Cuba’s Silvio Rodriguez misses Pete Seeger tribute because US visa not approved

Visa delay keeps Rodriguez from Seeger tribute

HAVANA — Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez says he missed Sunday’s tribute to folk music legend Pete Seeger because U.S. authorities failed to approve his visa in time.

Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris were among 40 musicians who performed at the show in New York, eventually joining Seeger on stage for an extended cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

Rodriguez said in a letter posted on a Cuban government-controlled Web site that he sought a visa from the U.S. consulate in Paris while traveling in France, but was told Friday that the request was still in progress. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana declined to comment Monday.

Cuban musicians, actors and athletes often complain of seeking permission to travel to the United States only to have American authorities fail to respond in time.

“I continue to feel as blockaded and discriminated against as I have under other” U.S. administrations, Rodriguez wrote. Cuban leaders routinely refer to Washington’s 47-year-old trade embargo against the island as a “blockade.”

Seeger is celebrated in Cuba for making the song “Guantanamera” famous around the world when he took a traditional melody by Joseito Fernandez and recorded it with phrases from poetry by Cuban Revolutionary hero Jose Marti.