From:
Jonhillson@aol.com To:
letters@latimes.com Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 8:00 AM
Cubans Prepare to Protest Latin Grammys Show
Editor
Los Angeles Times
The article "Cubans Prepare to Protest Latin
Grammys Show" (California, Sept. 8) misrepresents
the welcome for Cuban recording artists nominated
for Latin Grammys, supported by a broad coalition
of organizations and individuals, and initiated by the
Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba upon
the announcement of the move of the awards
ceremony from Miami to Los Angeles.
The Times chose not to cover a news conference
at the Conga Room September 6, at which, among
others, Mervyn Dymally, former congressman and
lieutenant governor; Steve Martin, of the
West Hollywood City Council; Jimmy Masslon,
president of Ahi-Nama Music; actor David Clennon;
director Nick Castle; student, human rights activists,
and three Cuban Americans, urged Angelinos to
welcome the Cuban Grammy nominees.
Coverage of the event appeared locally, and in
newspapers as the Washington Post and Miami Herald,
and in dispatches from international news agencies.
Our welcome is not a "counter-demonstration" to
anybody or against anything, and was not called
as such, in any way, shape, or form. Instead, the
Times editorially decided in a news piece to
promote those who favor the exclusion of Cuban
recording artists--whose music millions in the United
States enjoy--from the Latin Grammy awards, and
fabricate the public welcome as a response to those
hostile to the Cuban performers. This is utterly
inaccurate.
Ours will be a peaceful, ethusiastic celebration of
culture, a gesture of hosptitality to the Cuban
performers, an affirmation of support for the right
of freedom of expression from southern Florida to
southern California, and a call for Washington
normalize relations with Havana and end its cultural
and economic Berlin Wall around Cuba. All who
share these ideas, for a multitude of reasons, are
welcome, starting at 3pm until 7pm, at the Forum.
Jon Hillson
415 W. 64th Place
Inglewood, CA 90302
(310)419-2298
THIS LETTER RESPONDS TO THIS ARTICLE:
http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D000072590sep08