World famous trumpeter Arturo Sandoval talks about the problems in his native Cuba, and what he sees as some of the issues and solutions for his homeland. He gives some great insight and perception into a situation from a man who's seen both sides of the story.
DM) How are you doing?
AS) I am doing just great. (laughing happily)
DM) Are you always this happy?
AS) Of course, I'm a happy man.
DM) What makes you a happy man?
AS) Because I have a beautiful family. My family makes me
happier more than anything else. Those are the people who are
going to push my wheelchair when I'm older. That's my main concern.
Who the hell is going to push my wheelchair! (laughing) Those
of the people who are going to be there when I get screwed up.
DM) Did you have a good family life back home in Cuba?
AS) Oh, yeah. We have a large family. My parents had a lot
of brothers and sisters so I've got a lot of cousins. I'm married.
I've got two boys who are married already. My oldest daughter
in law is expecting and I'm going to be a grand dad in a couple
of months.
DM) Now most your family has come to America, but I understand
you had some problems in coming to this country.
AS) Three years ago I presented my application for citizenship.
And after a lot of interviews, and back and forth problems they
denied that to me. They said that I was a member of the communist
party. It's like if you accuse somebody over here of being a
republican. That was stupid. That was the bad side on the street.
The good side was that a lot of very important people like celebrities
and politicians sent letters to congress. There were a lot of
demonstrations condemning my application refusal. And that was
good for me because that gave me a beautiful piece of mind and
a beautiful confidence to be sure that I was in the right place,
around the right people who respect and admire what I'd do. That
made me feel good.
DM) So how did you feel knowing you were in this state of
transition?
AS). It's very uncomfortable to know that you're a citizen
of nowhere. My situation was bad because I didn't have any passport.
I didn't have any nationality. We came here, my whole family,
with the idea of really getting integrated into the society,
to the community and me. And we're going to live and die over
here. We're not here in transit. You want to get integrated.
We're paying a lot of taxes. We didn't do anything wrong all
we did for the last years was work, work and work with a lot
of dedication and respect for the whole thing. Everybody in the
music business knows that I'm a good citizen. I don't touch drugs
or alcohol. That's just history now though.
DM) When did it all get fixed?
AS) About a year ago already.
DM) Will you have a one year anniversary party?
AS) Maybe... (laughing) we have a lot of fun and parties
here at home. We don't need to wait for an anniversary!
DM) It sounds like you have a very happy home life then.
AS) Oh yes, that's very true.
DM) Had do you look at the differences of your having grown
up in Cuba compared to your children growing up here in America?
AS) It's a complete different life. You cannot compare a small
and undeveloped third world island to the biggest, strongest
and most powerful country in the world. It's a completely different
mentality, but I'm glad and pleasant to be here. I think it's
a great opportunity to let them grow all the way without limitations.
But thing you need is the talent and dedication to succeed.
DM) Would you ever go back to Cuba?
AS) If the same government stays there, then no. I still have
a lot of relatives there though. In my close family, everybody's
out. There are also some people I would like to visit. It's my
land. I would love to go back, but under completely different
circumstances. Under this government, no way.
DM) Recently they had one of the first flights from New York
to Cuba since 1962. Do you think relations between the two countries
will change in the near future?
AS) I don't buy that story. You have to realize, I know Fidel
Castro personally.
DM) You met him?
AS) I met him several times. I was there until I was 40 years
old. I met him several times and I tell you I also met a lot
of people who knew him and his mentality is one of the toughest
things you can imagine. He's a tough, nasty son of a bitch. It's
impossible to believe you can establish a conversation or a dialogue
with him. Whoever dreams about that is crazy. They don't know
what they are talking about. They don't know the man. To establish
any sort of conversation with him is impossible. He only believes
what he has in his brain. What he wants to do is keep the power
and get richer and richer. He don't care about anyone else. That
kind of mentality is of a dictator for years, with our relations,
our democracy, without respect for human rights or rights at
all. Forget it, there's nothing we can do to improve the relationship
between the countries while he is still there.
DM) So what will happen when he dies?
