Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cuban refugee in Las Vegas: ‘We can now hope’

Havana Grill on Castro's death

Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Patrons at Havana Grill, 8878 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 100, talk and watch television reports early Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, in the aftermath of the news that former Cuban President Fidel Castro had died. Havana Grill is a hub for Cubans in Las Vegas.

As live images on a bar television at Havana Grill in Las Vegas showed Cubans in Miami take to the streets in celebration of Fidel Castro's death Friday, Juan Alvarado turned to his cousin and told him that a new holiday had been conceived.

“Some of us thought this day would never come and we would never live long enough to see that day. So it’s really just a remarkable night for us to know that he’s not here anymore," the 34-year-old Alvarado said. That's because "Castro has done a lot of damage to all Cubans out there and the Cubans who have come out here."

Alvarado and his cousin were two of several people having drinks, food, and listening and dancing to Latin music early Saturday at the Cuban hub in the 8800 block of Eastern Avenue, near the 215 Beltway, in the hours immediately after Castro's death was announced.

Although Alvarado was born in the U.S., he is attuned to life in Cuba, through stories of oppression shared by his father, who fled Cuba for the U.S. in the 1980s, he said.

Castro, the former Cuban president who successfully led a communist revolution and took power in 1959, relinquishing it only to his brother, Raul, after falling ill a decade ago, died Friday. He was 90.

"I don't celebrate anyone's death," 49-year-old Raul Horta said. "But I do celebrate the end of this bad story — this complicated story that's left negative repercussions for our country."

Horta, who born and lived in Cuba until his move to the U.S. about 15 years ago, said that he experienced suffering under the Castro regime in the form of food rations and strict directives, such as lack of freedom and absence of free thought.

Using a Spanish expression, Horta described Castro as being "a rock on the road" that's no longer there. "We can now hope; we didn't have hope," he said. "We can have freedom, reconstruct the country and be ourselves."

Horta said that on his visits to the island nation, which is about 90 miles east of Florida, he'd seen Cuba infrastructure worsening. He likened his homeland to a country that's been destroyed by war without actually being at war. He theorized that though Fidel Castro was no longer officially president, his orders still had been passed down through his brother.

“Whoever is happy with his death, you’re welcome to be, but I don’t see it like a celebratory event,” Jimmy Kruz said. The country's communist system has shortfalls, but Castro's revolution has not all been negative, Kruz maintains.

"Even if Fidel Castro was a bad or good leader, he also created positive things in Cuba," Kruz said. While other countries are war-torn and in disagreement, Cuba has been fairly stable for the good part of 60 years, providing infrastructure, housing and advanced education to its citizens, the 57-year-old Kruz said.

Kruz, who had just finished performing at the restaurant with his Latin-music band, "Havana Express," has been in the U.S. for 38 years. He foresaw reaction to Castro's death from his family and those who live in the country to be mixed.

Nothing will change in his home country unless the U.S. trade embargo is lifted, Kruz said. When there has been a problem in the world, such as an epidemic, Castro's government has sent aid. "Now help Cuba," Kruz said.

Between making drinks, bartender Liu Chaung, said he typically steered away from political discourse and that the Castro regime didn't affect him positively or negatively. Chaung has been in the U.S. for a decade and has been serving drinks at Havana Grill for most of that time.

Chaung feels happiness, but also sadness, at the state of Cuba, where he said the population's opinion on the dead leader is divided. Half supported Castro and half defended him, Chaung said.

"I'd like for it to change, but I don't think it'll be immediate or automatic."

Horta, who interacted with friends over drinks and danced by the bar said: "this is the beginning of a new life for us Cubans."

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