Lots of stories around on the planned “Orange Bowl” celebrations here in intransingent banana republic Miami once fidel castro’s death is officially announced. Lots of people criticizing us intransingent hard liner exiles for wanting to party the day we find out the dictator is burning in hell. People form all over the world are saying it would be in bad taste to celebrate, it’s un-Christian, it’s bad morals, it’s inhumane, etc…etc…
Me? I dont give a rats ass. Once the tears have been shed – for tears of undeniable joy will be shed – and once Ive hugged my parents in said tears, Im going to celebrate like Ive never celebrated before. Call me evil, call me inhumane, un-Christian, immoral…whatever. I dont give a shit.
Im going to pop open “la botellita”, wave my flags, honk my car horn, scream at the top of my lungs, dance in the streets, hug my neighbors…the whole fidel castro is fucking dead enchilada. The following morning, I will, undoubtedly have the worst and best hangover Ive ever had in my life.
And I will sleep soundly, without the slightest pang of conscience, because I will know two things with absolute certainty: there will be less evil in the world when fidel castro dies and, regardless of the verbal diarhea form the punditry and regardless of the media reports about transition and what not, the death of fidel castro is the first step in the freedom of Cuba.
So all those critics out there that are so superficially disgusted and all that can kiss my soon to be celebrating Cuban ass. You aint gonna rain on my parade.
I too will celebrate the death of the beast who has ruled Cuba since I’ve been on this earth.
For those who object, I have this question…Did you condemn the atrocities committed in Cuba for the past 48 years? If not, then, shut your trap and go to hell with fifo.
VIVA CUBA LIBRE!!!!
I’m with you, and heck, I’m not even Cuban! My heart is for the Cuban people wherever they are.
Val, DAMN RIGHT!!
Oppenheimer nails you big.. he interviews real dissidentson the island to gain their perspectdive of the proposed party in orange bowl.. and guess what the very dissents that you supposedly support disagree with you and miami! they themselves think its tacky and stupid and insensitive..
read below
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
A better plan for Cuba’s people: Let them eat steakAndres Oppenheimer
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com
After reading in The Miami Herald that a Miami city commissioner proposed holding a party at the Orange Bowl when Fidel Castro dies, I called several leading opposition figures in Cuba to ask for their reactions. Most said it’s a terrible idea.
Before I tell you what I think of the proposed party — which after scornful media headlines at home and abroad has now been downgraded to a more subdued ”public event,” without salsa dancing music — let’s hear what peaceful opposition leaders in Havana told me about this plan.
Oswaldo Payá, the Christian Liberation Movement leader who organized an unprecedented gathering of 25,000 signatures throughout the island to demand a referendum on democratic freedoms in the late ’90s, suggested that the proposed celebration would offend many people in Cuba.
”I don’t celebrate anybody’s death,” Payá told me. “Even though many members of Castro’s regime offend, violate human rights and attack the dignity of even the most defenseless people, I think that celebrating anybody’s death offends that person’s family members, and affects the dignity of whoever does it.”
Asked what should be done, Payá said, “holding a celebration together, inside and outside Cuba, when we start the road to reconciliation and democracy . . . without attacking one another, and respecting each other within that concept of a big family which all of us Cubans are.”
A `SCANDAL’
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, an independent economist who was jailed for his writings in 2003 and released for medical reasons in 2004, told me that holding a party in Miami after Castro’s death “wouldn’t make any sense, and would become an international scandal.”
”I understand the situation in Miami, where many people have suffered a lot, have been humiliated, and have all the right to express their feelings,” Espinosa Chepe said. “But the repercussions this would have in Cuba would be very negative.”
”There’s a reality which can’t be denied: Castro is an elderly person who has ruled Cuba nearly 50 years, and even if he is leaving behind a very sad legacy, he will always leave behind a sentimental thing of respect among many people,” he said. “Don’t forget that a majority of the population at one time in history saw Fidel Castro as a god, even if he has lost much of his former popularity.”
According to Espinosa Chepe, a public celebration would play into the hands of the Cuban regime’s propaganda machine, which for decades has been pushing the idea that Miami exiles — the ”Miami mafia,” in the regime’s words — want to return to Cuba to reclaim their former homes, punish current and former Castro supporters, and turn Cuba into a U.S. colony.
