The Passing of Fidel
After consulting Cuban friends upon hearing of Fidel
Castro’s death, I made a last minute decision to fly to the island on the
inaugural non-stop flight by Jet Blue from JFK to Havana. (This would have been impractical to arrange
so spontaneously and prohibitively costly before President Obama’s authorization
of commercial flights and of the individual general license.)
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| Greeting the inaugural JFK-Havana Jet Blue flight |
I wanted to witness and share a singular moment of Cuban
history, without the filter of either country’s politicized media. Much of the US press and political leaders
seemed determined to wrap Fidel's death in every negative aspect of his domestic history
and of his conflict with Washington. So
much for not speaking ill of the dead. For
Cuba and a large part of the globe, the passing of a larger than life hero dominated
coverage and reminiscences.
I have never been an uncritical advocate of Fidel. He did not shape my existence as he did all
Cubans, for better or ill. But his presence
and his revolution has touched virtually my entire life starting with senior year of
high school in Indianapolis (1959-60).
Agree with what he did or not, he was a defining figure of the second
half of the 20th century, particularly in third world nations
and for those engaged with them via the Peace Corps and study abroad.
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| An organized contingent at the mass event in Havana |
Cuba was serious about mourning, and presumably had been
preparing for it since life threatening illness forced Fidel’s retirement a
decade ago: no public performances; no music outside the home and even there restrained;
no sales of alcohol; full immersion TV, radio and print coverage of Fidel’s
public life and of the county’s revolutionary history. The passage of the funeral cortege from
Havana to Santiago consumed TV, radio and press. The best social parallel I could think of,
albeit not in the context of modern media, was of the train taking Lincoln’s
remains home to Illinois.
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| Friends at the mass event in Havana |
I was most involved with the grieving population during the
mass events at the revolutionary squares in Havana and Santiago and on the first
and last days of the cortege procession.
(They were personally linked by the adventure of a 14 hour overnight
ride in a Viazul bus.) I was not an
official or invited guest so went on my own with Cuban friends.
Cuba excels at mass mobilizations (as with mass evacuations
from hurricanes) and certainly part of the outpouring was organized from schools,
workplaces and neighborhoods. But I
heard several times that no one was obligated to participate. As I walked to and from public events, I saw
people who did not feel obligated to leave their neighborhoods or even to watch
the ceremonies on television.
Certainly the crowds I joined were of all ages and reflected
the diversity of the country. Couples,
families and groups of friends were common.
For most people it was a solemn occasion, even, although not commonly,
to the outpouring of tears. Hours of
waiting culminated in the momentary passing of Fidel’s ashes carried on a small
trailer behind a military jeep. At the
end, the view was often limited because of the turnout.
The mass events were political rallies. In Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution foreign
heads of state and President Raul Castro spoke.
The most appreciated were the demeanor and words of the Presidents of
Ecuador and Bolivia; less so were the appearances of their counterparts from
Nicaragua and Venezuela. Leaders of long
time friends like South Africa, Vietnam and Brazil spoke but no one from Europe
or North America.
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| Waiting for the cortege on Paseo in Havana |
The comparable event in Santiago featured speeches by the
heads of Cuba’s mass membership organizations such as the Women’s Federation,
the Association of Small Farmers and the Student Federation. Only President Raul Castro spoke on behalf of
the government and the Communist Party.
He summarized Fidel’s historical achievements and his determination that
no monuments were to be erected or streets named in his honor.
On the whole participants listened quietly and respectfully.
Families and groups of teenagers on the
periphery sometimes conversed quietly among themselves. In response to speakers there were chants of
Viva Fidel, Yo soy Fidel (“I am Fidel”) and rhythmically “Raul, amigo, el
pueblo esta contigo”. (“Raul, friend, the
people are with you.” Its rhythm was the
same as the Chilean chant, “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido”.)
After the event, thousands kept vigil in Santiago’s Plaza of
the Revolution. The interment of the
ashes the next morning was limited to family members, high officials and foreign
leaders. They passed by the site,
pausing momentarily and leaving a flower, the process broadcast on national
television. Almost immediately after
that was over, a spontaneous stream of mourners began to pay personal respects
at the tomb. Fidel’s modest resting
place, near the ornate international monument of Jose Marti, will be a long
term domestic and international attraction. (A friend just wrote, “there are many
visitors going to Fidel's tomb, Cubans and foreigners, and still receiving
official personalities.”)
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| The cortege arrives in Santiago |
During the two weeks I was in Cuba, I found many
opportunities to speak with friends and strangers about their personal
reactions to Fidel’s death and the national mourning.
A prominent writer in Cienfuegos who is in regular dialog
with local dissidents recounted how they had asked his assistance to be able to
join the crowd honoring the passing of Fidel’s ashes. Being known in the community, they hesitated
to go lest it be thought they were there to protest. However, they distinguished between their
sorrow about the death of Fidel and their opposition to communism. Following my friend’s assurance, they took
part without incident.
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| A response to the cortege arrival |
A 28 year old primary school teacher and singer in Santiago told
me her sadness had grown as the mourning period progressed. A veterinary student on the bus from
Santiago for a conference said she had learned things about her
country’s history from the TV coverage. The owner of a bed and breakfast in Santiago
expressed fear about what Fidel’s absence might mean for the future of the
country. Women in their 20s at a disco
in Cienfuegos, recently reopened, spoke of how strongly they felt when the cortege
came through the city.
Of all my interlocutors, only one expressed skepticism about
how people really felt and ascribed some of the turnout to social and political
pressure.
Unquestionably Cuba’s leaders orchestrated a well prepared
national response to Fidel’s death that benefited from their total control of
mass media and public forums. However,
they built on a real emotional and social foundation. As frustrated as many Cubans are by the
uneven and slow process of economic and political reform, most seem genuinely
convinced that Fidel’s vision and determination inspired and protected their unique
revolution and helped make them who they are.
Now that Fidel is no longer injecting his skeptical views about
US goals through articles in Granma, conservatives cannot make him a rallying
point for resistance to change. Nor can
they easily challenge the moral authority of Raul as the repository of his brother’s
legacy.
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| The mass event in Santiago |
Not surprisingly even after death Fidel is an omnipresent heroic
figure in Cuban media, providing a focus for national identity during a period
of ideological contradiction and change.
However, he is very seldom mentioned in the US media. Hopefully the spasm of mainstream resurrected
outrage attending his passing cleared the way for a more rational US approach
to the country he shaped.
It is hard to know how much Fidel’s excesses were inherent
in his personality and ideology, and how much were reaction to unrelenting
hostility from an inescapable super-power neighbor aspiring to restore economic
and political dominion. In any case the
histories and cultures of our peoples are forever intertwined, with the memory
of Fidel a touchstone of hopefully diminishing differences.
2/15/17
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| A poster for sale in the Plaza de Armas, Havana |
all photos by John McAuliff
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