The collaboration between Ry Cooder and Cuban musicians  in 1996, producing  the award winning CD "The Buena Vista Social Club" was not  only a victory  for the international music scene in as much as it marked one of  the first positive exchanges between Cubans and Americans in the shadows of a forty year embargo. Of course, the recording didn't go without controversy as a number of special interest groups, including the Miami based exile Cuban community and conservatives in Washington saw the collaboration as counter-productive to what the embargo is trying to accomplish in communist Cuba.  As one of  the last standing Cold War warriors Cuba represents an interesting  dilemma,  where on the one hand they are isolated because of their political preferences, and yet revered for their ability to constantly churn out new (and old) musical  talents that are just now receiving international prominence. The state run musical training conservatories that are a staple of socialist Cuba are largely  responsible for producing such well versed and highly innovative musicians, and  the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's changed the direction that Cuban music has gone from one largely designated for domestic audiences, to one that has expanded globally and has used its popularity to survive economically.  The fact that musicians are trained by the state reinforces the opinion that,  although they are collaborating as musicians, they are still officially tied to the Cuban government.

2. Description

Freezing Out A Cold Warrior Foe:

The Trading With The Enemy Act, first passed in 1917 was designed to cut off all commercial ties with countries under United States  embargoes.  Later codified in further legislation at the height of the Cold War, the language was designed to embargo Cuba in critical areas of  trade, foreign assistance, and travel to and from the island.  The act existed out of tensions produced between the United States and the former  Soviet Union, of which Cuban was an ally. The Cuban revolution and their ties with the Soviets not only carried significant political implications in foreign affairs, it also virtually disappeared Cuba from the popular music landscape in the United States, which effectively blocked entry by Cuban music and musicians.  With no commercial flights between Cuba and the United States, travel between the two countries took place through third countries such as Mexico, Canada, and certain Caribbean countries. Almost all contacts ceased to exist including the  diplomatic relations that would likely spur cultural and music programs. Except for a brief period in the Carter Administration when tensions between Cuba and  the United States subsided, US foreign policy had been designed to isolate Cuba.  Further entrenched by a strong lobbying force in Miami and Cuban-American congressional members willing to appease their constituents, the foreign policy objectives of the United States had a peculiarly domestic tinge.  Of importance to this case study is the fact that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets and Controls Cuban Assets & Controls (OFAC) primary  function is to isolate the Cuban government economically and deprive it of U.S.  Traveling to Cuba by  Americans was thus reserved for government officials, students participating in  programs sponsored by academic institutions, freelance journalists, full-time  professionals whose presence and research directly relates to their jobs, as  well as certain religious activities, educational workshops, non-profit derived  competitions, those individuals exporting, importing, or transmitting  information of informational materials, as well as other limited activities (Office of Foreign Assets & Controls)  These provisions of travel to the aforementioned groups was restricted in order to deny the Cuban government access to dollars by restricting the amount of  money Americans can spend per day.

The international popularity of Cuban music has been accelerated by two noteworthy occurrences. First, the loosening of travel restrictions by the Clinton Administration allowed for many Cuban artists to perform in the United States, led in large part by well known  groups such as Los Van  Van and subsequent timba groups such as David Calzado y  Su Charanga Habanera,  Bamboleo, Isaac Delgado, and Manolin "El Medico" de la  Salsa, and of course the 'Buena Vista Social Club'. Their live  performances brought Cuban music into the fray as a legitimate musical genre and garnered musical support from non-political enthusiasts. Many  of these  performances took place in Miami, despite riots and protests from the exile community who see such performances as an  opportunity for Castro to economically stay afloat. The exposure of Cuban music  and culture has prompted many people to travel to Cuba, to experience the music scene in all its splendor, directly providing tourist revenues to the state and further exasperating those who would like to see the Castro regime crumble.

