Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Castro: still around

There is yet another video of Fidel in the ubiquitous Adidas track suit, hanging out with Hugo Chávez, though the video I’ve seen stays on the waist up. My conclusion: he’s not dead yet.

Simultaneously, however, there is considerable discussion in Miami about his impending demise. More specifically, there were plans afoot to have a big celebration in the Orange Bowl, including specially made t-shirts. Only when public reaction made it clear that this was in terrible taste did the city start backing off. Of course, I am not living in exile and have never lived in a dictatorship, but still. A public celebration for death (which doesn't even mean the end of the regime) is too much.

This also makes me wonder what the reaction will be in the U.S. generally when Castro dies. Will the jubilation in Miami turn people off? Or will they just not care one way or the other?

2 comments:

Anonymous,  1:02 PM  

Official or not, there will be plenty of t-shirts to be found on Calle Ocho when Fidel dies. And official or not, there will be plenty of fireworks, dancing, and celebratory mayhem when he dies. It is really no different than when any other polarizing political figure dies (Ceaucescu, Pinochet, Arafat). The problem here was the perception of a party "sanctioned" by the City of Miami. But there will still be a very big party, sanctioned or not. And most of those Miami city officials (at least the Cuban-American officials) will probably be in attendance just like everyone else.

Greg Weeks 2:09 PM  

Though that doesn't answer the question, because those cases were not in the U.S. Also, I'm interested in the response *outside* Miami.

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