Dance Floor Diplomacy

New Orleans Jazz Fest hosts more than 100 Cuban musicians for a powerful cultural exchange

The smoky, sweet smell of cigars wafted through the New Orleans humidity. A crowd of about 200 peoplein Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, and other quintessential Jazz Fest geargleefully (and a bit awkwardly) cha-chad with their hands in the air to the electric sounds of Cuban percussion.

In the corner, Gloria Npoles Veranes, a 60-year-old artisan from Santiago de Cuba, sat quietly, just taking it all in. Like many of the Cuban artists and musicians who were at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this year, it was her first time out of the country.

For me, this is a gift from God, Veranes said with teary eyes. Shes the first one in her family to leave Cuba and shes of the age, she said, where shed let go of dreams like seeing America.

Bringing Veranesalong with more than 100 other Cuban artists and musicianshas been a longtime goal for the organizers of Jazz Fest, the legendary music festival founded in New Orleans in 1970. But it was only made possible this year with the recent thawing of government relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

The cultural exchange, arguably the most substantial between our countries in decades, took two years of coordination between the State and Treasury Departments, former U.S. senator Mary Landrieu, the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Cuban government, among others.

It was a dream of ours to feature Cuba because theres so many connections between New Orleans and Cuba, said Cultural Exchange Pavilion Coordinator Valerie Guillet. It seemed out of reach because of all the challenges so definitely the opening to Cuba helped us feel that we could pull it off.

When the Jazz Fest organizers first began planning the Cuba stage, there were not even commercial flights between Cuba and the U.S. Additionally, they were uncertain of whether theyd be able to get visas for all the musicians. But around the same time, former President Barack Obama signed his executive order to end Washington's economic embargo on Cuba. Guillet says when she and her colleagues approached the Cuban and U.S. governments about their plans, they were greeted with nothing but fervent enthusiasm and support from both sides. It seemed like okay this is the time. This is the right time, she said.

Jazz Fest has had smaller cultural exchange tents featuring countries such as Mali and Haiti since 1996, but this years Cuba tent featured elaborate programming which rivaled some of the biggest attractions happening at the festival. While stars like Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, and Earth Wind & Fire played just next door, thousands of passersby were lured into the Cuba tent by the infectious rhythms, dancing, and raw vocals. Festers who intended to just pop in often ended up staying for hours.

Its very emotional to be here and to share with all of you, said Gilberto Mendez Lainati, an artisan who works in the family business making instruments with his father. He added that it is particularly an incredible opportunity for the Cubans who had never left Cuba before.

Among the offerings on the lineup: Changui Guantanamo playing changui, a type of party music combining African rhythms with Spanish guitar which dates back to the 19th century. Pedrito Martinez, a prolific drummer who has collaborated with greats from Sting to Wynton Marsalis, electrified the tent with feverish call-and-response percussion solos. The festival also made it a priority to host lesser known, but equally talented, groups from the island such as Septeto Santiaguero who, Cultural Exchange Pavilion Coordinator Valerie Guillet said, Jazz Fest predicts will be the next big thing.

The Cuban musicians immediately got buzz around the festival among local players. Dr. Michael White, a prominent New Orleans clarinetist, invited some of them to collaborate. And on the last day of the festival, a chief of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe asked two of the visiting Cuban percussionists to jam on the Jazz & Heritage Stage. These exchanges were a profound renewal of the intimate ties between Cuba and New Orleans which date back more than a century. (The Cuban flag was flown for the first time ever on Poydras Street in New Orleans Central Business District in 1850, and many Cubans, including prominent exiles, have sought refuge in the city throughout its history.)

We believe that we are connecting our two countries through the universal language of music, said Fernando Dewar, founder of Septeto Santiaguero. Politically, I dont know what this signifies, but its very important to us that we maintain a good relationship with the musicians we met here.

Gloria Npoles Veranes doesnt think much about politics either. But, for her, the story of the Cuba Tent has a deeper moral: we should focus more on the positive, because something can always come from adversity.

Throughout the fest, her intricate dollsmade of fiber, flowers, leaves, and other natural materialswere appreciated by people from around the world. Shes won prestigious awards in Cuba for her craftsmanship, but it all began because she couldnt afford fabric.

Her story is a metaphor for the Cuba Tent itself, she said. The friendships and artistic collaborations that blossomed out of the festival were, in part, only so powerful, because they were stunted for decades.

I think theres a tremendous relationship between Cuba and the U.S., because I have felt that here, said Veranes. I think we should be happy whenever we have problems, because something great can come out of it.