Cuban exiles in Miami celebrate the death of Fidel Castro
Within half an hour of the Cuban government's official announcement that former President Fidel Castro had died at the age of 90, Miami's Little Havana teemed with life - and cheers.
Thousands of people banged pots with spoons, waved Cuban flags in the air and whooped in jubilation on Calle Ocho - 8th Street, and the heart of the neighbourhood - in the early hours of Saturday. Honking and strains of salsa music from car stereos echoed against stucco buildings and fireworks lit up the humid night sky.
Police blocked off streets leading to Cafe Versailles, the quintessential Cuban American hotspot where strong cafecitos - sweetened espresso - were as common as a harsh word about Fidel Castro.
"Cuba si! Castro no!" they chanted, while others screamed "Cuba libre!"
Celebration, not grief, permeated the atmosphere. That was no surprise. Castro has cast a shadow over Miami for decades and, in many ways, his policy and his power have shaped the city and its inhabitants.
Cubans fled the island to Miami, Tampa, New Jersey and elsewhere after Castro took power in 1959. Some were loyalists of Fulgencio Batista, the president prior to Castro, while others left with the hope they would be able to return soon after Castro was toppled. He never was.
Many others believed they would not be truly free under Castro and his communist regime. Thousands left behind their possessions, loved ones and hard-earned educations and businesses, travelling to the US by plane, boat or raft.
Many Cubans died on the ocean trip to South Florida and many never returned to see their childhood homes, their neighbourhoods, their playgrounds, their businesses and their relatives because Castro was still in power.
The ones who made it to Miami took a largely, and vehemently, anti-Castro stance.
In quotes | Fidel Castro
"Condemn me. It is of no importance. History will absolve me." - Castro in 1953, when the young lawyer was defending himself at a trial for his near-suicidal assault on the Moncada garrison in Santiago de Cuba
"I began the revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action." - Castro in 1959
"I'm not thinking to cut my beard, because I'm accustomed to my beard and my beard means many things to my country. When we have fulfilled our promise of good government I will cut my beard." Castro in 1959, interview with CBS's Edward Murrow, 30 days after revolution
"A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past." - Castro in 1959
"I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure (Jesus Christ)." - Castro in 1985
"One of the greatest benefits of the revolution is that even our prostitutes are college graduates." - Castro to director Oliver Stone in 2003 documentary 'Comandante'
"I realized that my true destiny would be the war that I was going to have with the United States." - Castro's opening quote in 'Looking for Fidel,' Stone's second documentary on the Cuban leader'
On New Year's Eve every year, Cubans in Miami utter a toast in Spanish as they raise glasses of liquor: "Next year in Cuba." But as the Cuban exiles aged, Castro outlived them and President Barack Obama eroded the US embargo, encouraging younger Cubans to return home, the toast rang silent in many households.
In Miami, where Havana is closer both geographically and psychologically than Washington, the news of Castro's death was long anticipated by the exiles. Rumours have come and gone for decades and his death had become something of a joke, mostly because it seemed to happen so frequently.
This time, though, it was real.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...-fidel-castro/
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