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47 10 El Maestro de Maestros, the Father of Cuban Ballet Did the new company tour? On November 13, under my direction, the company embarked on its first international tour. We had a contract to perform in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The Venezuela shows were so successful that the tour there could have been extended had there not been a political coup d’état under way to unseat the country’s president, Rómulo Betancourt. They declared a state of siege, and the company was kept immobilized for several days with no possibility of continuing on to Puerto Rico, until an airplane from the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico was sent to Carácas. It flew the dancers to San Juan. The show was a triumph, but when we returned to Havana there were new problems. Before we left, Pro-Arte had let us have sets, costumes, music, and equipment. Then, when they realized that the company could be gone for as long as a year in Central and South America, they wanted to formalize these arrangements via a contract, including some modest charges for the loaned items. This led to friction between the company and the Pro-Arte directors. We settled the matter amicably by giving a benefit performance to pay off the debts to our benefactors-turned-creditors. Besides that, we saw the new season as an opportunity to pay the outstanding debts to foreign dancers. It opened at the Auditorium Theater and lasted from December 11 to December 28. Some of the guest dancers wanted to remain in Cuba; others preferred to return home until the company’s second international tour. During that season I danced in Prince Igor on December 11 and in Coppélia on December 28, where I again shared the stage with Alicia, Alberto, and Igor Youskevitch. At the start of 1949 the company signed a contract to dance in Central and South America. Then, Sol Hurok traveled from New York to Havana to discuss a company tour of Europe and the United States. This was a major Part I. Antes (Before) 48 opportunity: Hurok was the most famous dance impresario in the world, but the problem we confronted was sustaining the dancers until the tour. We placed an ad in the December 16 edition of the Havana newspaper El mundo. We were determined to gain access to the media in order to put forward specific cultural proposals. The ad read: “the only way to keep going is to attract the public to performances , obtain donations or government support. Without this, it’s impossible to keep going. We utilize the medium of the press to call upon the public to not permit a Cuban artistic and cultural delegation such as this one to disappear without having completed its mission.”1 In response, the University Student Federation of Havana pledged to play a very important role. Angela Grau, one of its members, explains how the organization mounted a campaign of public support that proved indispensable: The first thing we did to help them was focus on the Ministry of Education . That is, we built a national press and radio campaign that included all the institutions, to expose the fact that the Ministry of Education was unconcerned about culture and that this was shameful. We put out a memorandum to all the ministries. Finally, we were able to get the Ministry of Education to meet with us, and they decided to underwrite three Ballet Alicia Alonso performances. Among those with whom we were able to negotiate was La Polar [a brewery], which had a huge publicity budget. We proposed that they donate publicity for one performance and they told us that we would have to put some bears on the stage. We told them that we’d put bears on the stage, beer bottles, whatever they wanted.2 Did the student federation hold any events in its own name? The federation decided to sponsor a performance at popular prices for the general public. The alliance that the students put together turned out to be something on the order of a cultural militia. The company took in five thousand pesos per performance. In every way possible, the connection with the student organization kept the company going for the better part of two years! Those who undertook this effort included Alfredo Guevara, Manuel Corrales, Baudilo Castellanos, Leonel Soto, Mario García Incháustegui, and others. The work of the students drew the...

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