The bureaucracy that the united States imposes on foreign artists to perform in the country is becoming more and more overwhelming. The dancer Marta Carrasco, the actress Silvia Marso and cellist Asier Polo —who has just won the National Prize of Music— have had to cancel recently performances contracted in this country for not having been able to overcome that wall. Carrasco processed your permission, seemingly without problems, and the last October 8, he traveled with his company up there, but at the border were repatriated with the argument that they lacked a role. Marso even came to get the visa: it is rejected in the process of processing. Polo did not have your papers arrived in time to be able to play in may with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Embassy of EE UU in Spain, ensures that the requirements for artists have not been hardened in recent times, according to a spokesman. But the tangle of procedures has been steadily increasing since the 11-S in 2001. “And now we note also the rise of protectionism. It is not that they have changed the law, just asking for ever more papers and you need to work with a forecast of two or three months at least. And sometimes, as has happened with Asier Polo, or even making it so you get to arrive on time,” says Rose Garcia, the agency Musiespaña, representative of the cellist.
According to Garcia, used to manage international tours of all kinds, the US is one of the countries most difficult. “You have to pay previously $ 1,000 of taxes, hire an office there to collect certifications and contracts, send all the documentation translated into English, even the criticism of the press… Only after that you can start to apply for the visa at the embassy. Practically we don’t win anything, but we can not give up acting there for prestige,” he explains.
Image of the show ‘Bitch of a nobody’, by Marta Carrasco.
Marta Carrasco was going to present its show Bitch no one from the 10 to the 20 October in the Teatro Latino of Los Angeles. It was not the first time that he acted in this scenario and the company processed the visa as I had done at other times. “But when you get to Seattle, where we scale, we were told that there was a missing role, without specifying what, they put us in a room and after more than an hour locked up we were told that we had a right to a phone call. Please contact with Jose Luis Valenzuela, director of the Latino Theater, but we were not allowed to speak with him, but we asked for his number and called them from another room. Days after Valenzuela told us that simply being told that they were going to repatriarnos,” recalls the producer Manel Quintana. “We still don’t understand what has happened. We had never had a problem as well,” he says.
“What happens is that everything has been more difficult to bring in shows from Spanish-speaking to US,” says Valenzuela by phone from Los Angeles. “What we assumed when we hired artists from Colombia or Mexico, they need special visas, but we never had happened with Spanish. From now on we will take this into account. We cannot risk losing so much money again, we had to return the tickets and we are left without the programming on those dates,” he continues. For the coming year has been scheduled to a work of the basque company Kulunka and ensures that you are going to process it all with a magnifying glass. “Although that sadly also assures us of nothing. The visas that are granted by embassies do not guarantee entry. Are customs officials who have the last word and depend on how one wants to apply the laws,” he says.
Poster of ’24 hours in the life of a woman’ to the functions provided for in New York.
The company Silvia Marso had planned to travel the first week of November to New York to represent their show 24 hours in the life of a woman, with text by Stefan Zweig, at the Teatro Repertorio Español. Had a grant from the National Institute of Scenic Arts and Music. Two weeks ago we reported that he had been denied the visa. “The Spanish consul for cultural affairs in New York, Santiago Herrero, had overturned on the promotion. It was almost sold out. But I do not care as much economic harm as the artistic. We have No more available dates to try again until next year,” says Marso.
“In the 52 years that we have been asking for visas to bring Spanish works we have requested for always the P3, which corresponds to a production of ‘cultural exchange only’. This time we have thrown back because, according to the lawyers with whom we have spoken, we should have applied for the P1, which corresponds to companies of prestige, because it is not a product one hundred percent Spanish to be Zweig austrian,” says Rafael Sánchez, artistic producer of the colosseum new yorker. “Now it is impossible to give us time to apply for a new visa for November. What we will try next year with the P1”, progresses.
Rafael Conde de Saro, Spain’s consul general in New York, explained to this newspaper which, precisely, just to have a meeting with us authorities on matters of border. “We stressed that the U.S. only has the obligation to grant entry to the u.s. and to residents with a green card. Everyone else can apply for a visa, but do not have the right to receive it. Even if they receive it, on the border can change their mind,” he stresses.
With information of Antonia Laborde.
Arrested, imprisoned and repatriated
The musician Victor Herrero builds up several stories of nightmare on the border of the united STATES. Two times he was repatriated when he accompanied his wife Josephine Foster, in his tours of that country. The first was in 2010 and was jailed during the 24 hours that took to get a flight back to Spain. “They handcuffed Me hands and feet, they put me in a jail with prisoners quite dangerous. Not even being married to an american, things are easier,” he recalls. Those two occasions dismissed with the argument that it could not demonstrate that he was not going to work, but on the verge of being returned a third time with the excuse to the contrary. “It is the worst country for touring. This same year I had another experience of a heart attack when I went to play with Vinicio Caposela. The visa I arrived six hours before travel,” he says.
