In New York, With Beliefs That Still Challenge Cuba

NY Times ^ | March 10, 2008 | DAVID GONZALEZ

[neverdem]

Carmen Peláez is a liberal with a deep laugh and a great sense of the absurd. All of those qualities are tested when she encounters fellow New Yorkers who still admire Fidel Castro.

Ms. Peláez, a Cuban-American actress, was born in this country and raised in Miami. She came to New York in 1993 to study acting. In the mid-’90s, she traveled to Cuba to explore the world of her great-aunt, Amelia Peláez, a noted painter who died in 1968. All those experiences pulse through “Rum & Coke,” a one-woman show in which she channels relatives on both sides of the Florida Straits and weary Habaneros stuck on an island forgotten by the outside world.

The play was her retort to the fascination with Che T-shirts, solidarity tours to Cuba and the endless praise of the revolution’s twin pillars of health and education.

“When I started writing the play, I thought people just didn’t know what was happening in Cuba,” she said after the show closed its monthlong New York run last week. “But the longer I live here, the more I realized, they don’t care.”

She was reminded of that last month when Mr. Castro finally stepped down as president after nearly 50 years in power. The move prompted wistful reflections from old rabble-rousers and praise from some politicians. Representative José E. Serrano called Mr. Castro a “great leader” whose retirement ensured the future of the Cuban system and its achievements, which he said enjoyed “a broad base of support” on the island.

What really stumped Ms. Peláez was how the Bronx congressman’s only brickbats were against the “twisted policies” of the United States government.

“They would rather keep their little pop revolution instead of saying it is a dictatorship,” Ms. Peláez said. “I had somebody come to...”

[neverdem]

Josh Haner/The New York Times
Carmen Peláez created a play about her parents’ homeland. “I had somebody come to me after a show and say, ‘Don’t ruin Cuba for me!’”

The play was her retort to the fascination with Che T-shirts, solidarity tours to Cuba and the endless praise of the revolution’s twin pillars of health and education.

“When I started writing the play, I thought people just didn’t know what was happening in Cuba,” she said after the show closed its monthlong New York run last week. “But the longer I live here, the more I realized, they don’t care.”

Leave it to the NY Times to make this a front page story, from how they initially posted it, to a story they buried in the NY section, after the show has closed. The donkeys and the NY Times want to give to the U.S. the same health and education systems that Cuba has.

[neverdem]

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[SunkenCiv]

"When I started writing the play, I thought people just didn't know what was happening in Cuba," she said after the show closed its monthlong New York run last week. "But the longer I live here, the more I realized, they don't care... They would rather keep their little pop revolution instead of saying it is a dictatorship," Ms. Pelaez said.

Thanks neverdem.