By Lou Baldwin
Special to the CS&T
Cubans and Cuban Americans in the Philadelphia Archdiocese have responded
with mixed reactions to news that Fidel Castro, 81 and ailing, will not
accept reelection as his country’s president.
Castro, who came to power through revolution in 1959 and reshaped his
country as a communist state, temporarily ceded presidential power to
his brother Raul in 2007.
“My reaction is, this is a tremendous opportunity for change,”
said Jorge Fernandez, a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Buckingham.
Fernandez, whose grandfather was Cuba’s minister of agriculture
before the revolution, came to the United States in the 1960s at the age
of 9, and has since forged a successful career as a corporate executive
and real estate investor.
He has visited Cuba 18 times, most notably with Pope John Paul II in 1998.
Quoting the late Pope, he said, “The world should open up to Cuba
and Cuba should open up to the world.”
Fernandez sees Castro’s decision as an opening for the United States
to end its trade embargo and travel restrictions with Cuba. A roadblock
to such changes in the past has been strong opposition from the expatriate
Cuban community, especially in Florida.
“In recent years, especially since the Holy Father’s visit,
there have been changing attitudes in Miami, particularly among the young,”
Fernandez said.
He also noted the age of Raul Castro, thought to be a likely successor
to his brother when the new National Assembly meets to pick the country’s
top leadership on Feb. 24.
Raul Castro is now 76. “His health could go too,” Fernandez
added.
Msgr. Nelson Perez, who was born in Miami of Cuban parents, does not expect
Cuba to undergo dramatic changes in the short term.
“I don’t think the fact he [Fidel] won’t be president
means he will be outside the system — and his brother has been with
him from the beginning,” Msgr. Perez said.
He also expressed doubt that the United States will alter its Cuban policy
“as long as people continue to be oppressed and their freedom compromised.”
He added: “American policy has been consistent. There can’t
be dialogue until there is freedom.”
There are no hard figures for the number of Cubans living in the Delaware
Valley, but an estimate Msgr. Perez said he has heard suggests there are
5,000 to 6,000. He said that estimate is low because Cubans have integrated
into the American economy, and many have done very well and consider this
their country.
Blanca Herrera, the assistant director of the archdiocesan Office for
Hispanic Catholics, who came to the United States from Cuba in 1963, is
less optimistic about the opportunity for change than Fernandez.
“Castro has been out of commission for more than a year and nothing
has changed,” she said. “He’s just been a show figure
during this time. I don’t think things are any better for the people
now than they were before.”
Herrera is against any unilateral policy changes on the part of the U.S.
Government. “They just use the U.S. to get what they want,”
she said. “We should not reach out to them unless they change their
ways, and I doubt that they will do that. Castro could have been a real
leader but he chose to destroy Cuba. I hope God has pity on him.”
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.
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