Spoken word makes the hop
When spoken-word performer Paul Flores heard about the resumption of diplomatic relations and the process to end the Cuban trade embargo, he immediately thought of two places: Mexico and France.
Mexico because he won’t have to go there first to sneak a flight to Havana and then sneak back in. France because he won’t have to wire money to a friend to pay his airfare and mail the ticket to him.
“Before, you couldn’t use credit cards because it was a record of you breaking the law,” says Flores, 41, who lives in the Excelsior and teaches theater at the University of San Francisco. “Isn’t that ridiculous just to go visit my family in Cuba?”
Travel and family aside, Flores has big plans to mix Cuban and Cuban American theater into one, and it starts in June, when he expects to travel to Havana to perform his unique style of hip-hop theater. He’s planning to use his American credit card or ATM card for the first time. Restrictions on such payments have been eased, though as recently as February, the infrastructure was not yet in place, negating this convenience.
He’ll need to flash that plastic to pursue his plan to recruit local poets to come here in a year to
mount a production in two languages.
“Cubans will be coming here, and that’s never happened,” he says. “We’ve never had a Cuban spoken-word collaboration with American artists in the United States.”
The piece, called “Spoken Word Poets in La Habana,” is in development now, and that’s another aspect of the arts he expects to be made easier with the normalization of relations. It is always tough to find corporate sponsors for illegal activity. Even crowdfunding has required an element of subterfuge, he says. As soon as the online platforms figured out it was a Cuban campaign, they would pull it down for fear of government reprisals.
Now he will be able to be up front and promotional, and he expects there will be more funds to raise because there will be more local artists willing to make the trip. Flores always has trouble finding artists willing to risk the return via Mexico, which means going through customs.
‘Gulag’ fear
“You are going through the whole ‘gulag’ fear,” he says. “Am I going to be taken in back and given a cavity search and charged with a crime?”
Flores was born and raised in San Diego. His parents are also American, but he was very close to his Cuban grandmother and cousins, and he sees things their way.
“What Cubans want is to feel that the U.S. cares about them,” he says. “Any time a move toward challenging the superhateful Cuban Miami community happens, there is always rejoicing.”
Flores has visited Cuba five times. He’s gone both illegally and legally for sanctioned cultural exchanges.
‘A big deal’
“That’s a big deal,” says Flores, who has heard the horror stories, “because then you don’t have to worry about getting a letter in the mail from the U.S. Department of Treasury that says, ‘You are accused of doing trade with the enemy. You owe us $50,000.’ ”
Once sponsors and funding are brought to light, Flores will be able to see a loose collective of performers touring Cuba. His planned trip in June might be his last going solo.
“When I come back, I can show what I gathered and documented and created, and it will probably impact other people to want to go there,” he says. “It’s going to change the perception of Cuba being an illegal place.”
“What Cubans want is to feel that the U.S. cares about them.”
Paul Flores, spoken-word performer