Music and rapprochement

Following a Juanes concert in Havana this year and a more recent Kool and the Gang performance there, Carlos Varela—sometimes known as the Cuban Bob Dylan—is the latest example of the musical and cultural exchanges that have been allowed to expand under the Obama administration. At the highest levels of government, relations remain strained between Cuba and the United States. But people-to-people exchanges are slowly and quietly gaining greater support. Carlos Varela, who had last visited the United States in 1998, was one of many artists and musicians denied a visa by the George W. Bush administration in an attempt to further isolate the Cuban regime. The policy of the Obama administration has been noticeably different: Varela was allowed this month not only to visit the country to record an album with Jackson Browne, but to play for the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee and meet with several legislators in Washington.

He does not represent the Cuban government, by any means. But Varela identifies an important role for himself and other such cultural ambassadors in the absence of meaningful formal diplomatic exchanges: “Music is not going to move governments, but it might move people. And people can move governments.”

A recap of some of the other important cultural exchanges we’ve seen this year:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) representatives met with Cuban counterparts in November.
• U.S. slow-pitch softball senior teams competed in Cuba in November.
• Cuban scholar and professor Eduardo Torres Cuevas visited several cities in the United States to present his work in early November.
• U.S. Environmental Defense Fund scientists held meetings with Cuban scientists in October.

… and there have been more. And there will continue to be more.