A Omara Portuondo, de 79 años y una leyenda de la música tradicional cubana en su repertorio por más de 60 años, se le ha concedido un visado.
“Voy a los Grammys Latinos por primera vez, aunque he sido nominada antes”, dijo Portuondo, conocida por el público norteamericano por ser la única mujer del fenómeno de Buena Vista Social Club.
El último CD de Portuondo, “Gracias”, un desafío a su voz qu cuenta con la colaboración del cantante brasileño Chico Buarque, el camerunés Richard Bona y el cubano Pablo Milanés, está nominado al Mejor Álbum Tropical Contemporáneo.
Está previsto que ella presente uno de los premios en la ceremonia en Las Vegas. Le pregunté si quería actuar en el espectáculo televisivo, y dijo con una sonrisa, “yo no puedo someterme a una presión tan fuerte. Tal vez la próxima vez. Espero que se me invite en otro momento”.
Gabriel Abaroa, presidente de la Academia de los Grammys Latinos, dio la bienvenida Portuondo diciendo: “nos da una gran felicidad tenerla en este escenario”.
“Para mí no hay cuestión política que justifique no escuchar buena música”, agregó. “Parecería como volver a la época prehistórica”.
El último - y hasta ahora único - nacional cubano que asistió a los Grammy Latinos fue Juan Formell, el líder de la popular banda Los Van Van, quien fue nominado y estaba en Los Angeles para los primeros premios de 2000.
Artistas cubanos se han enfrentado no sólo a problemas para conseguir las visas de EEUU., sino la presión de los cubanoamericanos que no querían que asistieran al evento a quienes consideran “partidarios del gobierno de Castro”.
Las nominaciones a los cubanos provocó protestas anti-Castro y la más famosa condujo a un cambio de sede de Miami a Los Angeles en 2001, y llegó al extremo de que se cancelaran la entrega de premios del año, prevista para el 11 de septiembre.
Portuondo, quien cantó por vez primera en los EE.UU. en 1951 e hizo giras frecuentes con el Buena Vista Social Club desde finales de 1990, es uno de las decenas de artistas cubanos a quienes se les negó la entrada a los EEUU bajo las regulaciones anti-terroristas puestas en marcha tras los ataques del 11 de Septiembre.
Ella comentó que continuó trabajando en el extranjero. Viajó a Europa, Japón y otros países, pero se perdió los intercambios culturales con músicos de EEUU.
“No fue bonito”, dijo, recordando la prohibición, que también significaba que no podía ver a su hermana, la ex cantante Haydeé Portuondo, que vive en Miami. “Tenía una gran tristeza en el alma.”
Legendary Omara Portuondo to become first Cuban national on stage at Latin Grammys
Singer Omara Portuondo, 79, has a CD that’s up for a Latin Grammy, and she’s headed for the ceremonies
Maite Junco
It took a decade, but for the first time in the history of the Latin Grammys, a Cuban artist living on the island will be on stage tomorrow night at the awards show.
Omara Portuondo, the 79-year-old musical legend who has been performing for more than 60 years, has been granted a visa.
“I’m going to the Latin Grammys for the first time, although I’ve been nominated before,” said Portuondo, best known to American audiences as the only woman of the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon.
Portuondo’s latest CD, “Gracias,” featuring her age-defying rich voice and collaborations with Brazilian singer Chico Buarque, Cameroon’s Richard Bona and Cuban Pablo Milanés, is nominated for Best Contemporary Tropical Album.
She’s scheduled to present an award at the ceremonies in Las Vegas. Asked if she would perform at the televised show, she said with a laugh, “I can’t press so hard. Maybe next time. I hope they’ll invite me some other time.”
Gabriel Abaroa, the president of the Latin Recording Academy, welcomed Portuondo, saying, “it gives us great happiness to have her onstage.”
“For me there isn’t a political matter that justifies not listening to good music,” he added. “Seems like returning to the Prehistoric Period.”
The last — and until now, only — Cuban national to attend the Latin Grammys was Juan Formell, the leader of the popular Los Van Van band, who was nominated and was in L.A. for the first awards in 2000.
He didn’t make it to the stage, he recalled from Havana this week.
Cuban artists have faced not only problems getting U.S. visas but pressure from Cuban-Americans who didn’t want them at the event, seeing them as supporters of the Castro government.
The stalemate prompted anti-Castro protests and famously led to a change of venue from Miami to L.A. in 2001, though in the end that year’s awards, scheduled for Sept. 11, were canceled.
Portuondo, who first sang in the U.S. in 1951 and was here frequently on tour with the Buena Vista Social Club in the late 1990s, is among dozens of Cuban artists denied entry into the U.S. under anti-terrorist regulations put in place following the 9/11 attacks.
She said she continued working abroad, traveling to Europe, Japan and elsewhere, but missed the cultural exchanges with U.S. musicians.
“It was not pretty,” she said, recalling the ban, which also meant she couldn’t see her sister, former singer Haydeé Portuondo, who lives in Miami. “One had a sadness in the soul.”
But after years of rejections, the change in policy from the Obama administration is being quickly felt.
Portuondo, who spoke to Viva from Miami, arrived in the U.S. last month for concerts in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Milanés played in Puerto Rico on Oct. 18, his first concert there in 11 years.
Zenaida Romeu, the director of the renowned all-female chamber orchestra Camerata Romeu, is headed to North Dakota, where she will conduct the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 14 and 15.
And the Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñeiro, which was denied a visa in 2003 to attend the mainstream Grammys, in which it was nominated along with four other Cuban acts, is playing at the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture in the Bronx on Saturday (see story, left).
“We were approved, but afterwards the government withdrew the visas for [being] terrorists,” said the group’s Ricardo Oropesa.
"But that’s old history; now we are very happy because they have been very friendly and very generous and have welcomed us with a lot of love.”
Cuban artists who reside outside of the Communist island, like famed pianist Bebo Valdés and members of the trio Orishas, all of whom live in Europe, normally don’t face visa troubles and have performed at the Latin Grammys in past years.
Besides Portuondo, the Cuban nationals nominated this year are Bebo’s son, Chucho Valdés, and the band Muñequitos de Matanzas.
“I’m going to represent Cuba, because I think I’m going to be the only one that will be there,” Portuondo said.
“I’ll be there for all of the others.”
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