The second occurrence has been the widespread popularity garnered by the production of the "Buena Vista Social  Club", which has to its credit a Grammy award for best Latin tropic performance.  40 years of Cuban obscurity has almost been erased with the recording of this CD  and has shifted the terms of how Americans view Cubans as not only just communists, but if not only that, as damn good musicians too. The recording has also prompted many American and European musicians to want to further collaboration efforts with Cuban musicians, as well as perform within Cuba and share their musical contributions to the Cuban people as well.  Canadian and European music labels are signing musicians out of Cuba and marketing them to global audiences.  Whereas for the past couple of decades we have  thought of Cuba strictly in political terms where the usual suspects are conservatives in Washington, Cuban exiles in Miami, and human rights organizations all around, the Ry Cooder effect has brought another dynamic to the current US/Cuban debate.  Are music enthusiasts dancing with the enemy? Are conservatives in Washington and Miami losing their political strength? Is the Castro regime through the exportation of their treasured music compromising socialist goals? Is the  collaboration of Ry Cooder with Cuban musicians, just the tip of the iceberg in  US/Cuban relations, a sign of what's to come? With the recording of the "Buena  Vista Social Club", these questions are arising for the first time.
 

A Break in Relations?

The seeds for the success of the "Buena Vista Social Club" project were laid in 1988 when Representative Howard Berman (D-California) enacted as part of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act legislation establishing that no "embargo may prohibit or restrict,  directly or indirectly, the import or export of information that is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." Section 5(b) of the Trading  With The Enemy Act (50 U.S.C.) App. 5(b) was amended by adding, "that the authority granted by the President in this subsection does not include the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, of publications films, posters, phonograph, records, photographs, microfilms,  microfiche, tapes, or other informational materials, which are not otherwise  controlled for export under section 5 of the Export Administration Act of 1979 or with respect to which no acts are prohibited by chapter 37 of title 18,  United States Code;" in what became P.L. 100-48.    In an effort to tighten up language concerning "direct or  indirect" flow of information, Congressman Berman proposed his second amendment  known as the "Free Trade in Ideas Act", as part of a committee vote on Foreign  Relations Authorization Act legislation.  It was the "sense of Congress" that the President should not 'restrict travel or exchanges for informational, educational, religious, cultural, or humanitarian purposes or for public performances or exhibitions between the United States and any other country.'  Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher requested for withdrawal of the legislation, with the understanding that the Department "endorses the underlying objectives  of the Free Trade in Ideas Act."  The Congressman conceded.

The efforts of Congressman Berman and those interested in seeing increased normal relations between Cuba and the United States seemed to be paying off in the music scene. US based record labels such as Ahinama Records, Bembe, Qbadisc, and RMM began signing Cuban musicians to their label.  Nonesuch records in New York City was the licensed US label through World Circuit Records, from which Ry Cooder started the "Buena Vista Social Club" project. Cuban musicians were extending their tour schedules to include the United States, thereby receiving more air-play on non-Cuban-American influenced radio stations.  This paid dividends for the genre of Latin music as the success of the album was felt globally and more specifically in the United States the CD had appeal across ethnic lines.  With Washington D.C. normally being the obstacle in US/Cuban relations, the work of congressional members opened up just enough space in the embargo for music to appropriate itself as a significant cross-cultural factor in the throes of Cold War antagonisms.

With  the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba underwent changes almost overnight.  The need to bring some type of market  dynamic to the island, was conceived to have been possible by buttressing the tourist market and exporting music on a global scale.  The opportunity extended to the Cubans as a result of the Berman amendment corresponded to the
"Special Period" currently taking place in Cuba.   Enter Ry Cooder, who in 1996 went to Cuba record with  artists Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo, and Omara Portuondo in what later came to be known as  the "Buena Vista Social  Club" project. The recording overshadowed the fact that Cooder was eventually fined $25,000 for traveling and recording in Cuba without a license, a pittance  fee considering the wide scale distribution of the CD. The  recordings highlighted  traditional Cuban "son" elements that have been a part of  the Cuban sound for decades now. The isolation of Cuba for such a long time made the appeal in the United States greater than anywhere else, because although  this was traditional music it was befalling on American ears for the first time.  In 1998, Cooder returned to Cuba with Ruben Gonzalez, this time accompanied by film director Wim Wenders to document the occasion. The combination of audio and  visual encapsulations of Cuban performance brought on an international onslaught that culminated with a Grammy Award. The widespread recognition  of the recording  was a break in US/Cuban relations, but it certainly was not embraced by all who saw the success of the album as representative of Castro being able use his  "musical pawns" to exact a small political victory against his adversaries in the United States.  Nonetheless, the "Buena Vista  Social Club" project was a  success, namely in that it was able to use its rhythmic and melodic appeal to relegate outdated Cold War tensions to a secondary position.

