Cuban Am letter

March 31, 2009

Dear Member of Congress:
As leaders of national and local Cuban-American organizations, we are writing to urge you to co-sponsor “The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act (S. 428 and H.R. 874),” which would restore the right to travel to Cuba for all Americans.
President Obama said, “There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans,” and he promised in his campaign to remove all restrictions on the right of Cuban Americans to visit their families in Cuba and provide them with financial support.
While it is our hope and expectation that President Obama will honor this commitment to our community, we strongly believe that Americans of all backgrounds should have the legal right to travel to Cuba and stand with us as ambassadors for the values, ideas, and freedoms that our country represents.
It is up to Congress to change the law, and empower all Americans to engage in cultural, religious, humanitarian and educational contacts with the Cuban people, and we believe that the time for making that change is now.
The primary sponsors in the Senate are Senators Dorgan, Enzi, Lugar and Dodd. In the House, the primary sponsors are Representatives Delahunt and Flake
Cuba is the only country in the world to which the United States prevents its citizens from traveling. By supporting and working to pass this bill, you will take the historic step of ending this counterproductive and unjust policy and replacing it with one that is consistent with America’s values and the best interests of the people of the United States and Cuba.
We urge you to co-sponsor Senate Bill S. 428 or the House bill H.R. 874. Please contact Senator Dorgan’s office or Senator Enzi’s office; or, in the House please contact Representative Delahunt’s office or Representative Flake’s office with questions or to cosponsor this important and timely legislation.

Respectfully,

Jose M. Estevez
La Alianza Martiana
California

Sandra M. Alfonso
President
American Health Inc.
Louisiana

Ariel Fernandez
Founder
Asho Productions
New York

Marisela Perez
Boston Police Department
Massachusetts

Patricia Gutierrez Menoyo
Cambio Cubano
National

Dr. Alberto N. Jones
President/Founder
Jennifer and Silvia Jones
Alicia Bailey
The Caribbean American Children Foundation
Florida

Sgt Carlos Lazo
Veteran of the Operation Iraqi Freedom
Center for Democracy in the Americas
Seattle, Washington

Delvis Fernandez Levy, PhD
Founder and President
Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF)
California/ National

Elena E. Maroth
Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF)
California

Luis Rumbaut
Attorney
Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF)
Washington D.C. / National

Patricia L. Morán
Cuban American Alliance Educational Fund (CAAEF)
Washington DC, Maryland

Regino Diaz
Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF)
Texas/ National

Alvaro Fernandez
Cuban American Commission for Family Rights
Miami, Florida

Juan M. Alamo
Director/ Treasurer
The Cuban Artists Fund
New York

Alfredo Duran
Cuban Committee for Democracy (CCD)
Miami, Florida / National

Jose Manuel Palli
Cuba Legal Forum
Miami, Florida

Rubén G. Rumbaut
ENCASA- Emergency Network of Cuban American Scholars and Artists
Professor at the University of California, Irvine
California/ National

Dr. Lillian Manzor
ENCASA - Emergency Network of Cuban American Scholars and Artists for Change in US-Cuba Policy
Cuban/Latino Theater Archive
University of Miami, Florida

Juan C. Artigas
EMRN Group, Inc.
The U.S.- Cuba Lift the Embargo PAC, Inc.
Florida

Geni Gomez
Director
Freddie Mac
Virginia

Isidro (Chilo) Borja
President
Foundation for Normalization of US/Cuba Relations
National

Elena R. Freyre
Executive Committee
Foundation for Normalization of US/Cuba Relations
Miami, Florida

Julio V Ruiz, MD
Secretary to the Board of Directors
Foundation for Normalization of US/Cuba Relations
Miami, Florida

Marisela Fleites Lear
Green River Community College
Washington

Omar Martinez
Student
Juris Doctor/Master of Public Health
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana

Ariel Hidalgo
Bureau of Human Rights
INFOBURO
Florida

Instituto de Estudios Cubanos
Miami, Florida

Margarita Fazzolari
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
Casa de las Americas
New Jersey/ National

Joe Perez
COB & CEO
J Perez Associates, Inc.
Long Beach, California

Manuel Hildalgo
Latino Economic Development Corporation
Washington DC

Eileen Del Pino
Register Nurse
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
California

John Paul Cabrera, BASW, PPS, MSW
Los Angeles Unified School District
California

Ricardo A. Gonzalez
President
Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association
Wisconsin

Carmen Rumbaut
Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association
Wisconsin

Rev Leonides Penton Amador
President
La Mano Amiga Internacional Inc.
Florida

Teresa Gutierrez
Activist
New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five,
New York City, NY


