Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.
Otto Merida, executive director of the Latin Chamber of Commerce and one of the most visible Cubans in the Las Vegas Valley, said the members of the "Havana Night Club" show have been upset with him for months.
"They have invited to me their show, but I've never gone because they represented the Castro government as far as I was concerned," he said.
Merida, who came to the United States as a teenage refugee in 1961, said he now feels a sense of solidarity with the dancers, singers and other members of the troupe who announced their plans Monday and are set to perform at the Stardust until Jan. 11. Forty-three of the performers filed applications for political asylum Monday.
Merida, who oversees the third-largest Latino chamber in the Southwest with more than 1,200 members, plans to be part of their audience soon.
"Anytime you have Cubans willing to say how they feel about a government they don't support, I support them." he said.
Tony Alamo, who is senior vice president of the Mandalay Resort Group and also arrived from Cuba 43 years ago, said Monday's announcement was particularly fitting, since Fidel Castro's closing of an internationally known casino scene after his 1959 coup helped make Las Vegas more attractive to tourists in the decades to follow.
As well, he said, a number of Cubans who worked in Havana's nightlife, the same nightlife evoked by "Havana Night Club," then wound up in Las Vegas and took jobs here ranging from dealers to owners of casinos.
"It is very symbolic that they have decided to do this here," Alamo said.
Monday's announcement will doubtless have an impact in Cuba, where Castro's government is likely to clamp down on exit visas to performers and athletes, local Cuban leaders and immigration experts said.
After an ordeal that began in July, when the Cuban government at first refused to allow the performers to leave the country, 43 of the cast members of "Havana Night Club" arrived by bus at the George Federal Building Monday morning to seek political asylum.
Dressed in black slacks with white shirts or blouses, the troupe followed show producer and creator Nicole "N.D." Durr up the steps to the courthouse plaza, where they held a news conference.
One cast member has decided to return to Cuba. Two others are still making up their minds.
The revue, which has been performed in 17 countries during the past six years, traces the history of dance in Cuba, beginning with its roots in Africa and Spain and continuing through contemporary dance trends.
Most of the cast members are in their 20s and have been with the show for six years.
Durr planned to open the doors to her production at the Stardust on Monday night to a group of specially invited guests, among them police officers, firefighters and employees of several social organizations, including shelters for abused and battered women.
"It is our way of saying thank you to the community," Durr said.
With the anticipated arrival today of six additional Cuban cast members from Germany, where they have been residing since September, the production will have a full cast.
Durr said the six had a more difficult time getting out of Cuba than the others.
"Why?" Durr said. "Who knows what goes on behind the curtains."
To expedite their departure from Cuba, Durr said they went to Germany until it could be arranged for them to join the show. They are expected to arrive this evening, in time to perform.
The six applied for political asylum in the U.S. while in Germany. It reportedly was approved Monday.
The applications filed in Las Vegas on Monday will have to be processed in the Los Angeles regional office of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services Department, said spokeswoman Marie Sebrechts. That office handles applications from Southern Nevada, Hawaii, Guam, Southern California and Arizona.
After an application is received, an interview is scheduled in Los Angeles, usually in about three weeks.
The decision to accept the application is based on whether or not the applicant is likely to be persecuted in his or her country of origin based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in some social group, Sebrechts said.
After the interview, a decision is usually reached in about two weeks. While the application is being considered, criminal background checks are carried out.
If granted asylum, applicants are eligible for work permits and get a special stamp in their passport.
If the application is denied, an appeal process may be launched.
In 2003, 4,963 political asylum applications were filed by Cubans, according to federal records. Of those, 1,599, or 37 percent, were approved.
If the members of the troupe aren't given political asylum and the appeal takes at least a year, then another law kicks in -- the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, said Maria Isabel Casablanca, a Miami-based attorney who is a member of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
According to that law, a Cuban who has not committed a crime and has been in the U.S. for a year obtains the status of resident, the step below citizenship.
Five years after they become permanent residents, they are eligible for citizenship.
Casablanca said the appeal process can drag out and that "one year is not a long time in immigration law."
In any case, Casablanca said the "Havana Night Club" case will make it difficult for Cuban performers and athletes to leave the island nation in the future.
Their decision to seek asylum will expose dozens of families on Cuban soil to persecution, he said.
Castro's government could begin taking away privileges or even housing from those families, Merida said.
Sun Washington Bureau reporter Suzanne Struglinski contributed to this report.
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