"As you all know," confided Roth-Gomez, "the warmth and openness of this unique culture is not just being threatened by the embargo, it's being held hostage." Turning the floor over to a visiting economist from the University of Havana, Roth-Gomez notices a stranger slip into the crowded room through a door at the rear.

The veteran organizer was dumbstruck by what she then saw. The man who had just entered the room was wearing dark olive military fatigues, a beret, and a patchy beard. Immediately the costumed figure, who was carrying a large boombox, made his way to the front of the room. The speaker had fallen silent and the crowd sensed something had gone very wrong.

Roth-Gomez feared the worst. Flanked by two older men from the audience, the 64-year-old retired physician rushed to confront the intruder. "Our guest was a prominent Cuban official," recalls Roth-Gomez, "and suddenly this man in military garb appears holding a big black box it was very frightening."

But before they were able to intercept the disturbing visitor, he set the cassette player on the floor and pressed the play button. Suddenly the music of the Cuban national anthem filled the chamber. Within seconds the patriotic anthem was taken over by a throbbing techno beat and the stranger in fatigues began to dance.

It was then that Roth-Gomez and others present recognized the dancer's costume as that of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the legendary Latin American revolutionary who died in 1967. Dancing provocatively, the Che impersonator began pulling off articles of his clothing piece by piece. In a startling strip-tease, the hard-bodied dancer shed his jacket and pants until he was wearing nothing more than a red lamé thong emblazoned with Che's trademark star.

The spectacle stunned the assembled audience of pro-Cuba leftists. "No one could move," says Sergio de la Peña, a singer-songwriter and active member of the Committee for U.S. Cuba Friendship. "No one knew if it was supposed to happen or if it was supposed to be funny or a protest or what." But the crowd's initial confusion quickly turned into anger. Committee secretary Ryan Kuder telephoned police while others detained the Che stripper. He was eventually arrested and charged with trespassing.

It was not the first time that J.J. Cienfuegos had been arrested for performing "lewd and lascivious acts" while disguised as Che Guevara, the famed guerrilla fighter also known as "el Comandante." In fact, the Cuban-born 33-year-old has been picked up five times and charged twice with trespassing to indecent exposure.

"To stay focused, I try to do the Che thing at least once a month," explains Cienfuegos, who supports his fledgling performance art career by working as an exotic dancer. "But when there's a conference on 'The Soul of Cuban Music' or a lecture that's, like, 'The Cuban people are unique and happy despite everything...' I could do it every day --what can I say, it entertains me."

But clearly, not many of those who have been subjected to the "Stripping Che" would describe Cienfuegos' routine as "entertaining." Besides the arrests, Cienfuegos's even claims that he has been assaulted by political activists who took offense at his "blasphemous" use of Che's persona.

As far as Cienfuegos is concerned, such offense is the highest form of compliment. "I'm sorry, but who's more obscene a stripper or political tourists who make suffering into a badge of courage?" Cienfuegos wants the American Left to get past its romantic vision of the Cuban revolution and especially its patron saint, Che Guevara. Though he admits that his striptease is more shocking than informative, he insists it plays a positive role in bringing the debate on Cuban affairs up to date.

"I'm not a rocket scientist. I'm not a politician. I'm not even an activist," Cienfuegos concedes, "but I am a Cuba that exists and I'm going to keep Che dancing."

The South to the Future World Wide Wire Service is a weekly feed of technology and media news commentary and satire published by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Quotations attributed to public figures who are satirized are often true, but sometimes invented. Some fictional statements may, in fact, be true. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.