Andres Hernandez
Partido Democrata Cristiano
National/ International

Silvia Wilhelm
Executive Director
Puentes Cubanos
Miami, Florida

Lorenzo Gonzalo
Sub director de Radio Miami
Broward County, Florida

Siro del Castillo
Solidaridad de Trabajadores Cubanos
National

Laura Urgelles
The Washington Ballet
Washington, DC

Jorge Milanes Pino President/Founder
West Coast Cuban American Alliance
California

Anthony O. Perez
California

Daniel Batista
Virginia

Ernesto J. Sallés
Alexandria, Virginia

Fidel Garcia
Washington DC

Lisa R. Zuccato-Perez
California

Rafamali and Heather Ramirez
Georgia

* note all organizations are listed for identification purpose only.

Biografía de Bruce Rogow

Bruce Rogow has been a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 1974. In 1978-79, he was co-dean of the Law Center, and in 1984, Acting Dean. Before joining Nova, he was on the faculty at the University of Miami. Mr. Rogow has taught Civil Procedure, Federal Jurisdiction, Constitutional Law, Appellate Practice, Criminal Law and Legal Ethics.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Rogow has litigated extensively over the past 44 years. He has argued hundreds of civil and criminal cases in federal and state appellate courts, including eleven cases in the Supreme Court of the United States.
He was Supreme Court counsel in Beach v. Ocwen Federal Bank, Seminole Tribe v. State of Florida, Florida Bar v. Went For it Inc., Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, Argersinger v. Hamlin, Gerstein v. Pugh, Ingraham v. Wright, Mathews v. Diaz, Davis v. Scherer, co-counsel in Fuentes v. Shevin, and was appointed by the Supreme Court to
represent the petitioner in Francis v. Henderson. In two cases, Waldron v. United States, and Arthur v. Hillsborough County, the Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the decisions below without argument.
In the 2000 Presidential election litigation, he was counsel in the Supreme Court for the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board in Bush v. Palm Beach Co.Canvassing Bd. He was co-counsel in United Haulers v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste
Management Authority, decided favorably in April 2007. In December 2007 he was retained by the Kentucky Retirement System to prepare its lawyer for a January 2008 Supreme Court argument in Kentucky Retirement System v. EEOC. The case was decided in favor of the Kentucky Retirement System.
Mr. Rogow has been listed in every edition of The Best Lawyers In America for the past twenty years. In the newest edition he has been named in four categories: Appellate Law, Commercial Litigation, White Collar Criminal Defense and First Amendment Law. He is also listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He is one of three lawyers in Florida to have been Board Certified in both civil and criminal appellate law and was elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Mr. Rogow is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Mr. Rogow has also won numerous awards over the years for his public service,
litigation, and teaching, including the Reginald Heber Smith Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Playboy Foundation First Amendment Award. In 2000, he was awarded the James C. Adkins Award, given to Florida’s outstanding appellate jurists or practitioners. He was the first practicing lawyer to receive the award. In 2006 he was a finalist for Most Effective Appellate Lawyer in South Florida and in December 2007 he was named the Most Effective Appellate Lawyer in South Florida. In 2008 he was chosen as one of Florida Trend’s
2008 Florida Legal Elite.
Mr. Rogow has represented governmental entities, public officials, trial and appellate judges, law firms, lawyers (including F. Lee Bailey), and corporations in major trial and appellate work. His clients in 2007– 2008 included Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Donald Trump, Don King, David Koch (Koch Industries), Kentucky Derby winning jockey Jose Santos (whose defamation case against the Miami Herald he settled in March 2008 for a confidential sum), Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corp., a State Senator (whose convictions he reversed in December (2007), a mayor and three municipalities and all the pari-mutuels in Dade and Broward counties. In
March 2007, representing Morgan Stanley, he reversed the $1.5 billion judgment entered against it in West Palm Beach with directions to enter a judgment in favor of Morgan Stanley. In 1995 he secured the reversal of a $52 million judgment against Florida*s largest sugar companies, and the reversal of a $1.7 million contempt judgment against an attorney. In 1993 and 1994 he won Florida Supreme Court victories for a mayor denied municipal pension benefits, and for a special taxing
district denied self-governing authority. In 1997 he reversed a million dollar federal judgment against Palm Beach County. In 1998 he obtained reversal of an order quashing charging liens, allowing lawyers to pursue their claims to 25% of Florida’s $11 billion tobacco settlement. In 1996 his Florida Supreme Court victory for a brain damaged child led to a $9 million settlement and in 1998 he was appellate counsel in a civil rights case against the State which was settled for $17.75 million. In July 1999, he obtained a federal appellate affirmance establishing Indian Tribes’