”The government will say that the opposition in Miami is inhuman, that the exiles are full of hatred, that these are people who are seeking revenge,” Espinosa Chepe said. “That would paralyze many sectors of the population who once supported the revolution.”
Martha Beatriz Roque, another economist who was imprisoned in 2003 and released a year later, was less critical of the idea.
RESPECT
”Fidel Castro has done a lot of harm to the Cuban people: there are many split families, much pain in the Cuban people,” she said. “And perhaps there are people who want to get rid of their pain in that way [celebrating]. I think we have to respect people’s way of thinking.”
My opinion: A city-sponsored party at the Orange Bowl would annoy many Cubans on the island who once supported the Cuban dictatorship, and who — while critical of it now — have fears about their future. And a more subdued, official ”public event” without a clear focus would not be much better, since it would inevitably turn into a party.
Instead, Cuban exiles should hold a prayer service for the victims of Castro’s military regime. In addition, they could use the occasion to expose Cuba’s disastrous economic policies by collecting food for the Cuban people, who — under their food rationing cards — do not have access to any red meat; only three quarters of a pound of soybean picadillo per person per month.
So here’s my humble suggestion: The day Castro dies, Miami city commissioners should start a food drive under the motto ”A steak for every Cuban — Una chuleta para cada cubano.” That would be the smart — and decent — thing to do, and would put the Cuban regime on the defensive.
Jose,
Let’s see if I can get this right: Im not supposed celebrate the death of fidel castro because it may offend some people in Cuba who support or supported fidel castro?
No jodas, man.
I dont agree with a City sponsored party, after all, why should all taxpayers pay for the celebrations of only a certain portion of the population, but I certainly aint gonna suppress my happiness because some might be offended. Screw that.
Jose,
I don’t give a damn what a reporter says especially one given the right to legally report from within Cuba. Second my rejoicing of that bastard’s death will be for my reasons and my famiy’s reasons and I frankly could give three shits if someone on the island doesn’t approve of it. I support any Cuban who wants a change, but I’ll be damned if I will be told I can’t get happy a murderer has died, too bad it wasn’t by execusion.
I don’t see people condeming family survivors of victims of a muerder, who claim to be happy the person has been executed.
Oye Jose,
No seas bobo chico. I couldn’t care less what Oppenheimer or fifo sympathizers think.
We can still celebrate and pray and collect food etc. etc. etc.
I don’t live in the city of Miami and I don’t need any government to pay for my party.
But I can’t wait for the shit-head to kick the bucket!
Not celebrate because “celebrating anybody’s death offends that person’s family members?” Does Payá mean Raúl? What about the celebrations in the streets when Castro dispatched thousands without due process in the first year of the Revolution. Remember? “¡Paredón, paredón, paredón!” Then the castristas were celebrating the murder of innocent Cubans and didn’t give a damn about their families. The exiles will be celebrating the peaceful death of their murderer and the end of his 48 years of unelected rule.
As for Espinosa Chepe’s comment that Fidel Castro “will always leave behind a sentimental thing of respect among many people,” it says more about him than about the Cuban people. What exactly is this “sentimental thing” that he feels for Castro? One would expect the nomenklatura to feel “sentimental,” but why Espinosa Chepe?” This is one of those questions that answers itself.
When Pinochet died Chilean Communists danced on the streets of Santiago. No one criticized the revellers although they were celebrating the death of a man, not the end of his rule. Pinochet had relinquished power 16 years earlier after losing an election for president. Castro, who has never held an election in Cuba much less won one, will die as a dictator. Cuban exiles will be celebrating the end of his rule. Castro is to blame for the fact that the end of his rule came only with his death, not Cuban exiles.
pbbbth to bad taste.
I’ll celebrate his death. I’m not Cuban.
I celebrated Saddam’s death. We lit sparklers and cheered.
Quite frankly:
I don’t give a rat’s ass about the MSM.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about castro’s well known apologist and collaborator Osvaldo Paya.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about Oscar Espinosa Chepe’s opinion. Nor the opinion of all these “Johnny-come-lately” to the Cuban cause.
