USVI to Send Delegation to Cuba’s Festival del Caribe

Plans are in the works to send a delegation from the territory to the Festival de Caribe in Cuba, but some senators said they’re concerned about the cost.

It would be the first time that a delegation from the U.S. Virgin Islands attends the festival, which has been running for nearly 40 years, and the Senate’s Committee on Culture, Historic Preservation, Youth and Recreation received an update on the delegation’s status at a committee hearing Monday.

This year’s festival runs from July 3-9, and includes delegations from countries across the Caribbean. Each year, one country is highlighted during the festival, and this year’s honoree is Martinique.

In written testimony to the Legislature, Ronald Harrigan, who was not able to attend Monday’s hearing, said the territory is “one of the last Caribbean countries to participate in this cultural festival.” Organizers of the festival said at a meeting in January that they would like to recognize the Virgin Islands as the honoree country in the 2018 festival.

Harrigan, who is president of the V.I. Genealogy Society, said Committee Chairman Sen. Myron Jackson asked him to organize the trip with the V.I. Council of the Arts, “the government agency that has oversight responsibility for the Virgin Islands participation in the festival,” following Jackson’s acceptance of a formal invitation to participate in February.

Harrigan said the delegation would include the St. Croix Heritage Dancers, Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, the Guardians of Culture Moko Jumbies, V.I. Superior Court Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra, and academic presenters including Alscess Lewis Brown, editor of the Caribbean Writer, genealogist Nadine Marchena Kean, Jackson and others.

The delegation also would include a crew from WTJX Channel 12 to document the delegation’s participation, according to Harrigan’s testimony.

Harrigan said the estimated cost for the delegation is $100,000, including travel, accommodations and meals.

Mario Picayo, a Virgin Islands resident born in Cuba who attended the 2015 festival as part of the Bahamas delegation to present a photo series, said the trip and cultural exchange could yield numerous benefits for the territory in terms of international exposure and potential tourism marketing.

As far as being featured in 2018, Picayo said the territory would have to prove it could make a good showing this year, but “I think we have a very, very strong chance due to the fact that they’ve never seen us before, we’ve never participated.”

But Sen. Kenneth Gittens and Sen. Tregenza Roach expressed reservations about the cost of the trip.

Gittens said that the Government Employees’ Retirement System’s dire unfunded liability means many retired government workers are not receiving their payments, and there are many other public entities, including libraries, that desperately need funding.

Senators continue to tell the public that the territory has a cash flow problem.

“We keep finding funds to do what we want to do,” Gittens said. “I do support our cultural initiatives, but ladies and gentlemen, we must set our priorities.”

Roach also expressed reservations about the cost of the trip.

“It is by no means to suggest that there is not value in having exchanges between Cuba and the Virgin Islands, I just do not endorse having some hand-picked delegation going at government expense within the short window that I envision this is taking place in,” Roach said.

Sen. Marvin Blyden said that the potential exposure on a world stage could prove extremely valuable for the Virgin Islands in terms of tourism revenue.

“I believe it’s worth the investment,” he said.

Jackson said the Department of Planning and Natural Resources is tasked with overseeing cultural activities and has the funding to do so, but “as of this date has not implemented one cultural program.”

DPNR Commissioner Dawn Henry said the department is struggling with a number of unfunded mandates and needs more money to improve public libraries, create a viable archive and restore the colonial forts.

Henry said the department also obtained $1 million in relevant federal grant funding in 2014 and 2015 but none this year, and is working hard to find more money for necessary projects.

“To believe or to think that the department does not take the cultural part of its responsibilities seriously, it’s not a correct statement or assumption,” Henry said.

While the Education Department initially had been part of the official festival delegation, the department has chosen instead to plan a cultural exchange program for students independently that is expected to take place sometime this fall, according to testimony from Cultural Education Division Director Valrica Bryson.

A request for funding for the festival delegation will be submitted to the Finance Committee.

Source: The Virgin Islands Daily News