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Visa flap stalls rapper?s generosity: Haitian woman struggles to make slain brother?s funeral

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Touched by a story in Sunday?s Herald, a Boston rapper is offering to buy the plane ticket for a heartsick Haitian woman so she can attend her slain brother?s funeral this Saturday.

But that good news was dampened yesterday when the U.S. Embassy in Haiti refused to grant a visa to Wisline Fortuna - whose brother, Cushings Fortuna, 20 - was gunned down near South Station on New Year?s Eve day.

?They won?t give her a visa. It?s very unfair. This is an emergency. She was crying. We don?t ask for much, just give her five days to be at the funeral,? said their brother, Cumins Fortuna.

The Hyde Park family plans to meet with their lawyer today.

On Sunday, the Herald reported that Fortuna family couldn?t afford to buy a $700 plane ticket for Wisline Fortuna, 34. Even though they never met in person, Wisline and Cushings Fortuna talked on the phone every day.

Rapper Smoke Bulga, whose real name is Allen Keon Lee, was moved by the family?s plight.

?This might be the last time the sister?s ever able to see him again,? said Bulga, who grew up in Roxbury. ?I want to just make sure that his family is able to come here and see him for the last time.?

Bulga?s best friend, 20-year-old Gary Chatelain - who was also Haitian - was shot dead at the Cambridgeside Galleria mall on Christmas Eve in 1999. The artist met with Fortuna?s grieving family last night.

?My mother always told me if you do something for somebody it will come back to you 100 times more,? Bulga said.

Cushings Fortuna, who lived with his mother, was running errands Dec. 31 when authorities say he was gunned down by Sean Evelyn, 20, of Merrimack, N.H. Fortuna worked at Enterprise-Rent-A-Car and had planned to start taking college classes later this month.

Cumins Fortuna was grateful for Bulga?s generosity. ?He?s a very good guy to help strangers,? he said.