PETER MELARAGNO: CUBA
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CUBA: THE 40 YEARS WAR    Five Cuban-American Veterans of the Bay of Pigs travel to Havana with Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Goodwin, and ex-CIA operatives.  Their mission: Reconciliation.  The Cuban delegation includes Fidel himself, but our story is that of the men of Brigade 2506, going to Cuba knowing it will enrage their Miami compatriots, particularly when Castro and Cuban-American Alfredo Duran – sharing a microphone and discussing the battle – are interrupted by one of the Cuban’s shooting at Alfredo in 1961, and marched up to shake his hand.

SD

CONGA LESSONS AT THE BAY OF PIGS     During the 2002-3 New Years holiday, three American filmmakers visit Cuba to explore its musical and cultural heritage.  Their intentions are to stay clear of the politics separating the two countries.  Instead, they discovered that over forty years after the Bay of Pigs (referred to in Cuba as Playa Giron) the effects of the invasion refuse to disappear, that it is basically impossible to visit Cuba and ignore the deadly Miami/Havana/Washington triangle of recriminations.

THE 2001 HAVANA CONFERENCE TAPES     In March of 2001, an international conference convened in Havana for the purpose of exploring the facts and repercussions of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.  Organized by the National Security Archives of Washington, D.C., it was attended by Fidel Castro, by five members of Cuban- American Brigade 2506, and by ex-Kennedy officials, inluding Richard Goodwin, Arthur Schelesinger Jr., and ex-CIA operatives whose old job it was to assassinate Fidel Castro.