The U.S. trade
embargo was already in place in 1999 when the U.S. professional baseball team,
the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban All-Star baseball teams played two games (one
in Cuba and one in the U.S.). The two
games were the first played in each other’s soil since 1959. In 2016 the Tampa Bay Rays also played the
Cuban national team. President Barack
Obama watched the game with Cuban president Raul Castro in an effort to show
the willingness of both countries to resume relations. Obama’s visit was the first by any U.S.
president in 88 years. Sports brings
people from different cultures together to compete in an environment where
politics is forgotten at least for the duration of the competition. The Olympics is a great example of sports
uniting people from all over the world.
Baseball has been used as a tool for Cubans to use and defect from Cuba
to start a new life in the U.S. by playing Major League Baseball (MLB). In the 2017 MLB World Series the Los Angeles Dodgers
had a popular Cuban player, Yasiel Puig who’s talent and persona allowed the
Dodgers to be in the first World Series championship game since 1988. The influence that Cubans have in MLB was
prevalent in 2017. 24 Cuban born players
played in MLB.
Furthermore, I received
a lot of great feedback after the “I see, I think, I wonder” exercise in class. The exercise allowed me to get a variety of
feedback from 5 diverse students. I got instant
ideas that I did not think of before. My
project will be installation and performance based. I imagine a group of American students-dressed
alike-bringing baseball equipment (gloves, wiffle ball, wiffle bat) onto the
installation that can be in a theatre or outdoor baseball diamond. The American performers will then play baseball
using gestures and movement while Latin and American music is being
played. Potential Cuban spectators will then
be invited by the American students to play catch or practice batting using a
wiffle ball and bat. The project goal is
to have it serve as an icebreaker and show that sports and art can bring unity
between people from different countries.
Can this performance encourage a Cuban audience to get involved in a
baseball game? Can the project lead to
an organized baseball game with referees and enough players to have
substitutions? Can a BBQ with Latin and
American music be organized after the game?
Can this project open up conversation about U.S. professional baseball
teams continuing to play in Cuba on a yearly basis and vice versa?
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