I definitely don’t give a rat’s ass about Andres Oppenheimer.
For 49 years it has been OUR dead, OUR pain, OUR suffering, OUR fight. All those that don’t agree with OUR celebration can go and KISS MY ASS!
As a Serbian Orthodox Christian, 100% Slav, with no blood connection with Cuba and deserving no credit for the valiant struggle of the exiles, let me say that I certainly will be celebrating the death of another communist monstrosity. One more dead red beast, one less pile of filth. The “Christians” who say that is un-Christian are the new-age idiots who desecrate His Church (and who, in many cases, support leftist and islamic destruction of Christianity). Forgiveness does not mean acceptance, which inevitably leads to concurrence. Yes, on that good day, I shall raise a glass in honor of the Reaper (although what the hell kept him so long…)
Gracias, Pelican!
Just my two cents:
1. I’m completely against a city-funded celebration of Castro’s death or just about anything else that happens outside our borders. It’s just not something that we should have anybody else pay for.
2. I think that while there are plenty of questionable – perhaps even objectionable – things that the dissidents quoted here said, one thing makes plenty of sense to me: It may feel good, it may even be inevitable because of how good it feels, but there is nothing good about celebrating the death of any person. We ought to be above that.
3. That said, I am not against a celebration. However, when we take to the streets, let’s take the focus of of Castro’s death and put it on the implicaions of his meeting his maker (although I’m not too sure his maker wants to spend any mor time dealing with him).
No matter how much we want to do it (I know I do), celebrating Castro’s death does affect our dignity, even if only a little bit. Let’s go out, pop the bottles, dance in the streets, and let’s do it to celebrate the new life that begins for Cuba… which just happens to be directly related to Castro’s death.
Every Cuban, in exile or en La Isla, has earned the right to celebrate this evil man’s death. How each chooses to celebrate is up to him.
Me, I will drink a quiet toast with my parents, my wife and my in-laws. There will probably be tears in our eyes for those we have not seen in a long time, and those we will never see again.
I will save the more raucous celebration with lots of rum, music, laughter and hugs for the day Cuba is free, and we can celebrate with our family there. But, that is my feeling and my choice. I certainly would not impose it on others who feel a different tone is in order.
As a Cuban exile, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS to celebrate his death. I am however, anticipating a catharsis of orgasmic proportions. If such an experience should lead me to partake in celebrations-so be it.
It’s not the celebration of the death of a person, its the celebration of the birth of freedom in Cuba.
Anyone that wants to stay at home and remain all subdued and calm is welcome to do just that. I certainly wont criticize anyone. But me? Im going to enjoy it. Ill be the guy you hear down the street screamin “AL FIN COJONES!!!”
Cutting thru the politically correct crap & bs, Cuban exiles don’t need anyone’s approval to party, nor do they need the local govt’s cash to carry on with conga and pachanga. If for no other reason than to honor the fleeing dead at the bottom of the sea, party time is in high order.
My dad died 28 months ago, always waiting for the day that never arrived. My mother is battling disease and hanging on for dear life as she realizes that The Day ya viene llegando and she wants to see it. Unbeknown to me, she confessed last year that she has a BOTELLITA nicely stashed away for the appropriate time and place.
All the phony sanctimonious commentary from the usual suspects is just one more lame attempt to smear the Cuban exile community. Nice try.
A DONDE ESTA LA FIESTA?????????
I will begin by celebrating HIS death… Will continue by celebrating HIS death… Will finish by celebrating HIS death. For those of you that are Holier than Thou… Where the HELL have you been all these years? Do you still consider the BEAST to be human?
As to the celebration in the Orange Bowl? Why not! I don’t remember the City of Miami asking for my permission about spending my TAX $$$$ on the Miami Heat Celebration and parade on Biscayne Blvd. back in June 2006.
