Setback for Miami, but Brief

The decision to change the venue of the Latin Grammy Awards from Miami to the Los Angeles area just three weeks before the show seems extreme, even if Southern Californians are glad to have the show return after its premiere here last year. The problems that led to the switch were also extreme, but they are part of a longer struggle that the reactionary wing of Miami Cuban Americans is losing.

Some groups in the Cuban exile community had insisted that even listening to Cuban musicians at the Grammy show would be tantamount to supporting Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. A notion like that would of course surprise the millions who have long enjoyed the Buena Vista Social Club or Los Van Van. The raucous bunch in Florida, however, succeeded in scaring off the Grammy folks with threats of demonstrations and disruptions during the Sept. 11 show.

Organizers of the event say safety was their compelling concern. But they also felt that a degree of civility and dignity was needed to run the show successfully. Allowing peaceful dissent is a fundamental right in America. But the 1st Amendment does not include the right to pelt people with eggs and rocks, as happened during protests in Miami during a 1999 performance by the Los Van Van group. The Grammy organizers cited that protest in deciding it was impossible to guarantee the safety of guests and artists in Miami, especially those coming from Cuba.

It is regrettable that a small band of anti-Castro hard-liners won this round. But it will be a pyrrhic victory. Castro is old. A new generation of moderate leaders is coming to the fore in Miami’s Cuban American community. They are pragmatic and don’t want a repeat of the major embarrassment that the Elian Gonzalez affair became last year.

Moderation got a jolt of good news Tuesday: Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the implacable foe of more normal relations with Cuba, is expected to announce today that he won’t run for another term next year.

The shift is unstoppable. It won’t be long before the Latin Grammys return to Miami, Cuban artists and all.