The Grammy's Most Revealing Moment
by Larry Blumenfeld, Special to SF Gate
Friday, February 20, 2004
... Jackson and her much-discussed body part wasn't the only notable absence. When guitarist Ry Cooder accepted his award for best pop instrumental album, he did so alone -- despite the fact that he was honored for his collaboration with Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban. Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who won for best traditional tropical album, was likewise not present. In fact, all five nominees in that category, including lute player Barbarito Torres and percussionist Amadito Valdes, were back in Cuba. As Cooder commented backstage, some 45 Cuban musicians who had planned to attend the Grammy Awards had their visa applications rejected.
... For those who stay abreast of such matters, this latest travel blockade was one of a series of such occurrences connected to Grammy events. In 2001, the Latin Grammys -- a Recording Academy event affiliated with the larger national show -- was to have been held in Miami. Owing to conflict stirred by the protests of a powerful anti-Castro Cuban community there, the show was moved to Los Angeles. That ceremony never took place; it had been scheduled for Sept. 11. The Cuban musicians who had traveled to the United States instead spent that day giving blood and performing benefit concerts for terrorism victims. But Cuba-based musicians were denied entry for the Latin Grammys in 2002 and 2003, as well as for this year's national show.
... As Bill Martinez, a San Francisco-based attorney who worked on this year's Grammy-related visa applications puts it, "This was an affirmative act, clearly meant to send a message. It was not just a matter of the typical delays that often sink a visa application. It was an out-and-out denial, stemming not from the Treasury Department but from other agencies and individuals in the executive branch." He's referring to the invocation of Section 212F of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law, which states that the president can deny entry to any foreigners deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States." According to a U.S. State Department spokesman, "The proceeds from the work of these artists are considered enrichment for a Communist dictatorship."
... Fernandez wrote that, in the light of all this, our government and the Miami Cuban exile community "look like yahoos." Granted, the issues surrounding U.S. policy toward Cuba are complex. But since our post-Grammy coverage focused solely on a breast-baring publicity stunt and ignored the body politic, aren't we all yahoos?
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/02/20/cubangrammy.DTL
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