Capitulation & Response: Washington Gets Technical

In  the early part of 2000, Ry Cooder applied for a license for travel with the US Treasury Department. It would have been  unforeseeable that Cooder  would be denied a travel license considering the State Department had given  its "unofficial" support of the Berman Amendment.  However, it was precisely the frequenting of collaborations with Cuban artists in the past without a license and the indirect implications this had in providing monies to the Cuban government that prompted the Treasury Department to deny the license.  Or it may have been a sign to the international community that Cuba  was not going to be a haven for every American artist wanting to collaborate  with Cuban musicians. The denial of the license came  roughly about six months after a joint concert between Cubans and Americans was performed.  The State Department, then under the direction of Madeleine Albright, asserted its position on the basis that the OFAC does not permit licenses for the purposes of "creating" music with Cubans. The  sense was that the initial Berman Amendment made available only those collaborations  that are pre-existing, and that collaborative recordings were violations of the Trading With The Enemy Act. Both State and Treasury suggested that  they would approve the visit, but only if Cooder signed off on all profits and royalties from the recording. The technical posturing of the State and Treasury Department to justify its position of "creative" materials versus pre-existing is interesting assuming that they were aware of the fact that these recordings were not original songs, but Cuban classics written and performed already.

Cooder called on the assistance of Congressman Berman who wrote a letter to Madeleine  Albright in defense of issuing the travel license.  The intention of bills sponsored by  Berman were intended to "restrict the authority of the President to regulate the flow of information materials of any kind, regardless of medium, and regardless of whether they were for commercial purposes or not."  Cooder even got the support of former President Bill Clinton, who wrote a letter of recommendation to the Department of Treasury.  In the end, Cooder was permitted to travel to Cuba to record his second album.  However, the misinterpretations of both the Trading With The Enemy Act and the Berman Amendments, leave room for inconsistency concerning the exchange of ideas and information.  Without a clear definition of what is  creative and what is pre-existing, there may be other denials by the OFAC to musicians who will be weighing the pros and cons in the exchange of ideas as it relates to dancing with such and old enemy.

3. Related Cases

IRISH MUSIC
EBONY
CMTUCAN

4. Draft Author:
Calvin Jerreau Fortenberry - 5/9/01

   II. Legal Clusters

While the Berman Amendment protects the exchange of ideas and information between Cubans and Americans, the fact that Congressman Berman withdrew the second amendment leaves the door wide open for future oversights. The fact that Cooder in the end needed an endorsement from former President Bill Clinton does not bode well for musicians applying for travel licenses under a Republican Administration that has strong Cuban-American support in Miami and Union City, New Jersey. President Bush has expressed no desire to change the Cuba policy as it currently stands and it is certain that Cuban-American special interest groups will continue to lobby against artists collaborating between the United States and Cuba.  In effect the legislation of Congressman Berman is not insensitive to the political machinations of conservatives and those who yearn for the nostalgia of the Cold War.

The House and Senate both have versions of legislation (Free Trade With Cuba  Act) in Congress that would normalize relations with Cuba in general and would make the licensing requirements a moot point.  In the interim, Congressman  Berman is in the process of proposing legislation that would lift all bans on travel to Cuba, which would most certainly promote people-to-people contact.  As  it is, one can only expect that the political climate of any given moment will dictate the true policy concerning the trading of information and ideas. This much is for certain: Collaborations and performances between Cubans and Americans have occurred only twice, once during the Carter Administration when Billy Joel went to Cuba, and more recently under the Clinton Administration. The eventual second attempt to enter Cuba by Ry Cooder must be taken with a grain of  salt. As in most Cuban issues, domestic policies will be decided on highly  partisan terms, notably with a Republican in George Bush currently holding office.