AS) That's a good question. Nobody knows exactly what will
happen. But for sure there will be a big movement. A lot of people
are still confused. That's where he started in school. And most
lawyers have a great ability to speak. He can sell ice to the
Eskimos. You have to realize that it's an island completely isolated
from the rest of the world. And the information that the people
have is what they provide to them. There's only one television
channel, one radio station and one newspaper. Only one kind of
information. The people are all very confused. They believe Castro.
The people are very confused. Whoever has the opportunity to
see around the world will change their ideas completely.
DM) How could they justify what he does when the people see
no growth and change?
AS) He's washed the brains of many people. He says that all
of the difficulties and problems in the country are due to the
American embargo. They believe that. And that creates a friction.
It creates an aversion to Americans. And that gives him more
possibility to keep these lives the way they are. But beside
that, what we had before him was another dictator. And that wasn't
too good either.
DM) I thought the people thought Castro would be better then
his predecessor.
AS) That's what they thought! Everybody thought it would be
at least, better then what we had before.
DM) If all of the information you had was what the Cuban government
gave you, how did you figure out that there was a different story
going on?
AS) I traveled a lot as a musician while I was there.
DM) They let you travel? I thought he was very limiting on
people traveling.
AS) Well, we went all over Europe and Japan. We even came
to America a few times. Unfortunately, when you travel, you have
to travel by yourself. If you have family and kids, forget about
it. I couldn't have escaped before because I wanted to escape
with my family.
DM) How did you escape with them?
AS) I waited and prepared and try to make a plan until they
made the mistake of letting my wife and children join me while
I toured Europe. It was my opportunity.
DM) Why did they risk that? I thought that was almost unheard
of to let a family travel outside of Cuba.
AS) They had two choices. If they said, "No", I
stayed there or I could make a big noise and get out of there
somewhere. That was probably what they thought about and decided
to give me this privilege of traveling with my family. Also,
I was trying for years to give them the confidence for years
to make them think I'll come back given the opportunity. You
know, everybody over there has a couple of faces. In some cases
they have four. When you are with your close friends and family,
you let them know what you really think. When you are in public
with somebody that you don't know you let them think something
else. Everybody does that.
DM) So what do you predict will happen with the Cuban people?
AS) The only thing that I can tell you, is that we've been
struggling for many years. The people are confused in their values,
with the concept of life. The values are completely up side down.
The morals of the family are very f-ed up. That's the worst thing
that is going on in the country. The material things can be resolved,
especially if America opens up the embargo. Probably in less
then a year, we can catch up with the rest of the world. But
the principals and the morals are not something you can resolve
in twenty-four hours.
DM) How have the morals gotten so bad?
AS) It's so bad, for example prostitution is so big now, it's
unbelievable. Young women who study to be teachers, doctors or
nurses switch to prostitution now because it's better money.
They think that's ok and it's all right. And drugs are getting
worse every day. You can't believe that people are smoking crack.
F-ing crack. And people have already spent their lives with those
types of problems and have lost their horizon.
DM) Do you think Americans should stop the embargo?
AS) I don't think so. Castro always justified every problem
with the embargo. How can they justify the fact that they cannot
grow a potato? Because of the Americans? They main problem is
the inefficiency of the system. The system doesn't work and its
been demonstrated in all of the ex-communist countries of the
world. In Russia, in Bulgaria, etc... the system killed your
desire, your personality... and when you get involved in that
system, you don't have the desire to do anything. You've lost
your confidence and mentality and your own power to make any
decisions, including your private life. Because the government
controls everything. You don't make any effort, because you don't
care. That's the main problem of the system.
DM) We talked about mis-information. How did Castro describe
the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960's?
AS) For forty years he keeps on talking about how the Americans
are going to invade our country. And the people have been making
bunkers and barricades in fear of the American invasion. It's
a result of creating a state of hate in people. The people are
scared that somebody is going to come and hurt your family. It's
one of his strategies. So he justified the missiles as the only
way we had to defend ourselves. If we have a missile to send
to Washington then the Americans will be a little more conservation
about invading Cuba. That was his explanation.
DM) So what is Castro's motive at this point? What does he
want?
AS) To keep the power and demonstration to himself and everybody
else he has the absolute power in his hands. He is the only man
on earth that can say he owns a farm with 11 million slaves working
for him.
