Sam Farr

Sam Farr...

==Dining with Fidel Castro

In February 2002 a delegation of California Democratic Party Congressmen and women including Sam Farr, Diane Watson, Bob Filner and Mike Thompson, together with singer Carole King and representatives of California's rice and wine industries visited Havana as part of the latest effort to change U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Carole King serenaded Fidel Castro with "You've Got a Friend" at a weekend dinner, and U.S. representatives from California shared wines from Napa and Sonoma --

Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since shortly after Castro defeated the CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and the Bush administration has insisted that U.S.-Cuba relations will not improve until Cuba embraces democracy and human rights.

"That might be the executive branch's view, but that is not the legislative branch's view, and we make policy," said Rep. Diane Watson, a Democrat from Los Angeles. "More and more lawmakers are coming here for themselves, seeing for themselves, developing good will."

"We ought to be having a better tone about building bridges rather than building walls," Sam Farr, Democratic U.S. representative from Carmel, said Monday.

They said their dinner with Castro at the Palace of the Revolution stretched from 9 p.m. Sunday until about 4:30 a.m. Monday. During the meal, King also performed a new song, "Love Makes the World."

"My songs were a message I wanted to bring here," said King, who celebrated her 60th birthday in Havana on Saturday. "I came here to learn because my life, my work, is all about communication. We should be setting an example of good will."