Posts: 3

1. Pintor usa avión secuestrado para documentar "tragedia cubana"

   16.Apr.07, 19:03 EDT
   
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   Pintor usa avión secuestrado para documentar "tragedia cubana" por Sonia Osorio Miami (EEUU), 2 dic (EFE).- El conocido pintor estadounidense Xavier Cortada transformó en lienzo un avión secuestrado en Cuba y desviado a Estados Unidos para representar la "tragedia cubana de casi cinco décadas". Bocas abiertas que ilustran el llanto y el sufrimiento de los cubanos, palomas como símbolo de la paz y llaves que abren la puerta hacia la libertad, cubren uno de los lados de la aeronave que pertenece a la organización sin fines de lucro Cuban Monument to Freedom, con sede en Miami (Florida). El otro lado del avión, Cortada lo dejó "tal como llegó de Cuba: destrozado y abandonado, como nuestra isla por una dictadura de casi 45 años". "Es una perfecta metáfora de lo que está sucediendo en Cuba", dijo hoy a EFE el pintor, de padres cubanos, quien ha realizado proyectos artísticos para la Casa Blanca, el Banco Mundial y el Museo de Arte de Miami. El Antonov An-2, que es exhibido en el nuevo centro artístico de Miami llamado "Distrito de los almacenes", fue utilizado por ocho cubanos para viajar a EEUU y aterrizó en Cayo Hueso, en el extremo sur de Florida, en 2002. Un juez estadounidense ordenó decomisar y subastar la aeronave para pagar con los fondos parte de una indemnización de 27 millones de dólares concedida a Ana Margarita Martínez, la ex esposa de un presunto espía cubano y directora de Cuban Monument to Freedom. "He pintado también manglares porque para mí representan comunidad y protegen las playas contra las tormentas y los huracanes. Los cubanos hemos llegado a Miami, echamos raíces y apoyándonos unos a otros hemos podido crear casi un bosque de manglares", explicó Cortada. Entre los muchos símbolos plasmados por el pintor, hay llaves que simbolizan "el camino hacia la libertad". "El artículo 13 de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) establece que todos tenemos el derecho de regresar a nuestros países. La puerta de nuestra casa (en Cuba) está cerrada y la llave abre esa puerta", puntualizó. Para Cortada, ese artículo "está seriamente abandonado y creo que es, en parte, porque al mundo no le importa la tragedia cubana, no solamente la que viven los que están bajo el régimen castrista, tampoco el sufrimiento de la diáspora. Por eso es importante documentar esta situación". La aeronave también está rodeada por 45 maletas pintadas con los colores del arco iris y en cada una se colocarán cartas de exiliados describiendo su experiencia fuera de Cuba. "Las he enumerado cronológicamente desde 1959 hasta el 2004, de manera que las cartas de los cubanos que, por ejemplo, salieron de la isla en el 59, serán colocadas en la maleta que tenga ese año", precisó el artista. Martínez, por su parte, dijo hoy a EFE que Cuban Monument to Freedom, presidida por el empresario español Oscar García, mantendrá el avión como "un monumento a la libertad". La directiva presentó en 2001 una demanda contra el gobierno cubano argumentando que fue utilizada por el presunto espía Juan Pablo Roque para infiltrarse en la comunidad cubana de Miami. Roque, un ex mayor de la Fuerza Aérea Cubana, regresó a Cuba el 23 de febrero de 1996 en medio de acusaciones sobre su presunta participación en la llamada "Red Avispa" de espías cubanos y de infiltrarse en la organización de exiliados Hermanos al Rescate. Un día después de su partida murieron cuatro miembros de esa organización, al ser derribadas dos de sus avionetas por cazas Mig de la Fuerza Aérea cubana. Roque conoció a Martínez en 1992, después de que presuntamente desertara en la base naval estadounidense en Guantánamo (Cuba), y dos años después se casaron. El matrimonio fue posteriormente anulado en 1998, tras el retorno del hombre a la isla.EFE so/as/hma

