Associate Professor Carlos Baron breezes through the Creative Arts building, momentarily interrupted by students extending their greetings. As the instructor of the Multicultural Theatre on campus and creator of “Poeta Pan,” one of the University’s most well-received plays, Professor Baron remains close to his students.

The bond wasn’t solidified only through the months of exhausting rehearsals, or even through the production’s trip to Baron’s childhood home of Chile at the beginning of this year.

It was through a rejection letter from the U.S. government that denied the group from sharing their labor of love with the people of 26 countries, at a performance in Havana, Cuba.

The collaborative performance (the title means “bread poet”) was based on the poetry of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, incorporating song, movement, drama, and even shadow theater into the multidimensional play.

After the show’s premiere performance last March, the group that created and produced the play was invited to perform their piece in September at the world-renowned La Havana International Theatre Festival in Cuba. The group included nine SF State students, lecturers Wendy Diamond and John Calloway, and Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Matthew Miller.

“Of the 26 countries represented in the lineup, ‘Poeta Pan’ was the only university-based production accepted,” Baron said. “The rest were all professional companies.”

But on the way to getting travel permits approved by the U.S. government, the trip was denied.

“This was a slap in the face,” said Baron, who said he believes that the Cuban people and especially the SF State students missed a great opportunity to share their work. “I knew it was a stretch, but I also trusted that our production would be very attractive because of the content and the different elements involved."

“It was an American production in Spanish with a great variety of music, not just specifically Caribbean or Southern American, but also hip-hop and rhumba, with a multi-cultural cast. (The Cubans and the SF State students) would have been interested because of the same reasons.”

According to a letter from the Department of Treasury, the reason for permit denial was “...that the issuance of a specific license to ‘Poeta Pan’ is inconsistent with current U.S. policy in as much as its participation in a Cuban-organized international festival goes beyond the direct, bilateral interaction between U.S. and Cuban nationals contemplated by this provision.”

To the members of Poeta Pan, it was an aggressive political statement obscured by the terminology of the United States’ long-strained relations with Cuba and the 40-year economic embargo, they said.

“It was very disheartening because I think it would have been a really good experience how theatre is received and supported in Cuba,” said Calloway. “A lot of it has to do with politics, and the Bush administration is seeking to drive a further wedge between the U.S and Cuban people.”

Student and co-choreographer Juan Dela Rosa, 22, said he believed that the reason was suspicion. Neruda, a Nobel Prize winner who was thought by some to be the greatest poet of the 20th century, was also an avowed communist and pacifist.

“Because Cuba invited us and we did not approach them, (the U.S. government was) suspicious,” said Dela Rosa. “Here we are, this play by a communist poet, going to a communist country, with a bunch of U.S. citizens."

“But the message was promoting peace and unity.”
Baron agreed that political considerations had been used to trump the cultural value of the play’s performance in Cuba.

“From the standing of the U.S. government nowadays, it was somewhat expected,” Baron said. “But that was censorship, which they cannot say, so they said that we did not fulfill the requirements.”

Baron and the group commissioned attorneys to review the permit denial. The attorneys agreed that the main underlying reason for the denial was that Cubans would benefit materially from the play.

“If the (U.S.) government thinks that what they’re doing is depriving Cubans of money and support, they’re also depriving their citizens of education,” explained Baron. “It’s about the students, whose wasted opportunity will never happen again.”