Cuban Exiles Find Less to Protest at This Year’s MIDEM Conference

At last year’s MIDEM conference here, Lisa Dickson says she feared for her life. As label manager for England’s Tumi Music Ltd., which releases recordings by Cuban musicians, Dickson recalls being threatened outside the convention center by a mob of 400 conservative Cuban exiles who accused Tumi and other labels of aiding their enemy, Fidel Castro.

The protests made national news, and may have backfired to a certain extent by propelling Cuban groups such as Buena Vista Social Club--some of whom performed here last year--into the spotlight among American intellectuals. Retailers say Cuban music, unlike tropical music from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, is popular mostly among non-Latino, “world music”-oriented listeners.

At this year’s MIDEM Americas conference, however, the Cuban exile protesters are almost invisible, in part because MIDEM organizers chose to downplay the Cuban element, but also because the exile population here is slowly losing the political bite it had while its wealthy and influential leader Jorge Mas Canosa was alive. A self-appointed Castro successor, Mas Canosa died in November 1997, at 58.

Only about 20 exiles showed up Tuesday night outside a performance by Cuban singer Elio Reve Jr., most of them older than 50. MIDEM attendee and Cuban music historian Cristobal Diaz said Reve, whose musician father was outspoken against Castro, was probably a safe choice for MIDEM’s featured Cuban performer this year. More than 300 young Cuban Americans attended the Reve show.

“There’s a significant change,” Dickson says. “The younger Cubans [in Miami] don’t seem to care as much as the older ones. It’s quite amazing.”