January 2013 - 61

Bridge returns to Cuba
by Frankie Frontaura

ifty years ago, bridge was not
considered a sport in Cuba. At
that time, it was played in the
casinos (as was poker), and it was primarily played for money. Even when
it was occasionally played in high
society homes, it was generally played
for money.
Then, in 1959, the revolution triumphed, and one of the first things
the new government did was to close
all the casinos and forbid the playing of all the games that were played
in them. Especially prohibited was
any type of betting game. Bridge, of
course, fell into this category and was
persecuted. The years passed and
Cuba stayed away from bridge, and
bridge stayed away from Cuba.
In 1998, I was living in Argentina,
playing bridge professionally and
teaching. I had founded three bridge
clubs in Buenos Aires and was organizing bridge tours all over the region.
I was intrigued to discover that
bridge did not exist in Cuba and that
no bridge tours had even been done
there. So I decided to go to Cuba and
explore the possibilities myself.
On that first visit, I made some
informal contacts with people in the
Ministry of Tourism and INDER (the
Ministry of Sport), but every time I
mentioned the word "bridge" it was as
though I was speaking about the devil.
To talk about card games in Cuba
then was equivalent to talking about
drugs, prostitution or homicide. But
on my trip, I realized that this was the
perfect place to put on a bridge tournament and bring enthusiasts from
all over the world to a very beautiful,
exotic island.
This was my immediate plan but
... it was impossible. Each person to

whom I spoke, each hotel director,
told me it would be impossible. I was
determined, however, and I searched
until I found Manuel Lima, the Cuban director of a very famous hotel,
who told me that he knew the game
because he had traveled abroad and
was actually very interested in the
idea of foreign bridge tours coming
to Cuba to play. And so, after a little
bit of time, and after meeting the
Cuban Ambassador and the Director
for Latin America of the Ministry of
Tourism at a party in Buenos Aires (to
which Lima had invited me), things
began to look up. They listened to me
and I presented them with a complete
dossier on bridge, its origin, etc., and
even a letter from the then-President
of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch,
from 1999 when bridge was officially
included in the Olympic family.
After much back and forth, I finally
had authorization to hold the first
"bridge holiday" with foreign players,
and we had a beautiful bridge tournament with 92 players from Argentina. It was an excellent experience
and obviously carried out under the
magnifying glass of the Cuban government.
And so it was that I decided to
continue to introduce bridge and
promote it to the fullest. It was a case
of banging down doors, searching for
recommendations from people I was
meeting, and finally arriving after tremendous effort with the opportunity
to present my case for bridge to the
Cuban government. Ultimately, I was
given authorization to begin to teach
bridge and to hold an annual festival
in Cuba.
Today there are about 50 players in

Cuba, all between 20 and 35 years of
age. On more than one occasion, we
have had the honor of the presence
of Jose Damiani and Gianarrigo Rona
(the former and current WBF presidents) as well as several members
of the directorate of the WBF at the
annual festival. My dear friend, Enma
Castro (sister of the president) has
played in the festivals as my partner and has received several special
invitations from the WBF and EBL to
play in tournaments such as the world
championships in Verona, the European championships in San Remo, and
the world championships in Philadelphia in 2010.
In 2011, Cuba was designated host
for the 26th CACBF Zonal Championships, where we had a record number
of players participating. The program
was excellent. The next Cuba Bridge
Festival will be in November 2013,
and all the details will soon be available on the website www.festivalbridgecuba.com
Thanks to the success of the CAC
2011 in Cuba, the Panama Bridge Association decided to contract me to
organize the 27th CACBF and International Open Festival in May 2013. This
promises to be the most enjoyable
CACBF Festival ever, with players
from all over the world.
r
January 2013 Bridge Bulletin

http://www.festival http://www.bridgecuba.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2013