Al’s Loupe

Opportunism and meatballs

By Alvaro F. Fernandez

MIAMI – Director Philip Lord is a very bright, young man. No doubt he’s on many A lists of up and coming Hollywood directors. He’s already registered two box office successes with “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and more recently “21 Jump Street.” This past week he ventured into the political fray – with a vengeance and head first.

Philip, who is the son of a Cuban mother and born right here in Miami, has taken on an entertainment industry power couple in Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

“I get so mad I can’t sleep,” he wrote in a Huffington Post piece. “When I saw that the Carters (Jay-Z’s true last name) were in Cuba,” Lord adds, “I got that pang that I get when I hear friends say they are travelling there.” Lord’s passion frothed because of the duo’s recent visit to Havana, Cuba. He wrote, “I cringe when Americans visit Cuba for a fun island vacation. For one thing it’s illegal (which nobody seems to care about)…”

One small point of clarification: the trip was authorized by the U.S. Treasury Department, charged with deciding those minor details. Or is Philip Lord proposing that Hollywood types take on the responsibility of deciding who can (or cannot) visit Cuba?

If Philip Lord feels this way, then I’m glad he expressed his feeling in the open letter that Huff Post published. A strongly worded piece aimed at Mr. Z, as he refers to Jay-Z in his letter. It was a retaliatory salvo for the rapper’s response in rap to criticism and insults received by the couple since their return from their visit to the island nation. I wonder if Phil Lord has heard some of the things said about Jay-Z and Beyoncé on Miami airwaves since their return?  

I know what it feels like to lose one’s cool. I’ve done it myself – too often. But calling Jay-Z a “bad artist.” And referring to him as a Nihilist with a beat… (Pretty cool term, but I think wrong person.)

Let me stress that I am the first to defend Philip Lord’s right to complain about people visiting Cuba and the wrongs committed by the Cuban government. But at the same time Mr. Lord’s message confuses me. Here’s what I’m talking about.

Philip Lord in his open letter states: I actually encourage my friends to travel to Cuba, to bear witness to one of the great tragedies of our time… Exchange and travel between our two nations should be a catalyst for change… But for me, Cuba is not the place to have a fun, sexy, vacation.”

My question to Philip Lord: who died and left you in charge of where Jay-Z, or anyone else for that matter, can have a fun, sexy vacation? Isn’t that one of the things you criticize the Cuban government of – controlling people’s lives? Anyway, which is it? Are you encouraging travel to Cuba? Or not. Or is it only certain people?

In his open letter Philip Lord also maps out a litany of complaints against Cuba and the Cuban government. Again, I respect Lord’s right to address them.

What confuses me is that Philip Lord grew up in Miami. A place where freedom of speech has not always been easy, especially when it comes to the Cuba situation. People, in fact, have lost lives and limbs because of it. Just last year a travel-to-Cuba charter airline was fire bombed in Coral Gables not far from the Coconut Grove area where Philip grew up. And few have bothered to care for what happened.

In Miami lives and walks freely a person responsible for blowing up a plane in the air who carried, among others, young men and women who all perished, and their only sin was being born Cuban. Philip Lord knows this.

In South Florida live persons like Carlos Saladrigas, the Fanjul brothers, at least one Cisneros – all very well known names to the Cuban community. They’ve all travelled to Cuba, more than once.

I’ve never heard Philip Lord publicly complain about any of this.

I would hate to think that Cuban American rap artist Pitbull’s assertion might ring true. In his own rap response to the Carters recent visit to Cuba, he states: “Question of the night/Would they have messed with Mr. Carter if he was white?”

Finally, and this is important, Philip Lord premiered his first big movie, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” in September 2009. That was exactly less than two months after one of the biggest stars in that movie (James Caan of Godfather fame, who played the voice of the father) had just returned from Cuba with movie star friends Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray and Robert Duval. They were there because the Cuban government was awarding a prize to del Toro for his movie on Che Guevara. I understand they had a pretty good time and there are pictures to prove it.

Where was Phil Lord’s disgust then?

It now sounds like a bit of opportunistic oversight to me.