THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509020041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
When Lee Adelman first visited Dixie and Miriam Miquez, they were living in camp one, fourth tent down, on the base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Weeks before - in mid-August of 1994 - the young Cuban couple, craving freedom and a better life, had made a mad watery dash for Key West, Fla.
When they left shore on a raft, America was still accepting Cuban refugees. Four days later, before they even got a whiff of Florida, Attorney General Janet Reno announced that all refugees would be sent back.
``They thought their dreams were coming true. Instead, they get taken on an overnight boat ride to Guantanamo Bay,'' said Adelman, a Norfolk naval security specialist who befriended the couple.
On display in Das Salon, a Norfolk beauty parlor, are about 30 paintings by Dixie Miquez, who worked as a commercial artist and a fine arts professor in San Juan de Los Remedios, his hometown in Central Cuba. Works are for sale via a silent auction that continues until the show ends Sept. 16.
The images are melodramatic, somber and psychologically disturbing, like paintings by the Surrealists of the '20s and '30s or 1980s East Village art.
One of the images, called ``Desillusion,'' was painted on the bed sheet Miguez was given upon arrival at the camp. The image spelled out his disappointment. In Miguez's surrealistic American flag, the stars are falling, and the red stripes are made of bloodied barbed wire.
Another painting, also on linens, is titled ``Prisoners.'' A woman, tears in her eyes, peers from behind the flag's stripes, which Miguez turned into prison bars.
He depicts refugees biding their time playing dominos, and a couple trying to make love while huge eyes and ears penetrate tent walls. And there are fond memories of street scenes in Cuba.
His ``Family Portrait'' shows a couple with their children in a tent; apparently, they've been in the tent so long, their feet have grown roots.
In another metaphoric image, he shows a lovely, lush garden; look closer, and observe how a worm has chewed a lacy pattern in the leaves. In another such piece, Miguez depicts a man with butterfly wings, about to be caught by a huge net.
A piece called ``Rafter Portrait'' shows a figure with a smiling mask held up to its face.
``The United States government expects everybody to be happy in the camps. But behind the face,'' Adelman said, ``are the true feelings of the Cuban people. They are, by no means, happy.''
Adelman and his wife, Karen, both volunteered for a tour of duty at Guantanamo Bay, where they had lived since October 1993. Adelman met the Miguezes soon after their arrival and began to visit them daily.
Learning that Dixie was an artist, they found ways to bring him art materials. The Adelmans recently decided to sponsor the couple in America and hope to have the two in Norfolk no later than Christmas.
Meanwhile, Karen Adelman, a personnel worker, remains in Guantanamo Bay; she both mailed and toted back Dixie's art for the exhibit. Lee returned earlier this year with their son. Sales of Dixie's art will help the couple when they arrive.
``When you see them together as a couple, they're such warm people,'' said Lee Adelman. ``They're like Renaissance people. She's a Spanish literature teacher and a poet. And he's an artist.
``They wanted freedom of expression.'' ILLUSTRATION: About 30 paintings are on display in Das Salon, a beauty parlor
at 200 W. 21st St. in Norfolk.
Cuban artist Dixie Miguez in a refugee camp at Guantanamo.
ART SALE FACTS
What: Silent auction of paintings by Cuban refugee artist Dixie
Miguez
Where: Das Salon, 200 W. 21st St., Norfolk
When: Through Sept. 16
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; Saturday until 5
p.m.
How much: free
Call: 623-5046
by CNB