2. Landings: News: Aviation News by Pacific Flyer, July 2004

   16.Apr.07, 19:03 EDT
   
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   Landings: News: Aviation News by Pacific Flyer, July 2004 cuban-an-2-is The Antonov An-2 biplane plane used by Cuban defector Nemencio Guerra to fly his family of eight to freedom in Key West, Fla. has been transformed into a work of art. The center of a political feud between the U.S. and Cuba, the former cropduster has been through a lot since it arrived in the U.S. on Nov. 11, 2002. Seized by the government when it landed at Key West, it was later given to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office to be auctioned off. The proceeds were to be used to satisfy part of a $27-million judgment against the Cuban government won in a U.S. court by the ex-wife of a Cuban intelligence officer. But Ana Margarita Martinez was so angry at Fidel Castro, she bid on and won the plane herself to ensure it was not repatriated to Cuba. After making her point, Martinez sold it to her lawyer, Scott Leeds, who has stored the mustard-brown biplane in a hangar at Key West Airport for the past year and a half. With no prospect of flying the An-2 in the U.S. and no buyers on the horizon, Leeds was at wit's end about what to do with the plane. "We always envisioned something special for the plane," Leeds said. But it was only after an encounter with Miami-based Cuban artist Xavier Cortada, whose specialty is public murals, that the idea of turning it into a piece of patriotic art was born. "We didn't want it to just fall idle or go quietly into the night," Leeds explained. "We really wanted it to be a living monument to freedom." A deal was struck and the An-2 was disassembled by volunteers and trucked to a former U.S. Coast Guard hangar in Miami. There it was reassembled and turned over to Cortada, who would use his paint and brushes to transform it into the Cuban Monument of Freedom. The recurring image in Cortada's painting of the An-2 is open mouths, which he said symbolize the lack of freedom of speech in his homeland. The bright colors and other visual elements are typical of traditional Cuban art. To accent the theme of mass flight from Cuba, Cortada surrounded the colorful An-2 with equally colorful suitcases and trunks. There are 45 of them, numbered 1959 to 2004 to mark every year of Castro's oppressive communist regime. The trunks are filled with cards and letters from Miami's Cuban exiles about their experiences leaving Cuba — what they left behind and what they found in the U.S. The responses are placed in the trunks that correspond to the year that person came to America. Cortada's response will be in the trunk for 1962, the year he came to Florida with his father. The battered airplane, he said, is "a symbol of the struggle for freedom that the Cuban people are so desperate for that they are willing to risk their lives." The An-2 was unveiled during the city of Miami's "Celebra Libertad!" (Celebrate Freedom!) exhibit on May 19th, the eve of Cuban Independence Day. It is on display at the Elizabeth Virrick hangar at 2600 So. Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove, Fla. Leeds and Cortada hope the Cuban Monument of Freedom will find a permanent home at a museum in South Florida or even the Smithsonian Institute. According to Leeds, the Smithsonian has already expressed interest in acquiring the exiles' letters. For her part, Martinez is thrilled with has happened to "her" plane. "It's something that involves both the cultural world and the cause," she told the Miami Herald. "It's very innovative and something the entire community can participate in."

3. Painted Cuban Plane Lands in Miami’s New Arts Hub

   16.Apr.07, 19:02 EDT
   
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   Painted Cuban Plane Lands in Miami’s New Arts Hub - “The Warehouse District” MIAMI, FL – October 27, 2004 -- Miami artist Xavier Cortada’s Painted Cuban Airplane has found a new place to land in The Warehouse District, Miami’s newest arts hub. An exhibit of the celebrated painted Russian Antonov-2 Colt airplane, used by a family to escape from Cuba and the accompanying Freedom Luggage Installation (see below), will open Thursday, December 2, 2004 at 8:00 pm at 318 NW 23rd Street, near the corner of NW 5th Avenue and 23rd Street. Exhibits hours during the Art Basel week will be: 8 am – noon and 8pm to midnight on December 2nd 8 am to midnight on December 3rd, 2004, and 10am to midnight on December 4th and 5th. After Art Basel, the airplane is slated to remain onsite in the Warehouse District as a museum operated by the Cuban Monument to Freedom, Inc. to honor the Cuban Diaspora and all those who value freedom. The grand scale opening event is open to the public and is presented by Tony and Joey Goldman of Goldman Properties and Dan Kodsi and Greg Mirmelli of Royal Palm Communities. The University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection, Cuban Monument to Freedom, Inc will also join Miami Mayor Manny Diaz in opening the exhibit space on December 2nd. Other event co-sponsors include Interfligfht Studios, Leeds and Colby, Artista Mundo, Club Space, Executive Air Services, 94th AeroClaims Group and Atlantic Coast Construction Group.