immunity from suits by the State under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In February and March 2006 he reversed a potential billion dollar class action against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and obtained a jury defense verdict in a $25 million suit against Jet Aviation International, Inc. and Hirschmann Industrial Holdings, Ltd., major Swiss companies. In May 2006 he reversed a multi-million dollar award against a physician and won an appellate decision for the Mayor of Miami -Dade County
allowing a strong Mayor change of government to be presented to voters. In December 2006, he reversed an obscenity conviction and obtained the release of a Russian entrepreneur who had been incarcerated on the charge.
Since May 2006 Mr. Rogow has argued fifteen appeals in the various Florida District Courts of Appeal and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He argued four cases in the Florida Supreme Court in 2007-2008 and in March 2008 reversed a trial court and prevailed in the Fourth District Court of Appeal for the City of Hollywood, Florida in a major eminent domain case, and upheld a $5 million fraud judgment against a corporation and its principal. He lectured in Tallahassee on Appellate Practice Before the Supreme Court of Florida in June 2006, June 2007
and June 2008; was a featured speaker for the Florida County Judges Conference in July 2006 and the Florida District Court of Appeal Judicial Conference in June 2007. In October 2006 he was a panelist for the State Bar of Georgia’s “11 Circuit Appellate Practice th Institute” in Atlanta. The subject was “Characteristics of Effective Oral Argument.” In Nov. - Dec. 2000 he represented Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore and the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board in numerous cases in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Florida. In July 2000,
he obtained a federal permanent injunction against enforcement of the Miami-Dade County “Cuba Affidavit,” which required applicants for cultural grants to swear they had no ties to any Cuban nationals. He successfully defended Palm Beach County on appeal in a Title VII employment discrimination case in April 2000; and in 1999, he won a defense decision for the City of Boca Raton in United States district court in the first trial under the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998; a decision affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals in 2005
Earlier, he successfully defended the Chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida against federal and state Endangered Species Act criminal charges for killing a Florida panther on the Reservation, and 2 Live Crew in their federal and state obscenity trials and appeals. He obtained the acquittal of a South Florida mayor charged with theft in office. He successfully represented the Cuban Museum against the City of Miami*s attempt to evict the Museum for its artists’ political views, obtaining a
federal injunction against the City. He also obtained the first federal court appellate decision declaring that a musical work was not obscene. His Supreme Court success in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music established copyright protections for commercial parodies.
Among Mr. Rogow’s successful criminal appeals are Siplin v. State (Fla. 5th DCA 2007) (reversing convictions with order to acquit); Pizzo v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2005 and Fla. Sup. Ct.2006) (reversing fraud convictions); Billie v. State (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (reversing second degree murder conviction and life sentence); Hebel v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) (reversing conviction and 12-year sentence for sexual battery) (in February 2001, he tried the case in Arcadia, Florida, and obtained an acquittal); United States v. Arnold, 117 F.3d 1308 (11th Cir. 1997) (reversed money
laundering and Travel Act and conspiracy, for Brady violation); United States v. Kramer, 73 F.3d 1067 (11th Cir. 1996) (reversed money laundering conviction and 20 year sentence, reversed $9 million forfeiture); DeFreitas v. State, 701 So. 2d 593 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (reversed agg. assault w/ firearm for prosecutorial misconduct; fundamental error).
Over the years Mr. Rogow has handled numerous criminal trials and appeals as well as federal habeas corpus proceedings and appeals, and has been repeatedly appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to represent indigent prisoners. In November 2007, in Spera v. State, he reversed an 11-0 4th DCA en banc decision with a 7-0 Florida Supreme Court victory and in July 2008 he established the right in Florida to
seek post-conviction relief for defendants whose lawyers advise them to reject a favorable plea offer (Morgan v. State).
Mr. Rogow has served as a consultant to lawyers and legal aid organizations, and as an expert witness on attorneys’ fees; has lectured to judges and lawyers; writes, and has been President of the Legal Aid Society of Broward County, Florida, and Special Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, Special Counsel to The Florida Bar and a Special Assistant Attorney General.
Mr. Rogow’s professional career began in 1965-66 when he was staff counsel for the Lawyers* Constitutional Defense Committee, representing civil rights workers in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Fotografía: el abogado Bruce Rogow, en esta foto del 13 de noviembre de 2000 en Miami (Ed Cox/AP).