FROM FILMMAKER/PHOTOGRAPHER CARLOS M. AGUILAR

Dear Cuban Music and History Lovers, I'm so happy that an actress, a songwriter and a producer were three of the Oscar nominated Latinos-Spaniards for the 2004 Academy Award but, we must correct a big mistake amplified in front of hundreds of millions of viewers during last night's gala.

Jorge Drexler won the award for best original song for "The Motorcycle Diaries." It's a good film about the early young life of Ernesto Che Guevara before he left his home to destroy other lands in his distorted quest to change the world.

Before the beautiful song was performed on the telecast actresses Penelope Cruz and Selma Hyack reading from the academy commissioned script wrongly identified the song and Jorge Drexler as the first original song and composer nominated for an Oscar.

This is wrong! I can't believe that this misinformation was telecast without proper checking.

The first nominated composer for an Oscar was the famous Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona in 1942 for "ALWAYS IN MY HEART" the Warner Brother film with Kay Francis and Walter Huston which was one of nearly a dozen films scored by Lecuona in Hollywood. The famous song "Siempre en mi Corazon" is one of Lecuona's greatest and was a number one hit in the US and around the world after it's release in 1942. Lecuona died exiled from Castro's tiranny and is buried in New York.

As an ardent Lecuona fan I say we all call and write to the academy to correct this and ask them to find an equally impressive media event to publicize their correction. Please create your letter or copy and paste the one provided bellow into the oscar.com contact address bellow.

The academy can be contacted at:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 8949 Wiltshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, California 90211 Phone: 310-247-3000

Email your correction petition to:

http://www.oscar.com/contact.html CHECK OUT LECUONA'S IMPRESSIVE CAREER AT: ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mvbart Ernesto Lecuona TEXT OF LETTER FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

The academy made a serious mistake when they identified Jorge Drexler and his song as the first work by a Latino composer nominated for an academy award. That distinction is held by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona for his song "ALWAYS IN MY HEART" from a 1942 Warner Brothers film of the same name.

Please utilize every avenue available to you to correct this mistake and disseminate the correct information.

Thank you.

I'm more interested in that loudmouth Hyek getting up there making a big deal about a song about a mass murderer.

I agree with you, if you check my profile you will know.
My father in law was ordered to the firing squad my Che in 1959, and that is why I keep a page about his crimes.
I'm very upset with the Oscar's board when they gave an Oscat to a song that was not understoo the meaning, and most of the at the Academy didn't understood the words even braking their own rules.
In another message here, I tried to exposed that the song was not that original. By the way Lecuona was born in my hometown Guanabacoa.

See my web page at
http://members.aol.com/Guanabacoa/che.html

Thank you for the link, will check out your page.

The most liberal person I know doesn't even like to talk about Che, considers him a monster and will get into very loud arguments with his fellow liberals who do not know one single thing about Guevera other than he looks cool on a t-shirt. I'll pass your link on to him.

It does not surprise me that the Academy bought into this romantic view of Che. There are so many good South American artists and filmmakers they ignore, because they are ill-informed, so they latch on to the one part of SA history they find exciting, Che and Fidel. They claim to be interested in other cultures, yet they only celebrate the most basic elements of them. Not good for a group that supposedly is meant to inform about ALL kinds of film from all over the world.