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10/30/09 - Miami Herald - Omara Portuondo to present on Latin Grammys

Tucked into the latest press release on performers and presenters at the
Latin Grammys on Nov. 5th was the groundbreaking announcement that Cuban
singer Omara Portuondo will be one of the presenters on the awards show
being televised nationally by Univision.

The "girlfriend of filin", former member of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and lone
female in the Buena Vista Social Club, had already broken ground recently by
being one of the first Cuban artists to get a visa to the U.S. since 2003,
performing in San Francisco and Los Angeles earlier this month. Now
Portuondo, whose cd Gracias is nominated for Best Contemporary Tropical
Album, will quietly break another barrier by becoming the first Cuban artist
living in Cuba to appear on the Latin Grammys.

Controversy about Cuban artists appearing on the show dogged the awards in
its early years, when it was on CBS, causing the awards to make a last
minute move from a planned production in Miami to Los Angeles in 2000, and
causing protests when the Latin Grammys were finally presented in Miami, at
the AmericanAirlines Arena, in 2003 - although, at the end, no Cuban
musicians appeared.

Although Cuban musicians have continued to be nominated for Latin Grammys
since then, U.S.-Cuba tensions kept them from getting visas. Latin Recording
Academy president Gabriel Abaroa says he leapt at the chance to put Omara on
the show when he found she would be stateside. "The moment I knew she had a
visa I went and pushed so hard," Abaroa said Thursday.

He said Univision did not protest. "We have a very specific contract, and it
says all the nominees have a right to appear," says Abaroa. "Let's not
forget she's a goddess of music, a legend, and she has a visa - my God, we
need to have her." Abaroa says he would have loved to have her perform, but
by the time he got word she would be available, the performance slots were
filled. But he says that, given the strength of her album, she may appear
onstage more than once. "I wouldn’t be surprised if she grabs a Latin
Grammy," he says.

Portuondo, whom I was able to interview on Thursday while she was in Miami
visiting her sister Haydee (also a Cuarteto d'Aida member), seemed startled
that her appearance had already been announced. "Ay Dios mio," she said,
hands fluttering a bit. Portuondo, who turned 79 on Thursday, didn't admit
to any sense of groundbreaking importance about her appearance, other than
to say she was honored to be nominated, and regretted that Chucho Valdes
couldn't make it.

Portuondo is controversial for being one of a number of artists who signed a
letter of support for the Cuban government during the primavera negra of
2003, which saw the execution of three men for hijacking a ferry and the
mass prosecution and imprisonment of political dissidents. Music, filin, las
d'Aida, and Buena Vista made up most of our conversation (she sang,
spine-tinglingly, Veinte Anos, Contigo en la distancia, and Cachita, just a
few feet away on the couch), but Omara talked about the letter as well. Full
story and video by the inimitable Pedro Portal come out Wednesday. More on
the Latin Grammys on Thursday.