Cuban Troupe in L.A. Races INS Deadline

It took more than a year of bureaucratic and political maneuvering for members of Havana’s famed Tropicana nightclub to arrive here. Now the troupe must make its local debut three nights earlier than scheduled or face deportation.

Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in Washington and Los Angeles confirmed Thursday that they have notified Havana’s 54-member Tropicana nightclub troupe--originally slated to open Tuesday at the Variety Arts Theater--that it has overstayed its visa and must leave by Wednesday or be deported.

The ultimatum has left the troupe no other choice but to take to the stage tonight and end its concert run on Tuesday before flying back to Havana, a tour spokesman said.

The 2,200 tickets sold so far are transferable to the rescheduled performances, the spokesman said. And although attempts will be made to contact tickets holders, as much as $50,000 may be lost because of refunds and unsold tickets resulting from the show’s rescheduling, the spokesman said.

Paul Trautman, the tour’s co-promoter, said this is the latest in a frustrating series of snares that have dogged the group long before it opened in New York May 19 to rave reviews and protest from anti-Castro demonstrators.

“People are not designed to be footballs,” Trautman said angrily. “It is unfair to make them conform to (the INS’) timetable. To eject them from the country is a hostile act on the part of our government.

“To curtail their performances in the U.S. is an infringement on freedom of speech,” he added. “The people of L.A. have a right to see the Tropicana if they want to.”

Duke Austin, an INS spokesman in Washington, denied Trautman’s allegation, arguing that the nightclub show had been given enough time to perform before the American public.

Trautman “can object to the administration of the law, but his objections don’t make the law invalid,” Austin said. “We don’t extend (visas) by whim or whimsy, or else we’d have people staying here all over the place illegally.”

Moreover, an INS spokeswoman in Los Angeles insisted that the Cuban performers did not file for an extension of their visas prior to their expiration on May 30. The INS gave them a grace period until June 15 to leave, the official said.

Charles Flood, Trautman’s partner, maintained that the visas for the Tropicana’s dancers and musicians did not expire until June 3. Flood added that the group filed for extensions 10 days prior to that, which would have given the troupe enough time to complete its scheduled five-day run beginning Tuesday at the Variety Arts Theater.

“The State Department has been sabotaging the whole thing from day one,” Flood said. “There’s no security risk. . . . What does entertainment have to do with politics?”

INS officials claimed they were unaware of any State Department pressure to truncate the Tropicana tour.

Before the tour ever began, however, the State Department had refused four times to grant the Tropicana performers visas on grounds that the Immigration and Nationality Act disqualifies Cuban Communist Party members or government officials from entering the country.

The only exceptions, according to Donna Shireman of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, are for “compelling humanitarian concern.”

Finally, last November, the INS reclassified the Tropicana troupe as performers of exceptional artistic merit and approved the work permits required to perform in the United States. By the time they got their visas to come to New York, however, only two weeks remained on their original 16-week work permits.

The New York Times’ Jon Pareles described the show as “a flashy nightclub revue--with dance numbers, crooning, novelties and even a little comedy--driven by home-grown, explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms.”

Although the Mafia-run casinos for which prerevolutionary Cuba was renown are now just a memory, the Tropicana, started in 1939, is one remnant that has survived, according to Tim Harding, a professor of Latin American History at Cal State L.A.

“The Tropicana was made into a sort of national treasure to carry on Afro-Cuban culture,” Harding said. He added that although the predominantly female dancers are scantily clad in costumes that make Las Vegas seem conservative, they downplay the sexploitation aspect with lots of showmanship and strong musical backup.

But some Cuban-Americans were more than eager to pan the show--without necessarily entering the theater. Vociferous protesters kept a vigil outside the Beacon Theater on Broadway for the first four days of its run. On the fifth and final day, the theater received bomb threats, Trautman said.

Controversy has followed the show to Los Angeles.

Although other Cuban-American groups disavow any form of violent protest against the show, some say they are nevertheless opposed to the Tropicana’s arrival in Los Angeles.

“It’s not a good idea,” said Jose Garcia, the head of the Los Angeles chapter of the Cuban American Foundation. “It’s propaganda for Fidel Castro. The U.S. doesn’t need Cuban culture. This is the best country in the world. There is everything here.”

But there are other Cuban-Americans who would disagree with Garcia.

“The Tropicana show is the biggest entertainment event in the entire hemisphere,” said Jorge Rodriguez, a staff writer for La Opinion in Los Angeles. “If you talk about the Tropicana from either a left or a right point of view, it’s wrong. The Tropicana has nothing to do with politics and it’s a mistake to use it as a political tool. It’s popular culture.”