Artists Bridge Divide Between Cuba, U.S.

Artists Bridge Divide Between Cuba, U.S.

Partnerships Among Painters, Musicians Expand as U.S., Cuba Ease

Restrictions

By ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES CONNECT

Feb. 23, 2014 7:05 p.m. ET



Members of the Cuban artistic trio called the Merger. From left, Alain

Pino, Mario Gonzalez and Niels Moleiro. Cristobal Herrera for The Wall

Street Journal

KEY WEST, Fla.—Five years ago, the cross-border collaboration of the

Cuban artistic trio known as the Merger would have been unthinkable.



With two members living in Havana and the third in Miami, they traverse

the Florida Straits roughly once a month to work on their steel and

Plexiglas sculptures. They show their works regularly at art fairs in

Florida and draw buyers from across the U.S.—all despite the

five-decade-old American trade embargo against Cuba.



An exhibit featuring the three— Mario González, Niels Moleiro and Alain

Pino —along with seven other Cuban artists opened last week at five

cultural institutions here. The show, called One Race, the Human Race,

is the counterpart to an exhibit that had its debut last month at the

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, featuring pieces by Mario

Sanchez, a deceased Cuban-American artist who lived in Key West.



Organizers say it is the first example of a cultural exchange between

art institutions, as opposed to art galleries or fairs, in the two

countries.



The dual exhibits underscore the growing cultural ties between the

countries, facilitated by each loosening travel restrictions in recent

years. The result is a growing thaw in relations at the grass-roots

level, even as rhetoric between the two governments remains largely

hostile. "These are the first steps toward a rapprochement," Mr.

González said. "We can't be neighbors 90 miles away and not get along."



In recent weeks, debate over U.S.-Cuba relations flared once again, in

part because of a poll by the Atlantic Council in Washington that found

that a majority of Americans, and an even higher percentage of residents

of Miami-Dade County, Fla., which is heavily Cuban-American, favored

normalized relations with Cuba.



In 2000, 62% of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade favored continuing the

embargo in a poll by Florida International University.



A fundamental policy change is unlikely anytime soon, given the need for

congressional approval and stiff opposition of Cuban-American lawmakers,

said Guillermo Grenier, a sociology professor at FIU. "So what is left

is clearly on the cultural level," he said.



While cultural exchanges between the nations have occurred periodically

for decades, they have become more frequent after recent government

moves. In 2011, the Obama administration loosened restrictions on

educational and cultural travel to the island, and last year, it

extended the duration of nonimmigrant visas for Cubans to five years

from six months, and allowed for multiple entries.



Meantime, Cuba last year eliminated the need for its citizens to obtain

exit visas to travel overseas and extended the period they could stay

abroad to two years from 11 months.



According to Cuban government data, the number of U.S. citizens,

excluding Cuban-Americans, who traveled to the island rose to 98,000 in

2012 from 42,000 in 2008. And the number of nonimmigrant visas issued by

the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to Cubans jumped to 33,394 in the

fiscal year ended Sept. 30, from 17,110 the previous year, State

Department figures show.



The eased rules have allowed more American painters, playwrights and

musicians to travel to Cuba to collaborate on shows. Meanwhile, a

variety of companies are organizing educational and cultural tours aimed

at exposing Americans to Cuba's culture.



In South Florida, it is now common for Cuban rappers, poets and other

artists to showcase their work. The Cuban Soul Foundation in Miami has

hosted more than 30 dissident artists in the past two years, many of

whom were allowed to travel to the U.S. under Cuba's relaxed policies.

The foundation trained them in how to run a recording studio or open a

gallery and provided financial support once they returned home.



In the past, such visits often set off demonstrations by Cuban-American

exiles, who derided the performers as pawns of the Cuban government. But

these days, "protests are almost gone off our radar screen," said

Lillian Manzor, director of the Cuban Theater Digital Archive at the

University of Miami, who has helped organize numerous theater exchanges

with groups in Havana.



A major reason is that Cuban-Americans have gained greater exposure to

young artists from the island, said Pepe Hernández, president of the

Cuban American National Foundation, which supports cultural exchanges.

"People here are realizing that there is still a very vibrant culture in

Cuba," he said.



Nance Frank, a co-curator of the Key West exchange, said she received

just one angry call about the project, from Rafael Peñalver, president

of the San Carlos Institute, a Cuban-American organization in the city.

The show is "scandalous," Mr. Peñalver said in an interview. "It's

providing the Cuban government with a platform to project a falsehood

about artistic opening in Cuba."



Moraima Clavijo Colom, director of the partner museum in Havana,

responded that the artists in Key West display a diversity of messages,

including critiques of the establishment. If detractors came to see the

show, she said, "maybe they would have a more expansive view" of it.



Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com



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