6. Forum and Scope: United States and Cuba

7. Decision Breadth:  Unilateral

8. Legal Standing:   Law

The specific provisions for a travel license must adhere to the following:

1. Whether the proposed activities are under the auspices of an organization that sponsors and organizes educational exchanges to promote people-to-people contacts.

2. Whether most if not all of the proposed activities in the field will be with persons or entities that are not acting, directly or indirectly, for or on behalf of the Government of Cuba or its parastatal industries or enterprises.

3. Whether the program is structured to enable participants to have direct and indirect people-to-people dialogues with the Cuban people and how the trip will allow for such dialogues.

4. Whether the U.S. participants have received a briefing or educational materials about Cuba and the Cuban people prior to the trip.

5. Whether each traveler will be fully participating in all of the proposed people-to-people activities, or whether the sponsor is opening the trip to non-participants in the people-to-people programs.

6. Whether the proposed activities with the Cuban people are educational in nature, such as participation along with the Cuban people in joint activities (e.g., seminars, lectures, workshops or similar activities).  Source:  Office of Foreign Assets & Controls
 
 

III. Geographic Clusters

  a. Geographic Domain:  North America

  b. Geographic Site: Southern North America

  c. Geographic Impact:  Cuba

10. Sub-National Factors:  No

Empirical evidence is hard to muster on this issue, but it is a general consensus that the trading of ideas and collaborating within the non-political realm of music provides balance in foreign affairs.  Efforts to engage with other communist countries such as China and North Korea have stressed that increasing people-to-people contacts and exchange of information are building blocks toward promoting democracy.
 
 

11. Type of Habitat:  Tropical
 

IV. Trade Clusters

13. Direct v. Indirect  Impacts:  Direct
 

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

a. Directly Related to  Product:  Yes, Cuban music specifically and its ability to market internationally

b. Indirectly Related to Product:  No

c. Not Related to Product:  No
d. Related to  Process: Yes.  The rights as afforded by the First Amendment in the importation or exportation of information or informational materials
 

15. Trade Product  Identification:

16. Economic Data:

* Buena Vista Social Club is Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez
** Source: World Circuit Records

18. Industry Sector:   Entertainment

19. Exporters and Importers: Cuba, France, England, Canada, Japan, and the United States
 

Cuban music has been appreciated all over the world for many years now, so the phenomenon of the "Buena Vista Social Club" was essentially an American thing.  However, prior to the Berman Amendment there have been two significant trends that have occurred that many musicologists have directly related to the Trading with The Enemy Act.  First, the absence of Cuban music in the United States allowed for re-interpretations of Cuban musical styles by Puerto Ricans in the 1960's and 70's.  Emerging from this was what came to be known as "salsa".  The exportation of "salsa" music was largely directed at the above countries, in addition to certain Latin American countries such as Colombia.  Musically speaking, this particular era in music is the most revered because of the social message inherent in many songs and the different influences of African derived rhythms and Spanish melodies.  The absence of Cuba on the music scene allowed for the cultivation of Puerto Rican styles and identity that corresponded to their emergence as a significant immigrant group in the United States.

The second trend marks the commercial direction that music began to take in the 1980's.  Latin music as a genre began to take the shape of highly commercialized music; syrupy romantic lyrics, a toning down of the polyrhythmic nature of instrumentation, cross-over lyrics in English and Spanish, and the basic goal of image over substance.  This has saturated the Latin music market with very lackluster music that has gravitated even further away from the Cuban roots in which it was bred.  Also, most Cuban musicians who defect to the United States go to Miami, where there is a less than a warm reception of traditional Cuban music styles.  Currently, the Latin music scene has very few Cuban artists and even fewer Cuban musical influences.  The "Buena Vista Social Club" project and its Grammy award legitimized Cuban music as one of the last true non-commercial musical forms in an arena that embraces commercialism above anything else.  The exportation of the album to mass audiences has given credibility to Latin music as a whole as one without commercial inclinations and at the same time has fostered better relations between the United States and Cuba on the basis of music.
 
