Two Cuban actors to seek U.S. asylum

Two Cuban actors to seek U.S. asylum

By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, April 28, 2012 22:09 EDT

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Two Cuban cast members of an award-winning film who disappeared en route to New York for a film festival have emerged in Miami and will apply for political asylum in the United States.

“In Cuba, we were talking about it, to stay,” actor Javier Nunez Florian told the Miami-based, Spanish-language channel America TeVe in an interview that aired late Friday, appearing alongside actress Anailin de la Rua.

On a stopover in Miami on their flight Wednesday from Havana to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival, the pair, both aged 20, slipped away from their traveling companions and fled to the home of De la Rua’s uncle in the city.

Staying in America had been a “dream” of theirs, added Nunez.

Immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen said the pair would apply for political asylum in the United States within 10 days, and that they had a “very high chance” of getting their request approved.

“To seek political asylum does not mean they have been victims of political persecution in Cuba,” Allen said, “but they deserted.”

According to the lawyer, if they returned to Cuba, the actors could be considered “traitors” and could possibly suffer repression by the communist regime.
“There is a very high chance they will get asylum, as the United States has previously granted asylum under the same circumstances to dancers, singers and athletes who defected from Cuba,” he added.

The film “Una Noche” (One Night) tells the story of three teenagers trying to make the dangerous ocean passage from Cuba to Florida in a homemade raft, a plot that drew comparisons with the decision the two actors later made.

The film’s third main actor traveled on to the renowned festival to receive an award for his role, which he had been set to share with Nunez.

“I’m happy for me, I’m happy for them,” Dariel Arrechada told AFP after getting the Best Actor award on Thursday.

The short film also scooped the Best New Director and Best Cinematography gongs from among six awards given out during the competition.

Since 1966, Cubans have been granted automatic residence if they make it to the United States from the communist-ruled island, and thousands attempt the voyage every year, often navigating shark-infested waters in rickety boats.

Two Cuban actors to seek U.S. asylum | The Raw Story

Cuban Actors Missing from Tribeca Film Debut Seek Asylum in US

Published April 30, 2012

Fox News Latino


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Two Cuban actors who disappeared in the United States, where they had traveled to present at New York's Tribeca Film Festival for their film "Una Noche" (One Night), will request asylum.

Anailin de la Rua and Javier Nuñez Florian, both 20, confirmed their intentions in an interview granted exclusively to the America Teve television network, where they said that they had spent a week "frightened" in Miami and "without wanting to leave the house" of her uncle, who lives there.

"What I most want is to continue acting. It's what I like most, but if I can't attain that dream I would work at something else, because what I want is to fight," said Nuñez, who won the best actor award at the Tribeca Festival, which he did not attend.

The award he won for his role in "Una noche,"a movie about Cuban teenagers trying to escape the communist island directed by Lucy Molloy, who wrote the screenplay for the film after living several months in Cuba, comes with $2,500 cash and he won the honor along with his castmate Dariel Arrechada.

Arrechada recently told Fox News Latino he has no hard feelings about their disappearance.

“I wish my co-stars could be here with me to join all of us in celebrating “Una Noche” and share this incredible experience,” he said, who's in New York for the movie's premier at the Tribeca Film Festival.

“Though we all miss them, and I miss them very much, I am confident they will do what is best for them. My heart is with them and I hope they are safe and well.”

During the interview, which was given on Friday night, De la Rua said she feels she is a part of the generation of young Cubans who are desperately seeking to leave their country, although "thank God I came to this country by plane and not by sea."

The young woman started to cry when she saw images of the Tribeca Festival where last Thursday her castmates were awarded the prize, and she apologized to the third star of the movie, Arrechada, for having disappeared without telling him.

Nuñez and De la Rua, who play two siblings in the film, got to know each other during the cast selection process and are now boyfriend and girlfriend.

Both shared the dream of coming to the United States: "It was something we talked about constantly. There, the youth has no future. We wanted to help our parents," the actor explained.

"We've already prepared a large part of the (papers to request) asylum, and I think that next week we'll present them and we'll be able to have a response relatively quickly," said their lawyer, Willy Allen.

The actors left Cuba en route for New York along with other members of the cast and film crew for "Una noche," but last Wednesday when they made a stopover in Miami the pair left the group and went into hiding.

The movie tells the story of Raul and Elio, two Cuban teenagers who face the difficulties of leaving the island in search of a better life in Miami. The two build a raft but, contrary to their plans, the sister of one of them named Lila chooses to go along with them.

"Una Noche" is a co-production of Cuba, the United States and Britain.

Based on reporting by EFE.

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