Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Event Alert
Recognizing that car guys (and gals) are car guys no matter where in the world they live, the folks running this weekend’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance have decided to use a bit of “Car-Guy Diplomacy” to reach out to that bigger island a little south of Florida…Cuba. They have invited Ing. Eduardo Mesejo Maestre, Director of Deposito del Automovil (the Cuban Automotive Museum), to serve as a judge for the event. It’s kind of like those ping pong matches between the U.S. and China back in the ’70s, but, you know, with classic cars.
It’s actually a first in U.S.-Cuba relations, for a Cuban national to be invited to judge a major concours in the States, believe it or not. In fact, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury had to grant permission for Ing. Mesejo to come here for the event, which runs March 12-14. For those too young to remember or too inattentive in history class, the United States has had a commercial, economic and financial embargo on Cuba, Cuban goods and Cuban people since 1960. Leave it to the car community to bridge that divide.
Cubans and Americans share a bit of a history with classic American cars, too. Since the embargo laws blocked the importation of new vehicles into Cuba, Cuban auto enthusiasts have made it a bit of an obsession to keep the best of the 1950s classics alive and running, relying on a lot of ingenuity to find or make parts when needed. Ing. Mesejo will join racing legends Denise McCluggage and Carroll Shelby in the jurying duties, Shelby stepping in for the recently injured Sir Stirling Moss. Fittingly, they will be judging the “Cars of the Cuban Races” class, an homage to a series of races held just in 1957, 1958 and 1960. You can read more about the event and Ing. Mesejo in the full press release after the jump.
[Source: Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance]
Continue reading Amelia Island Concours set to symbolically break Cuban embargo
Amelia Island Concours set to symbolically break Cuban embargo originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.