Miami's Cuban Connection

Spy Conference to Focus On Cuba

A "spy conference" in Raleigh, North Carolina this summer will focus on Cuba.  It's called Castro and Cuba: The Inside Story.

"From revolution to Cold War KGB leader, Castro and his era will end soon. Hear the experts take you from the Bay of Pigs through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the intrigue of Castro’s role as the “Bridgehead” for the KGB-led Non-aligned Movement - including new revelations from the intelligence world – and estimates of what will happen to Cuba and its relationship with the U.S. after Castro."

http://www.raleighspyconference.com/home/

Big Hair Diplomacy

Adrian Arredondo and Tony Laurencio, double trouble in Miami's music scene. Laurencio plays keyboard and guitar for the Grammy-winning band, Bacilos. A Miami Cuban-American, he's been touring the Americas and Europe with Bacilos, a Miami-born and bred pan-Latin rock band. He also plays for Suenalo Sound System. Catch them Saturday nights at Jazid.

Bush: No Trade With "Tyrant"

Bush: "Trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power."

The prez addressed the embargo in California Monday after a Cuban American suggested visits to the island might topple Castro. The Herald's Lesley Clark reports:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/5min/14420706.htm

Artists Against the Embargo

Susan Caraballo, executive director of Miami's Artemis; and Elizabeth Cerejido, curator at FIU's Frost museum, went political this week by signing up with ENCASA, a group of Cuban American scholars and artists who have united to call for the United States to lift the embargo of Cuba.

http://www.artemisarts.org/

http://www.fiu.edu/~museum/home.html

Miami, Where Art Though?

Special Request: "Oscar, how about a tribute to the "stuff I miss from the 70s and 80s Miami?" Stuff I personally miss: the putt-putt golf that had that big orange dinosaur, Castle Park, Polar Palace in Hialeah, Westchester Cinema, Plitt Gables, Dadeland Triple, Charlie's Pizza (super-greasy, but awesome) and (I know this is far from politically correct, so I apologize) Sambo's in Coral Gables."

Is Hot Wheels still around? There's probably a condo where Six Flags used to be. And remember the trippy merry-go-round at the Omni. Belks; Piggly Wiggly; Evelio my barbero on 37 Ave across from Coliseum; And the cobra from the Serpentarium? And my favorite: Planet Ocean, with the iceberg chunk.

What do you miss most about Miami from the 70s and 80s?

Andy Garcia's Key Biscayne Dream Pad Featured in NY Times

Andy Garcia, Cuban American star and director of the movie The Lost City, lets the New York Times into his stunning Key Biscayne pad, and his past. The Lost City OPENS TODAY in theaters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/garden/27garcia.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Anti-embargo Push by Cuban Americans

FIU professor Lisandro Perez and Lillian Manzor, an associate professor at UM, led a news conference Thursday at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables declaring their opposition to the U.S. embargo of Cuba. They were speaking on behalf of ENCASA, Emergency Network of Cuban American Scholars and Artists for Change in U.S.-Cuba policy. At the news conference, Perez was asked how lifting the embargo would help curtail the types of beatings experienced by Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque at the hands of a pro-Castro mob on Tuesday. "Those beatings have occurred under these policies," Perez said, referring to the embargo. "The policy that is being used is not doing anything to benefit the people of Cuba." Photo below, left to right: Perez, Silvia Wilhelm, Manzor, Elizabeth Cerejido (don't know last person).

Pin Pan Pun winner

Lucrecia Diaz Hudson writes: "A pin pan pun is what substitutes for a guest bed in non-Cuban households. However, unlike other guest beds, when entering the land of "pin pan pun" one needs to expect pain, torture and agony in the form of back pain, etc. No stories here, I've been able to avoid sleeping in one most of my life, but saw many a cousin crippled in one fast night on the "pin pan pun". For the non-Cuban reader the fast answer is that a "pin pan pun" is a trundle bed."

Dissident Roque Attacked by pro-Castro Mob

Al Jazeera ran this report: "Cuba's most prominent female dissident says she was brutally beaten at her home by a pro-government mob of people who knew she was heading to a meeting at the home of the top US  diplomat in Havana.  

"I see it as a (government) message to the opposition," ailing economist Marta Beatriz Roque, 60, told AFP on Wednesday at her home, where she showed injuries to her eye, knee  and elbow which she said were from the assault a day earlier.

"Roque, who opposes the Americas' only one-party communist  government, leads the Assembly for Promoting Civil Society.

"She was released from prison in July 2004 due to her failing  health after she had been convicted and sentenced to 20 years behind  bars along with 74 other dissidents following the government's 2003 crackdown, which was the largest in years.

"She said she recognised some of the people who beginning at 2130 GMT on Tuesday shouted insults at her and beat her outside and later inside her home in the Havana neighbourhood of Santos Suarez.

"They were not neighbours, because they knew that I had been  invited to a meeting at the home of (Michael) Parmly," chief of the US Interests Section in Havana, who has had high-profile clashes in the media with Fidel Castro's government.

"The crowd gathered for an organised "act of repudiation" as  Roque left for the engagement, she said, and began insulting her and then jostled her to block her from leaving her home.

'Down with Fidel'

"They threw me on the ground and they beat me," said Roque, who says she suffers from diabetes and circulatory ailments.

When she shouted "Down with Fidel!" she was further beaten by a  large man who burst into her home and slugged her squarely in the eye, she said."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/260A1447-F5F6-47EC-AA70-ACE9DBBB6B9C.htm

Veevaporoo

I've had a special request for another translation: veevaporoo. Some clues: abuela swore by it; it usually included slimy tissues on the chest; and you reeked of a toxic menthol plant. Best veevaporoo story in comments gets posted on the blog.