machine, now with Audioslave); folk music icons Holly Near and Bonnie Raitt, the latter a nine-time Grammy winner, and salsa star Andy Montañez.
Dozens of those who added their names are from the Latino intellectual community, including Cuban-American academics Nelson Pérez Valdés, Enrique Sacerio Gari and Lisandro Pérez.

(Translated by Granma International)

See:

 http://www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter





 http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/diciembre/juev13/51artistas.html



Letter from US Artists and Scholars in support of Cultural Relations with CUBA

November 27, 2007



President George W. Bush

The White House

Washington, DC

Dear President Bush:

We wish to bring to your attention the accompanying letter, dated October 26, 2007, received from Alicia Alonso, Prima Ballerina and Director of the Cuban National Ballet, and also Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Ms. Alonso has toured extensively in the United States and her work has long been admired by the American performing arts community, cultural critics and the public.
We are writing you as representatives of the cultural sphere in the United States. We write you as American citizens. We write to express our dismay at your administration’s continuing hostility towards Cuba. We write to express our opposition to policies that keep us divided from our Cuban counterparts, preventing cultural interchange between our two countries. We believe the time has come to move towards cooperation and constructive relations with Cuba.
The present policies deny such possibilities of friendship and cultural sharing. We further note that cultural interchanges and relationships are also modes of communication and expression. In denying us the possibility of engaging in such exchanges and relationships, we are being denied our fundamental rights as guaranteed by the 1st, 5th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
This reality seems to run counter to other positions expressed by your Administration. In September 2006, for example, Laura Bush inaugurated your Administration’s “Global Cultural Initiative,” stating that "One of the best ways we can deepen our friendships with the people of all countries is for us to better understand each other's culture by enjoying each other's literature, music, films and visual arts."
As citizens, artists, scholars, educators and cultural workers from all artistic practices, academic disciplines, advocacy and service organizations in the arts, we hope you will read and consider the words of Alicia Alonso as we call upon your Administration to:
1. open a respectful dialogue with the government and people of Cuba in accord with established protocols supported by the community of nations;
2. end the travel ban that prevents U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba and allow for Cuban artists and scholars to visit the United States, thus eliminating the censorship of art and ideas, and
3. initiate, by working with appropriate members of Congress, a process that can result in the development of normal bilateral relations between our countries.

Sincerely,


Join the signers of this letter. Click here to fill out the form below.
 http://www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter#cubaform



 http://www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter



See also :

 http://www.freethefive.org

 http://www.antiterroristas.cu




posted by F Espinoza

Comments

Hide the following 13 comments

Wow, movie stars, but no freedom of speech or movement!

18.12.2007 08:23

I think you will find that "the stars" don't have that wow factor with too many people living in the the real world. in the Same way as they do with you Espinossa! We ain't impressed by the dictators or the celebrities, we just want freedom of speech and freedom of movement for everyone!

@narchist


anarchisss...

18.12.2007 11:34


You and everyone may achieve a definitive « freedom of movement » experiencing with the cuban salsa… for example.
Of course I understand that “anarchissss” trolls as you, are “not impressed by artists, celebrities, culture, human rigths, solidarity”… obviously is only the consume what impress specimens as you. Have you reserved your place at the boxing day queue in the Bluewater carnival this year? Maybe you can win a 42” PLASMA SCREEN TV ! or a £ 10 000 shopping spree! Wow!!



F Espinoza


Your right I am not impressed by celebrities or dictators!

18.12.2007 12:30

And at least if I choose to go to blue water (wherever the fuck that is) I have the freedom of movement to do so !
How can you support a brutal oppressive regime like the castro one?

@narchist


Come and hear the truth about Cuba

18.12.2007 14:57

Rock around the Blockade
is proud to announce its Speaking Tour of 2008!

CUBA: SOCIALISM INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

Our most exciting project yet takes place between 21 February and 5 March 2008. Rock around the Blockade will host a speaking tour of Britain with representatives of three generations of the Cuban Revolution: Orlando Borrego, deputy to Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and his closest collaborator from 1959 to 1965; Jesus García, from the Institute of Philosophy, delegate to the Municipal Assembly of Peoples’ Power and author of several books on socialism and democracy; and Susel Rivera Antúnez – leader of the Federation of University Students, involved in today’s energy revolution, a new stage in Cuba’s Battle of Ideas.

