> Opponents becoming vocal over embargo
>
> By DAVID C=C1ZARES (Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)
> Web-posted: 5:03 p.m. Mar. 24, 2000
>
> MIAMI -- When Beth Boone considers the kind of talent touring
> elsewhere in the United States, she wonders how different her job
> would be if Miami-Dade County wasn't so hung up on Cuba.
>
> As artistic and executive director of the Miami Light Project, one of
> South Florida's leading cultural groups, Boone knows she doesn't
> have access to some of Cuba's best performers. Even though cultural
> exchange exemptions to the nation's trade embargo with Cuba
> permit her to schedule the island's dancers and musicians here,
> Miami-Dade's foreign policy effectively prohibits her from doing so.
>
> That's why the Miami Light Project wasn't able to book Dos Alas
> (Two Wings), a dance collaboration between Puerto Rican and
> Cuban dance companies that recently toured the U.S. to great
> acclaim. Nor will it book Grupo Vocal Desandan, a Cuban choral group
> of Haitian ancestry that performs sacred and popular songs.
>
> "Can you imagine how wonderful that concert would be here?" asks
> Boone. "The Haitian community and the Cuban community coming
> together?"
>
> But those kinds of concerts likely won't happen because of a
> Miami-Dade law prohibits the county from doing business with any
> group that does business with Cuba. The law also forbids any group
> that receives county money or uses county facilities from doing
> business with another entity that does business with Cuba.
>
> =46or Miami Light Project, which receives about 10 percent of its
> $600,000 annual budget from the county, booking a Cuban act --
> even if the event were paid for with private funds -- would put its
> county grant at risk.
>
> "The way the law is written, your hands are really tied if you do
> business with the county," Boone said. "And I'm not in a position
> financially to do without that money. Their money is very important to
> us."
>
> The county's law, which has repeatedly come under scrutiny in
> recent months, may now be in jeopardy.
>
> Debbie Ohanian, the South Beach music promoter who booked last
> fall's controversial concert by the influential Cuban band Los Van Van
> at Miami Arena, plans to challenge the county's law this week in
> federal court.
>
> "It does not make sense," Ohanian said. "The U.S. government
> gives these people visas to come here. Who is the county to tell us
> they can't come? What gives them the right?"
>
> Ohanian's decision follows a recent dispute over the law between
> county officials and one of South Florida's most prominent
> institutions.
>
> In late February, county officials informed Florida International
> University's Miami Film Festival that it would lose nearly $50,000 in
> county funds because it included the film La Vida Es Silbar (Life is to
> Whistle) among its offerings. The Spanish-financed film was made in
> cooperation with the Cuban government.
>
> On March 6, FIU officials were again put on notice that they had
> violated the county's law by scheduling the March 15 opening
> reception for the Latin American Studies Association's meeting, which
> the university hosted, at the Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza and the
> Historical Museum of Southern Florida in downtown Miami. More than
> 5,000 members from around the world attended, but 112 of the
> invitees were from Cuba.
>
> As it turned out, the Cuban scholars didn't arrive in time for the
> reception, which went ahead as scheduled because of a technicality:
> the university signed a contract to use the site for $3,840, said
> Eduardo Gamarra, director of FIU's Latin American and Caribbean
> Center. There were no protests.
>
> Gamarra said many people in Miami-Dade are finally ready to
> accept visitors from Cuba. Some members of anti-Castro groups
> registered for the conference, he said.
>
> "We've grown up," Gamarra said. "The Cold War is Over."
>
> The question in Miami is why would the county want to snub Cuban
> performers when attitudes are changing and the federal Helms-Burton
> Act acknowledges that cultural exchanges should be allowed and even
> encouraged?
>
> =46or perhaps the first time a growing number of cultural group
> leaders, who have long kept silent on the county's law, are willing to
> openly argue that such events must be allowed in Miami-Dade, where
> politicians and Cuban exile groups are adamantly opposed to them.
>
> Since the film society lost its funding, Artsave, a broad coalition of
> arts groups that supports freedom of expression, has been collecting
> signatures on a petition that criticizes the county's decision -- and its
> treatment of Cuban performers.
>
> Lisa Versaci, Florida director of People for the American Way, a
> national organization that defends constitutional rights, said the
> coalition coordinated by her group wants the county's law to have a
> cultural exemption similar to the national one.
>
> "This ordinance has a negative impact on artistic exchange and
> freedom of speech," Versaci said.
>
> Only one of Miami-Dade's commissioners has publicly supported
> such a cultural exemption. Commissioner Katy Sorenson said she
> intends to propose the change soon because of the number of
> people who believe "a ban impedes growth."
>
> Opponents of the county's law will have lots of ammunition,
> particularly the recent loss of the first-ever Latin Grammys -- and
> some $40 million in revenue -- to Los Angeles. The event's
> organizers said they wouldn't go where Cuban musicians are not
> welcome in public buildings.
>
> That loss, the angry crowds of anti-Castro protestors that have
> confronted concert-goers, and the high security costs imposed on
> promoters who schedule Cuban acts, are spurring the arts community
> to action.
>
> "The fact is they are not going to stop this music," Ohanian said.
> "It's meant to be enjoyed by anyone who wants to hear it."
>
> Bruce Rogow, a law professor and First Amendment expert at Nova
> Southeastern University, said the county has no such right. He
> predicts the law will be struck down now that Ohanian and the
> American Civil Liberties Union have decided to challenge it.
>
> "Federal law is supreme in matters of foreign relations, so the
> county cannot go beyond what the federal government does," Rogow
> said.
>
> The county's withdrawal of funding from the film festival was
> "blatantly unconstitutional," Rogow said, and a violation of the First
> Amendment because it is not content neutral.
>
> Most county commissioners disagree.
>
> County Commissioner Jimmy Morales said that the county isn't
> prohibiting anyone from doing business with Cuba or inviting a Cuban
> performer. Instead, he said, the county is simply saying it won't
> spend public dollars on events that include people from the island.
>
> "Everybody wants the mayor or the commission -- who are very
> vulnerable to the swings of the electorate -- to stick their neck out,"
> Morales said. "Our policy today, until it changes, is we will not fund
> performances that have Cuban performers."
>
> That puts the onus on the county's arts organizations. But given
> that many of them are beholden to the county for funding, it's not
> certain that they will soon begin clamoring for a change.
>
> "I take the money from the county, so I also accept their
> restrictions," said Laura Quinlan, director of the Rhythm Foundation,
> another prominent Miami-Dade cultural group.
>
> The Rhythm Foundation receives up to 15 percent of its $250,000
> budget from the county, and Quinlan said the group couldn't afford to
> do without that money. She's waiting for the day when it won't come
> with strings attached, but knows that there is an emotional struggle
> ahead.
>
> "The Cuban issue is so important to our community," Quinlan said.
> "We're all held captive by it."
>
> David C=E1zares can be reached at dcazares at sun-sentinel.com or
> 305-810-5012.