Forty—four members of a Cuban "night club review" — singers, dancers, and musicians — are seeking asylum in the United States while they are performing a three month engagement at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Congratulations and welcome to them all. We pray for their families left behind.

Evidently, they are willing to risk the horrors of no universal government—provided health care. Perhaps Marian Wright Edelman and Hillary Clinton should counsel them on their decision.

America will be much the richer for their residency here. Cuba has a glorious cultural heritage. In the word of the troupe's German—bron founder, "the love affair between the Spanish culture and the African drum" has created a love child of global appeal. Pre—revolutionary Cuba, which was well on the road toward becoming a developed country, was a magnet for music lovers, and its nightclub music/dance extravaganzas were world—famous.

Now that Castro has shown weakness and fragility, perhaps the liberation of the Cuban people from tyranny will come within a mercifically short time. If so, we can expect a cultural explosion, further extending the already enormous Latin influence on American music and culture. Given the energy, verve, and sheer quality of the Cuban entertainment culture, this will be a welcome development.

Thomas Lifson  11 15 04