By Harry Belafonte

Cubanow.- A unique New York-based cultural institution, the Center for Cuban Studies, may be forced to close its doors, after surviving 32 years in exceptionally tough circumstances. We must not let that happen!

The Center opened in 1972 in response to a growing concern that the continuing embargo of Cuba was making it impossible to obtain original source materials for research and study, and that there were no cultural exchange programs with a close neighbor. Those starting the Center hoped to help close the communication gap between the Cuban people and us that had widened in the eleven years since the embargo and travel ban became law.

Everyone involved in the founding of the Center -among them, writers Saul Landau, Lee Lockwood, Jules Feiffer, Jack Gelber, John Womack; editors Jason Epstein, Bob Silvers, John Simon, Sandra Levinson and many others- thought that the need for such a Center was urgent, but probably temporary. No one expected the embargo to last much beyond Richard Nixon's presidency.

How wrong we all were about that! Thirty-one years later, the Bush administration has curtailed almost all communication with Cuba, shutting down even the minimal openings of the Clinton administration, which allowed “people-to-people” travel to Cuba. (Only President Carter legalized travel and as soon as President Reagan was elected, he reversed Carter's policy).

In these 32 years, the Center has promoted dozens of cultural exchange programs, bringing to the US musicians like Pablo Milanes, Silvio Rodriguez, Grupo Moncada, Los Papines, and Sara Gonzalez; writers like Miguel Barnet, Pablo Armando Fernandez and Nancy Morejon; artists like Abel Barroso, Carlos Estevez, Jose Fuster, Montebravo, William Perez, Adrian Rumbaut, and Luis Rodriguez; and lecturers in many fields, from architecture to economics to health care.

Equally, the Center organized programs to bring to Cuba from the US well-known actors and film makers to the Havana Film Festival (to name a few, Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck, Sydney Pollack, Sidney Lumet, Dennis Hopper, Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Treat Williams), and artists to the Havana Art Biennial. Its programs helped to open the way to regular visits from Cuban artists, like Chucho Valdes, to these shores, and US writers and artists to Cuba (even Arnold Schwarzenegger visited!).

Now all of the Center's cultural and educational exchange programs are ending -and not just those of the Center, but those of all major cultural and educational institutions.

The Center has published magazines, books, monographs and most recently CUBA Update Online (http://www.cubaupdate.org). Its library has grown to include all important Cuban periodicals, thousands of books, recordings, and graphic materials from Cuba. The Cuban Art Space opened in 1999 and since then has presented dozens of exhibits from Cuba (you can see many of them on the gallery website: http://www.cubanartspace.net). There are weekly film showings of movies from and about Cuba. Classes from grade schools to universities come to the Center for talks and tours. Lectures and performances round out the Center's public presence in New York.

Its membership is national and its concern international. The dedicated staff and volunteers of the Center work 'round the clock just to keep the Center going. A leap forward came with the people-to-people license issued by the Treasury Department, which allowed the Center to organize cultural group tours, specializing in art and architecture, as well as tours on economics and politics, law, education and health care. For the first time, the Center became financially stable. But overnight last year, the Bush administration changed all that when it announced the cessation of all such cultural/educational trips. (“Those trips are nothing but tourism,” Treasury spokesmen charged. “We don't want that money going to Castro” was the litany, forgetting all of the many ordinary Cubans whose families count on visitors to keep their economy going). The Center lost more than half its income by Bush's decision.

For the Center for Cuban Studies, this could be the end of a road that has given something special to all of us: an important bit of Cuba's extraordinary culture in our midst. It is unique in the country; its members are in every state, and researchers come from all over to use the Lourdes Casal Library and to explore the incredible graphics archives, more than 2500 art works, 5000 posters and 1000 photographs.

Three years ago when I gave a concert in Manhattan to help the Center grow, it was a glorious celebration. We didn't think then that it was a question of survival. Now we know that asking each of you for help is the only way the Center can endure, the only way that this much-needed exchange between Cubans and Americans can continue. Send the largest donation you can, and do it now, to keep the borders open and our nations talking. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. We need you now as never before.

In friendship, Harry Belafonte