Sandoval Blows Horn for Freedom; Listening to jazz music once offered Arturo Sandoval a kind of escape from Cuba's oppression. But the trumpet master found true liberation after defecting to America

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 29, 2004

A: Of course.

Q: To get the government to let you and your family travel to Europe at the same time, so that you didn't have to worry about leaving your wife and younger son behind, you had to build up a level of trust. Your strategy was publicly to praise Castro and the revolution. Was that difficult?

A: You have to play the game. I had to say a lot of things I didn't really want to say. As an enemy of the government, if it is known, you have less opportunity to resist or do anything else. So if you love freedom, you have to lie. You have to be like an actor. That's the only way.

Q: But you always kept the endgame in mind: that you wanted to leave Cuba.

A: Of course. I would never lose that perspective.

Q: You met Castro several times. Any perspective on how he views Cuban artists, particularly with the repression that's going on there now?

A: When Dizzy and I went to Castro's office, he didn't even look at me never. Dizzy talked to him about me all the time, and he did not even look at me. He ignored me. [Castro's] reply [to Gillespie] was, "Come back here anytime. I want to invite you to go fishing and bring your family." That was very typical.

Artists, in general, are not Castro's favorite people. He prefers that people follow him like a lamb. People who are able to think and who spur interest in any kind of ideas those are not his favorite people.

Q: Why do you think Castro still is romanticized?

A: Unfortunately, a lot of people around the world feel a big jealousy about America. And then whoever does something against America or takes that kind of position becomes a kind of leader against the big, big brother. To me, it's like a sickness.

I love America, man. I'm so proud to be here, and I'm so happy, and I don't have that kind of [trash] in my brain. I love America, and I enjoy every second of being here.

Q: What do you love best about America?

A: I have complete freedom to do whatever I want to do.

I have been playing a lot of classical gigs. I've been playing jazz and blues and funk, and nobody ever tells me what I should do or shouldn't. That's the most important thing.

Q: What has surprised you about America?

A: Once in a while, I get surprised. For example, when they sent Elian [Gonzalez] back to Cuba it surprised me. That Janet Reno [former attorney general under Bill Clinton]! She was on the phone with a member of the family of Elian, saying, "Don't worry, believe me," at the same time she was sending troops to get the kid and send him back.

That surprised me. That made me feel kind of sad. I really don't like those things happening in America.

When they get somebody in the middle of the ocean trying to escape from Cuba on a piece of rubber or wood or whatever, and who almost gets onto the beach, and they put him in a boat and send him back to Cuba, that makes me feel sad too.

I don't feel angry. I feel sad. I say, "Man, you don't know what those people go through to escape." They're sacrificing and risking their lives. When they're pretty close, and they see the lights and say, "Wow! We made it," and then the Coast Guard gets them and sends them back, that breaks my heart every time it happens.