Post-Castro Party in the Works

from Herald Reporter Michael Vasquez:

One day, very possibly one day soon, ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro will die -- and a nascent committee sponsored by the city of Miami wants to be ready.

So it's planning a party.

The event, still in the very early planning stage, would be held in Little Havana's Orange Bowl stadium -- and might include commemorative T-shirts, a catchy slogan and bands that will make your hips shake.

The stadium is a bittersweet landmark in South Florida's Cuban-American experience. After the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, more than 35,000 exiles gathered there to hear President John F. Kennedy promise a free Cuba.

Decades later, the bowl served as a camp for Mariel refugees.

City Commissioner Tomás Regalado, a Cuban American, came up with the idea of using the venue for an event timed to Castro's demise.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16568857.htm

Comments

[jose]

I am no fan of fidel, but this is disgusting. The idea shows again how out of touch the mimia cubans are with Cuba.

The party would only serve as a PR blunder and reinforce Raul's power. Miami cubans need to learn that most average cubans in cuba fear them more than fidel or raul, and therefore, such public acts just as the Orange bowl serve to further the regime's rule.

Surely, this will be reported in the Gramma tomorrow and again serve the interests of the ruling dictator.

[leftiside]

Amen! Yeah I got the sense that the celebrating of Fidel's illness a while back really set back relations between the exiles and those on the island. The disparities in reaction by those actually living under Castro and those who left 20, 30, 40 years ago will be stark on that day - and visable to all around the world. Mourning in Havana and celebration by a bunch bitter old men who go around hitting those they disagree with.

[curt]

What a bunch of sickos. Hope there is a severe thunderstorm or hurricane that will put a damper on the party

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

"Miami Cubans need to learn that most average Cubans in Cuba fear them more than Fidel or Raul..." — jose

They "fear" Miami Cubans but keep running away from Fidel and Raúl and into our arms. And once here none but the spies return.

[rightside]

leftside, the bitter old men your refering too are those in Havana, that beat up anyone who speaks out against the dictator. I agree with that.

The idea of a party is a bad idea, I prefer a quite celebration in the privacy of my own home and look forward to helping Cuba recover from the dark agaes.

[David]

Tellechea said
Wrong again Manuel

From todays article on the Bolivarian Youth
Martinez's parents came to Miami during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, after the Jehovah's Witness beliefs of his mother's family made life intolerable under Fidel Castro's regime.

Two decades later Martinez's father, now divorced, returned to Cuba. ''He originally didn't support Castro, but 20 years in the United States made him see things from a different point of view,'' Martinez said, adding that his father is apolitical and returned to be with family. ``My mother, she doesn't agree with me, but she backs 100 percent my right to free speech.''

[Luis]

I'm sorry to see that Regalado has sold out to the political correctness crowd. Cubans are not politically correct. We tell it like it is. Castro has been a brutal dictator whose death is indeed a cause for celebration. I will not be attending the P.C. hymn sing-along at the Orange Bowl. I'll be celebrating in the streets and will not apologize for it. 40 years of exile have given me that right.

[Brenda]

You people are SICK!! You disgust me.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

David:

What I said stands. None but the spies return.

[David]

Manuel
Do you have proof this person was a spy? Canceled checks, surveillance videos, recorded phone calls, anything other then pure conjecture. I believe you like to complain about the "trials" Che and Fidel held with flimsy or no evidence. In this country you are innocent until proven guilty. Are you implying that mans father was a spy? Please provide proof or evidence, or accept the fact that this individual simply decided to return of his own will.

[leftside]

Many Cubans go back to Cuba after living abroad, many more long to but can not for whatever reason. This is a secret the right desperately does not want you to know for obvious reasons (so they call them spies). But every Miami Cuban knows someone who could not hack it here or hated the way immigrants are looked at, or just missed the Cuban way of life and their families...
That is not counting the multitudes who said no to Miami and moved to Union City or California or anywhere else so they could have free speech and get away from the one-track mindstate.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

leftside:

Well, let's see: there was Elián (who was returned at gunpoint); the Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque; and the "Bolivarian" youth's father.

That's about it for Cubans returning to Cuba for good from the United States.

I'm sorry but I personally don't know any of them.

[David]

Manuel
Your friends at a popular blog have asked the Bolivarian Youth to back up their statement about 20 or so of Fidel's victims actually being paid by the CIA. I know ask the same of you. Prove that those who have returned to Cuba were actually spies. Fair is fair.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

David:

I am sorry that I don't have access to the records of the Cuban DGI (Directorate General of Intelligence) and cannot satisfy your curiosity at this time. When the beard and the ponytail are gone, and the records of the DGI opened to the public, as the KGB's records were opened in Russia, you will be able to verify the truth of what I have told you here.

If that is not enough for you have the "Bolivarian" youth's father return to the U.S. and sue me for libel. At least then he will be re-united with the son he abandoned and see for himself what it did to him.

Alger Hiss's supporters stood by him for 50 years until Hiss's former KGB handlers exposed him, and then the Soviet-era archives were opened and it was no longer possible to deny that Hiss was a traitor (though I am sure leftside still denies it).

[David]

No doubt Hiss was a commie spy. But I do not like blanket accuations any more than you would like one that says "Any dissident in Cuba is obviously on the CIA payroll" I object to your statement "Only the spies go back" as much as the Bolivarian youth who said something similar about dissedents killed by Castro. Sometimes, your comments are not objective at all, too many generalizations. And do not be afraid, you can call Raul a fairy.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

David:

Sometimes blanket accusations are 100% correct; it all depends on how exactly you know how to toss the blanket.

Very soon you are going to be treated to something very special which you rarely see nowadays — leftside defending Alger Hiss.

It is not my aim to be "objective" in the common parlance but truthful. As for generalizations, they are quite appropriate when applicable.

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

P.S.: As for calling Raúl Castro a "fairy," I whould prefer to call him a homosexual; but that was not what I was alluding to or implying. As a rebel, Raúl could not grow a beard, so he grew a ponytail instead. Therefore, when I say "the beard and the ponytail" I am not referencing Raúl's homosexuality.

[David]

Manuel
About the ponytail, my father-in-law who is Cuban once told me about the ponytail and he told me it was so Fidel and Che And Camilo and the rebels and his lovers could grab it and control Raul's head and mouth why he gave them oral sex. Seemed like a possible explanation to me at the time and never thought about it again

[a thought....]

I prefer to celebrate by either going to a restaurant that night (if you can even get into one), but if I can't, I'll stay home with my husband, open a bottle of wine, toast the possibility of a free Cuba and enjoy watching the events on TV. I won't go to the Orange Bowl or near Versailles (I can only image the massive traffic jam), but I don't condemn anyone who wants to celebrate the end of the life of a tyrant. If people want to let those emotions overflow and it takes them into the street singing and dancing, so be it. Don't condemn what you were never a part of and don't look down your nose at the suffering of people you don't know.

If any exile (regardless of how long he's been here) wants to celebrate, I think they should.

[PepePingu]

I am an American originally from Cuba, and the whole idea is disgusting and embarassing. I think a party would be a major setback to our image not only in Cuba, but also in America. What does it look like to the rest of the world when the media shows a bunch of viejos beating on pots and pans over some bastards death. Castro doesnt deserve any publicity, dead or alive, negative or positive. If it could be possible to organize, i feel the biggest message would be sent if there was a silent protest(funded by us Cuban Americans)against the inhumanities caused by that animal vs. a bunch of dumasses screaming and dancing in the streets of Miami. I will be the first to send a check if this could be accomplished, lets not tarnish are image as a people.