From Miami to Cuba: Cuban Relations After Castro

- Vanessa Johnston

The Cuban exile community in the United States often long for their beloved island and culture that they were forced to flee. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to recreate this in their new homes on the south coast of the United States. They remember the beauty, their families, and those famous dance rhythms made popular around the globe, amongst other things. Miami is now replete with families whose lives were thrown into turmoil by Castro’s 1959 revolution and who, from time to time, fantasize about returning to the small island just 228 miles away. Their memories however, belie the current reality and with recent questions arising in regards to Castro’s health, the exile community must now face seriously consider whether or not relations between the severed populations, whose politics differ but who share a love of the same country, can mend after the elder Castro’s reign.

Since Fidel Castro’s Cuba defeated the U.S. invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1960, Miami and Cuba have become settled in the post-revolution era. Exiles have defiantly condemned Castro’s vision and fervently supported the U.S. embargo on the communist state, while those remaining on the island have just as firmly supported their leader, 70% of whom today have known no other.

No event could have defined this feud more than the 1996 custody battle over Elian Gonzales, a young Cuban boy who miraculously washed-up on the shores of Miami, having survived the treacherous journey overseas when most of the others, including his mother, hadn‘t. His fate, whether or not he’d be returned to Cuba, became a symbol of political ideals- and the fact that he was eventually returned to his father back home, was regarded as a major victory for Fidel.

When Fidel overthrew General Fulgencio Batista’s government, his first victory, it was premised on the notion that Cuba would no longer be subject to American imperialism, a force that has devastated countries throughout Latin America. His fan club, including fellow foe of the United States, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, commend him for his brave efforts to defend his country and for successfully providing free education and health care to his people, something not even the U.S. has managed to do. However, a revolution that began with a noble purpose has soured over time; freedom of the press is essentially non-existent and poverty is so rampant that many are forced to turn to the black market or to risk their life crossing the dangerous waters to the U.S. border.

A seasoned 80 years old, Fidel Castro is currently recuperating from surgery he underwent in July to stop intestinal bleeding. Since the announcement of his illness and subsequent transfer of power to his brother Raul Castro, the state of the long-standing leader’s health has been kept a state secret. While U.S. leaders feverishly speculate about his health status, especially since he failed to appear for his 80th birthday festivities, Cuban exiles in Miami are unsurprisingly celebratory. Although there are no concrete answers about Cuba’s future, they at least appreciate that the man who is responsible for dividing their families and driving them from their homeland has, at best, limited days left in power.

For the long estranged Cuban exile community, the opportunity to return to Cuba, if only to visit, must seem tantalizingly close. However the reunion between Miami-based Cubans and Cubans living on the island is unlikely to be a smooth one; some Cubans have expressed fears that rich inhabitants of Miami will take-over or attempt to regain the land they lost during the revolution. And although the transition of power has gone over quietly in Cuba, the exile community seriously doubts that the Raul Castro-led administration can survive without Fidel.

Will Cuba shed its communist ideals and turn its back on a revolution that has failed to provide economic stability or will it continue to fight for Castro’s anti-capitalist, anti-American vision? While that remains to be seen, one thing is certain: half a century of fighting between the exile community and Cuba’s denizens has had dire consequences for relations among Cubans. The psychological wounds of such a long and bitter separation will be hard to heal, and the hopes of nostalgic exiles that Cuba will be exactly as they remembered are fragile- for Castro’s revolution has forever changed Cuba and the divided families who love it.