Under the totalitarian dictatorship of Fidel Castro, many Cubans, some of which were exiled, migrated to the United States. They settled here in Miami, ready to build a new life in hopes of living the American dream. These people, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the few items they were able to keep hidden on their person, were escaping Castro’s wrath.
Throughout Castro’s regime, poverty, imprisonment, shootings, and the oppression of people’s rights were a constant. Even after Castro passed on the presidency to his brother, Raul Castro, after becoming gravely ill, he had left such a major impact on Cuba that nothing changed.
The lives of thousands of people had already been ruined because of Castro. So when the news broke on November 25, 2016 of his death, Cuban-American residents were quick to celebrate.
With emotion thick in the air, people were crying with joy over Castro’s death, and grieving all the lost lives as a result of his rule. The man responsible for tearing family members away from each other and keeping them away from their home country had finally died.
“Mr. Castro’s death was a watershed, for he embodied the revolution and the heartbreak that followed,” wrote Lizette Alvarez in her New York Times article, Miami’s Cuban Exiles Celebrate Castro’s Death.
In Little Havana especially, many Cuban-Americans crowded the streets cheering. People were partying long into the night and into Saturday. Pots and pans were banged together, everyone was dancing to Cuban music blasting in the background, and some were chanting “libertad”— “freedom” in Spanish.
Yet as the people here in America freely displayed their emotions over Castro’s death, many back in Cuba had to remain neutral. The only sort of expression that could be displayed was one of sorrow as the entire country was forced to mourn over his death, demonstrating that despite his death, the government still has a strong grasp over the lives of many in Cuba.
Like Johandys Comas, a 41-year-old Cuban that migrated from Cuba in 2004, told CNN: “You can’t speak out in Cuba.”
Still, some are optimistic. Some believe that the death of Castro will bring a new era, or at least hold on to hope for better times. The death of one powerful and cruel man has become the vigil for a better future for those within Cuba.
