Soap Opera Has Modest Following : Radio Marti: Few Visible Political Ripples in Cuba

Esmeralda is the heroine in a soap opera about a poor blind girl who falls in love with a millionaire. Her story, served up daily by a U.S. government radio station that broadcasts to Cuba, has attracted a modest following here.

And that represents a modest success for Radio Marti, which started broadcasting May 20 as an alternative to Cuba’s Communist-controlled mass media.

But after more than two months on the air, Radio Marti is causing few political ripples. The Cuban government, which suspended an immigration agreement with the United States in an initial reprisal, has made no further response to Radio Marti’s broadcasts.

Still, the Cubans jam Radio Marti’s signal with a steady, high-pitched hum but it is only slightly distracting for the listener. James C. Todd, acting chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana, said the Cubans could probably jam the signal more effectively if they wanted to.

The station, which broadcasts from Marathon, in the Florida Keys, is named for Jose Marti, the father of Cuban independence from Spain and one of the Castro government’s chief symbols of anti-imperialism. Its Cuban listenership does not appear to be widespread, and many of those who tune in to its news and commentary were already disenchanted with the Castro government.

‘It Is an Offense to Us’

Asked in casual encounters about Radio Marti, dozens of Cubans said they do not listen to it. Many said they consider it to be an imperialist insult.

A young housewife in jeans, wheeling a grocery cart to the checkout counter in a government supermarket, expressed indignation when asked if she listened to Radio Marti.

“I don’t know people who listen to it, and if I did know any I wouldn’t tell you,” she said. “It is an offense to us, especially the name.”

But in the same supermarket, a 16-year-old schoolboy said he likes the Esmeralda soap opera. “When I have time, I listen to it,” the youth said. “Sometimes I can’t because I have to go to school.”

A retired man in the nearby plaza said he knows many people who listen to Esmeralda.

“That novela is catching on with the women,” he said.

Dissident Likes Radio Marti

The man, a dissident who declined to give his name, said he likes Radio Marti’s news, music and sports programs.

In its news and commentary programs, Radio Marti emphasizes information about Cuba and other Communist countries, putting them in a less favorable light than does the Cuban media.

Radio Marti is a special service of the Voice of America. The VOA used to aim its broadcasts at Cuba for four hours a day, on the same frequency that Radio Marti now uses 14 hours a day. Several Cuban officials complained about not being able to get the VOA.

“I used to listen to the Voice of America at 7 p.m. every night,” said Ricardo Alarcon, vice minister of foreign relations. He said Radio Marti’s programming is less interesting and less informative than the VOA’s.

“It’s boring,” he said.

Talking informally with reporters at a reception in Havana’s Palace of the Revolution, Alarcon gave no indication that the government is worried about the new station.

No Talk About Broadcasts

“Since a few days after it came on the air, I haven’t heard anyone talk about it,” he said.

Other officials share Alarcon’s views. One said he was angered at first by the use of the name Marti and the intrusion into Cuba’s airwaves. But he quickly realized, he said, that the broadcasts pose no threat to Cuba.

“It is absolutely ridiculous to think it is going to put Cuba into a calamitous situation,” he said.

In a statement issued May 20, the day Radio Marti went on the air, the Cuban government said the station was intended “to create tension and conflict around Cuba.” It suspended an agreement that provided for the emigration of thousands of Cubans to the United States and for the return to Cuba of 2,700 refugees rejected by the United States because of criminal records or mental illness.

Cuba also said then that it reserved the right to beam radio broadcasts to the United States. The government is known to have two transmitters with many times more power than Radio Marti’s 50,000 watts. Why have they not been used for retaliatory broadcasts?

“I would speculate that Radio Marti isn’t causing Cuba much of a problem, and that the government believes it is not worthwhile to respond,” a Cuban government radio news executive said. “At this point, I think the Cuban government is happy about the failure of Radio Marti.”

‘It Came Too Late’

He said Cuban people have a high level of “political development” and are not susceptible to Radio Marti’s anti-Communist point of view.

“It came too late,” he said, and added that the station might have been more effective in the 1960s or 1970s, before the revolution of 1959 was consolidated.

A long-time foreign resident in Havana said that at first there was a lot of curiosity about Radio Marti, among pro-revolutionary Cubans and dissidents alike.

“It still has a big audience among people who are disaffected and want to leave the country,” the foreigner said. “Among the other people, it has just fizzled out.”

Conrado Perran, 61, a secondary school teacher in the southeastern city of Santiago, said many people listened to Radio Marti but didn’t like it. “They expected more, that it would have more information, more news,” he said. “There was interest at first, but now no one thinks of it.”

A retired university professor in Havana said: “The only one I know who listens to Radio Marti was a member of the Batista government,” a reference to rightist dictator Fulgencio Batista, who was ousted by Castro in 1959. “He listens every day and believes everything they say. I tell him it’s a pack of lies. Everybody knows it’s propaganda.”

Broadcasts Tolerated

A gray-haired woman in Lenin Park on the outskirts of Havana, who refused to give her name, said, “No one who is with the revolutionary process listens” to Radio Marti. But, she went on, “I have passed through neighborhoods where it was turned up loud and no one tells them to turn it off.”

The woman’s husband, a muscular man with “Wrangler” printed on the front of his T-shirt, said that anyone who listens to Radio Marti “has to be scum, someone who is about to leave the country.”

Isbel Casana, 18, said his family listens to Radio Marti and added that his father applied years ago for permission to leave Cuba. The family belongs to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a sect that has had trouble in Cuba because of its members’ refusal to give allegiance to any government.

Casana said he listens to the Esmeralda program but his favorite program is “Young Sound,” an afternoon show of American and British rock music. He cautiously avoided commenting on Radio Marti’s news.

“It might be right and it might be wrong,” he said. “What I like is the music.”

Listenership ‘Pretty Good’

Todd, the American official, said there is no way to determine Radio Marti’s listenership but he speculated that it is “pretty good.”

“From the number of people I hear commenting about this crazy soap opera Esmeralda, people are listening to it,” he said.

The soap opera is intended “to get them to listen to the radio so that they will listen to other messages,” he said. Asked if he had any indication that Radio Marti has influenced Cuban life, he replied, “Not yet.”