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Feature News | Monday, November 28, 2016

Little Havana revelers seek new future for Cuba

Passing of a dictator is historic moment for exile community, but comes too late for many

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MIAMI | South Florida Cuban-Americans poured into the streets of Little Havana throughout the weekend, almost immediately after learning that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died Nov. 25.

Though there was an undeniable sense of glee and Latin dancing in the streets, many of the revelers were quick to say they were celebrating the end of the principal symbol and founder of the Cuban communist dictatorship rather than an individual’s death.

A son waves the Cuban flag while his father drinks a Cuban cafecito in front of the iconic Versailles Restaurant on S.W. Eighth Street Nov. 26, the day after learning that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

A son waves the Cuban flag while his father drinks a Cuban cafecito in front of the iconic Versailles Restaurant on S.W. Eighth Street Nov. 26, the day after learning that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died.

Cuban media announced Castro’s death sometime late Friday night, ending the decades-long influence of Latin America’s iconic socialist revolutionary, who withstood open tensions with some 11 U.S. presidencies. Many here didn’t know about the locally-momentous development until Saturday morning.

“I was listening to the news as I was waking up and I didn’t know if it was real or if I was dreaming, but had I known about it last night I would have been here then too,” said Elena Suarez, a member of St. John Neumann Parish in South Miami and daughter of the late Roberto Suarez de Cardenas, publisher and founder of El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language edition of The Miami Herald newspaper.

The Havana-born Suarez, who started work in the mailroom at The Miami Herald loading newspapers in distribution trucks and inserting supplements by hand into the body of the paper, died in 2010.

Like many of the original generation of Cuban exiles, the elder Suarez passed away before his nemesis, Castro.

“The first thing I did was go and meet my mother and convince her to go to breakfast at Casa Cuba in South Miami, and so we started the celebration there. And then my neighbor came and got me because I just needed to be here,” Elena Suarez said of the Little Havana street party Nov. 26.

Local police had to close the area to traffic several times throughout the weekend as the street — and those in two other predominantly Cuban neighborhoods, Hialeah and Westchester — were overrun by impromptu gatherings. The focal points were Cuban restaurants situated on Miami’s famed Calle Ocho, or Eighth Street west of downtown; Bird Road in Westchester; and West 49th Street in Hialeah.

Castro’s death marked a moment that had been anticipated for decades, though often frustrated over the years by false reports of his passing.

“I have always said that when this happened I would come to Eighth Street. I had to be here,” Suarez said. “My father passed away six years ago and I am very emotional that he is not here to celebrate. It is surreal.”

“Only my mom and my aunt are left from that generation. My father would be out here smoking a cigar,” she added, showing a cigar that she intended to smoke later that night.

Local Cuban-American leaders on Sunday said they were planning even more local events to mark Castro's passing.

Both those old enough to have lived through the early days of the Cuban revolution, as well as those who only heard about it from their parents and grandparents, gathered outside the iconic Versailles Restaurant on S.W. Eighth Street to celebrate the death of Fidel Castro. Many said they were doing so in memory of deceased elders who longed for but never got to see this day.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

Both those old enough to have lived through the early days of the Cuban revolution, as well as those who only heard about it from their parents and grandparents, gathered outside the iconic Versailles Restaurant on S.W. Eighth Street to celebrate the death of Fidel Castro. Many said they were doing so in memory of deceased elders who longed for but never got to see this day.

Cuban-born pop singer Gloria Estefan, a leading voice of the Miami Cuban cultural community, issued her thoughts over the weekend on her Instagram account, noting that “although the death of a human being is rarely cause for celebration, it is the symbolic death of the destructive ideologies that he espoused that, I believe, is filling the Cuban exile community with renewed hope and a relief that has been long in coming.”

Estefan noted that although the grip of Castro's regime will not loosen overnight, “the demise of a leader that oversaw the annihilation of those with an opposing view, the indiscriminate jailing of innocents, the separation of families, the censure of his people's freedom to speak, state-sanctioned terrorism and the economic destruction of a once thriving and successful country, can only lead to positive change for the Cuban people and our world.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Andy S. Gomez, retired assistant provost, dean of International Studies and Senior Fellow for Cuban Studies at the University of Miami. Gomez traveled to Cuba with pilgrims from Miami for Pope Francis’ visit there in September 2015.

“The death of Fidel Castro ends a very painful history for Cubans in exile and on the island,” Gomez said. “However, let’s not forget that nothing has changed in Cuba. The Cuban people continue to be denied their liberty and freedom under Raul Castro. The government remains a totalitarian regime with no changes.”

Elsewhere, Cuban-Americans in Miami sought to gather in a more subdued and spiritual setting, including the Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad), where Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated Mass the evening of Nov. 26.

The archbishop offered prayers for the people of Cuba, invoking their patroness, Our Lady of Charity, and asking her for peace in Cuba and for its people.

Local Cubans poured out into the streets of Miami's Little Havana district Nov. 26, the day after learning that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died. Many Cuban-Americans said they were celebrating not someone’s death but rather the end of the principal symbol of the Cuban dictatorship.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

Local Cubans poured out into the streets of Miami's Little Havana district Nov. 26, the day after learning that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died. Many Cuban-Americans said they were celebrating not someone’s death but rather the end of the principal symbol of the Cuban dictatorship.


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