’Actuar’ Offers Lynn Cruz a New Contract, Only to Fire Her the Following Month

“Following Orders” Note: Our apologies that this audio file is not subtitled in English

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 April 2018 — The director of the Actuar agency, Jorge Luis Frías Armenteros, acknowledged that irregularities were committed by excluding the actress Lynn Cruz from the catalog of that state entity. Today the actress has posted on the internet the audio of the labor hearing that was held last Friday in Havana, after her protest.

Cruz appealed her exclusion from the agency representing actors and her case reached the body overseeing labor justice. During the oral hearing, Frías accepted that the 30-day period to notify her of the agency’s decision had been violated, but justified the expulsion because of the “critical protests” about the government that the actress publishes on social networks.

The labor trial lasted more than an hour and a dozen functionaries from Actuar were present, Cruz told 14ymedio. The view reminded her of “the judgments of the parametración* era,” a purge in the artistic sector that took place in the 70s, when homosexual, religious and artists not in sympathy with the regime were sanctioned.

“At times I felt like I was in an asylum, it was insane to see how they tried to bring to 21st century methods of the 70s,” laments Cruz who was the accuser, but ended up being accused of writing on her Facebook wall opinions contrary to the political system from the country.

Recently Cruz was informed all of a sudden that Actuar was not going to continue representing her and that lack of representation was used by the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños to exclude her from the institution’s workshops.

To free himself from Cruz’s accusation, Frias proposed to the actress during the trial that the agency would hire her again for a month with the sole purpose of expelling her, this time, without violating any clause of her contract.

Cruz refused to support that proposal and says that with her appeal she seeks to obtain a document that records the true reasons for her expulsion. In a recent interview with 14ymedio, she said that after what happened with Actuar she feels “freer” than before. Frías affirmed in the hearing that “by agreement of the [Actuar] Board of Directors…the demonstrations” of Cruz on the Internet have been considered “offensive to a group of leaders and executives of the Government, the Party and the Ministry of Culture.”

Without mentioning specific names or citing a single one of the offenses, the official also said that “these demonstrations do not correspond to the ethics and principles” that the Agency represents and defends.

Born in Havana, in 1977, Lynn Cruz has worked for television in cop shows and also in movies in films such as Larga Distancia oand La Pared.

The attack against the artist began after she participated in several creative projects promoted outside the country’s official cultural institutions. She is also a contributor to some independent media such as Havana Times.

Last November, the harassment of State Security prevented the public from attending a performance of her work, The Enemies of the People in the independent gallery El Círculo.

*Translator’s note: Parametración/parameterization: From the word “parameters.” Parameterization is a process of establishing parameters and declaring anyone who falls outside them (the parametrados) to be what is commonly translated as “misfits” or “marginalized.” This is a process much harsher than implied by these terms in English. The process is akin to the McCarthy witch hunts and black lists and is used, for example, to purge the ranks of teachers, or even to imprison people. See here, and here.

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