 

V. Environment Clusters

Cuban music is virtually a process of globalization (before the term became coined this was true) incorporating Spanish African, and Ameridian properties; accelerated by the expansion of Europe and the slave trade.  From West African influenced drum induced rumba's to the Spanish decimas (a form of poetry) of the Cuban guajira, what Cuban music offers is not just the pleasures of sound, but also the histories involved that make such a sound possible.  The discipline of ethnomusicology as it relates to Cuban music draws largely from this history, as well as an understanding of anthropology and the social sciences.  The undercurrents of Cuban music are reflections of the coordinates that society has drawn:  the marriage of metal instruments (flutes, trumpets, saxophones) from the more developed European continent with the more wood derived instruments (claves, guiros, conga drums, maracas) of the developing and African influenced Caribbean region.  There are the flights from repression involving Haiti and neighboring eastern Cuba in the 19th Century that have cultivated something new and different in the way of Creole, Haitian, and Cuban elements.  More recently, there is the relationship between Cuba, the former Soviet Union and the eastern bloc that has brought a classical feel to Cuban music infleunced by some of the best composers in the world.  Today, the globalizing effect is even more pronounced with jazz, reggae, funk, and rap finding their way into the Cuban sound.  The specter of all these developments found their way into the "Buena Vista Social Club" project.

Lastly, Cooder's success has given legitimacy to Cuban music and fostered a deeper understanding of the cultural richness that embodies the Cuban experience.  In a world dominated by the next star, and more specifically the Latin Ricky Martin's and Marc Anthony's of the world, the "Buena Vista Social Club" project brought full circle the significance of what cross-cultural contacts have meant in the progression of an increasingly global society.
 

20. Environmental  Problem Type: Rights

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of  Species: N/A

22. Resource Impact and  Effect: Low and Product

23. Urgency and Lifetime: N/A

24. Substitutes:  Alternative Music
 

VI.Other Factors

25. Culture:  Yes
 

The musical environment in the United States has long suffered because of its preference to market the next star and the fact that not even the realization of great Cuban music has silenced political hardliners.  Ry Cooder's project managed to get the United States to think differently about its disposition toward Cuba, and in turn the Cuban government took advantage of this curiosity aggressively putting its artists in international audiences.  Cuban music is turning up all over the United States in major areas such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, and even Miami.  The electricity of these performances and the shared nature of artists like Ry Cooder traveling to Cuba have profound effects not just in music, but in cultural diplomacy efforts to build stronger alliances through other institutions.

The reception has been tremendous on both sides.  Cooder has already recorded a second album to be released later in the year.  Recently a Welsh band performed in Cuba, marking the first time a rock band has performed there since 1979.  The exporting of American rap has caught Cuba by storm, producing their own stable of Cuban rappers who spew their own form of social and political consciousness in a place not known for allowing such latitude.  Musically and socially, the "Buena Vista Social Club" project has been the linchpin in bridging new artists and new musical styles from both sides of the Caribbean.

The "Free Trade of Ideas" as proposed by Congressman Berman allows for Cuba to not be cut off entirely from the United States.  The fact that it is still a tenuous piece of legislation threatens the progress made with the Ry Cooder recording.  The increased contact between the two nations will provide for better relations faster than an embargo will.  If the amendment is not taken seriously, then the culture of both nations can be affected by isolation again.
 
 

26. Trans-Boundary Issues:
 

27. Rights: Yes
 
 

28. Relevant Literature:
 

Web-Sites:

www.afrocubaweb.com

www.descarga.com

www.latinbeatmagazine.com

www.rollingstone.com

www.riaa.com

www.loc.gov

www.bembe.com

www.worldcircuit.co.uk

Journals:

Latin American Perspectives

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Policy

Tropicana Music
 

1/2001