Cuban socialism has placed human beings at the centre of society and development. Cubans enjoy a system of social welfare provision which is among the best in the world. They have created a system of democratic representation which gives an active role to all sectors of society. The Cuban Revolution has become synonymous with international solidarity, sending doctors and educators around the globe. All this achieved despite nearly 50 years of military and political aggression from the United States, including a brutal economic blockade.

Cuba’s example is an inspiration to those fighting imperialism and underdevelopment all over the world. Now a united front has been formed in Latin America. Governments representing the working class and oppressed of Venezuela and Bolivia have united with Cuba to create the Bolivarian Alternative, directly challenging the regional and global hegemony of the United States and its allies.

The speaking tour will be an unmissable opportunity for debate and discussion, to be educated and inspired

Rock around the Blockade
- Homepage: http://www.cubansarecoming.org/


Espinoza, Rock around the blockade and all that FRFI lot.....

18.12.2007 15:39

....are a sad bunch of last century Stalinist middle class student types who have views verging on the absurd. Thankfully, the majority of us don't support dictatorships and so hopefully in good time these daft fucks will come to their senses, put their che guevara t-shirts back in the draw and get back to their studies.

(A)


Here we go!

18.12.2007 22:12







Here we go the “sad bunch of last century Stalinist middle class student types who have views verging on the absurd” with our “che guevara t-shirts back” in the light with love.

F Espinoza


That reminds me of something......

19.12.2007 12:14


Cuba is a great, perfect socialist state just like Stalinist Russia was!! Yeah.....

(A)


Only fears and hate, nothing more...

19.12.2007 13:23


You reminds only of your own fears and hate, dear A…
Meanwhile decides you to jump to life and light, Cuba is just part of that lovely, necessary and perfectible human experience being constructed each day by millions all over this planet, with love.

F Espinoza


Espinoza

19.12.2007 14:06

Get back to the Ministry of Love, the Thought Police have got some more work for you.

(A)


fakers abound

19.12.2007 15:36

... and any toss can cal his self an anarchist ... takes a bit more thought, blood and soul to be one.

Here we see just another bunch of sad reactioary fakers, pretending t beconcerned w/ peoples freedom of movement etc etc.

No no no.

Only intersted in playing the assigned game of kill the castro/chavez/et al scial revolution.

Beggars belief that they can believe that their squalid fake concerns will win over any w/ knowledge & compassion for the peoples therein.

Go play the concerned hysteric elsewhere oh inheiritors of Otto Reichs Operation Condor (do a search on those terms!)

jackslucid
mail e-mail: jackslucid@hotmail.com


Bollocks to Castro

19.12.2007 17:16

Let's see:

Under Castro, you are not allowed to leave Cuba of your own accord, you need premission from the Cuban State in order to do so (which you may not even get). Just like in East Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Also under Castro, any one who openly criticises the government's policies is liable to be thrown into prison (although I do admit you are less likely to be tortured than in some other countries where you criticise the regime).

Also don't forget the repression of homosexuals that the "Revolution" in Cuba has failed to stop.

Yes, there are more brutal regimes around than Cuba (compare Amnesty International's reports on Cuba with the likes of: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Colombia, fellow "communists" China, and indeed the good ol' US of A), but socialist paradise Cuba isn't.

So, should we just support reactionary organisations who want to see Castro removed in favor of a US-friendly government which will sell out the Cuba people? No. Should we then be fetishising Castro's Cuba as a model for socialism elsewhere? No. Should we acknowlege that, while not the worst place to be in the world (one of the highest life expectancies in Latin America for example), there is a helluva lot of room for improvement? Yes.

Freedom for all - against all authority!


Freedom for all.....

19.12.2007 21:40

So of course you mean also freedom for Cuba?

daggle


No Blockade

24.12.2007 10:43

There is no blockade of Cuba. The US bans its own citizens from trading with Cuba, and that isn't a blockade. A blockade is when a force stops everyone from trading with a country, but everyone on the planet except US citizens are free to trade with Cuba as much as they like. 96% of people on earth can freely trade with Cuba, but obviously many don't, as Cuba is a poor, backward country, much like all communist countries are or were, and therefore most Cubans don't have enough cash to make trading with them a worthwhile proposition.


The protesting artists want the US to end its trade embargo with Cuba. The American people can end that embargo whenever they want, simply by electing politicians who want to end it. In the US, elections are free. At the moment, the American people have an elected government that wants the trade embargo to remain, so it will.

Simon