I ain’t Cuban, but provided my meds will let me, I’ll have some of Bacardi’s best in a Cuba Libre. If they won’t I have rum flavoring 🙂
To any idiot who wants to criticize partying Cubans, I say this: All these folks want is to see their homes and families again. All they want is freedom for their home country. I don’t think that is in any way unreasonable. Oh, and remember when the Wall fell, and we started hearing tales of the Stasi and other Communist secret police? Remember all those folks sent to the gulag for writing cheeky poems? Your buddy Castro did the same thing, and you won’t be able to pretend it didn’t happen anymore.
We’ve got the champagne ready, I’m going to celebrate fidel’s demise like I’ve never celebrated anything, and if anyone thinks it’s in bad taste or reflects badly on the community or hurts someone’s feelings in Cuba, I don’t give a shit. Then I’ll get up the next day and continue blogging for a free Cuba with renewed vigor, because the murderous tyrant will be gone. That leaves us with two down and one to go of the founding trio of Cuba’s nightmare. If the MSM and the fidel loving appeasers of the world had directed a small part of the hate and indignation spewed against Cuban exiles toward the regime, it would have been over long ago, and there’d be no reason to party. Fuck them.
Ziva:
You are right. The mainstream media has celebrated Castro’s life every day for more than 50 years and they would begrudge us the right to celebrate his death for one day!
i wont only be celebrating his death, hopefully they’ll bury him where i can go piss on his grave.
my regrets will be that more of my family wont be here to celebrate with me and that he wasnt tried and executed like the rat bastard deserves…
Thanks Pelican Nebula,
And forgiveness is not even in question here because castro and company have never admitted their sins nor have they asked to be forgiven.
You are most welcome, Mavi and Val. I agree completely about forgiveness, Mavi; and what is more, even if a criminal repents, he must still be punished. If a death row inmate truly repents, perhaps God will forgive him with His Grace, but still the criminal must receive his just punishment. I know that the communist monster castro will not suffer as many of his victims have (although, IIRC, he has ass cancer and that can’t be pleasant), still his death will remove one more filthy red beast from the Earth. Forever. No, the war will not be over (it still is not in Romania, and they shot Ceausescu), but a major source of evil will be no more. God bless and keep all of you who carry the torch for the Cuba That Could Be, and most of all may He bless those who fought and died for your cause. The imp’s death and departure to Hell will be enough for a celebration – no remorse about it – but before we allow ourselves to feel any relief in its passing, let all of us lovers of freedom (and enemies of collectivism), Cuban and otherwise, drink a solemn glass in honor of the fallen heroes.
CONO FIREFLY , YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH AND MIND.RIGHT ON 180% CORRECT.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about the MSM.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about castro’s well known apologist and collaborator Osvaldo Paya.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about Oscar Espinosa Chepe’s opinion. Nor the opinion of all these “Johnny-come-lately” to the Cuban cause.
I definitely don’t give a rat’s ass about Andres Oppenheimer.
For 49 years it has been OUR dead, OUR pain, OUR suffering, OUR fight(. AND OUR MOTHER LAND)!!!
All those that don’t agree with OUR celebration can go and KISS MY ASS!
THEY CAN KISS MY HAIRY CUBAN ASS TOO!!!.AND WE CAN CELEBRATE BECAUSE WE CAN(FREEDOM OF SPEECH)!!!
Count me as one of those against a City-funded/sponsored OB celebration.
But I’ll be damned if anyone prevents me and real Cuban-Americans from celebrating the rise of a new, better Cuba, for free, anywhere else.
As someone said about Pinochet, I wonder if MSM would be so quick to find dissenting voices, if they knew some of the celebrations held here, by former exiled Chileans in Miami (there were two restaurants, where they gathered, one in South Beach, to my certain knowledge).
And do you think anyone would prevent the Irish abroad from honouring their vicious terrorist organisation, the IRA, whenever there was a positive result against the British State?
I don’t think so.
It’s always the Cubans, Cubans, Cubans in Miami.
I’m sick of it. I’m going for for a celebratory cafecito, in Versailles, and I don’t care what people say.
Cheers,
Victoria
Sometimes to mourn a death is worse than to celebrate it. In 1945, the Archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, ordered that all church bells throughout the Emerald Isle be rung in memory of the Catholic leader Adolf Hitler (this was before it was known he had committed suicide). And in 1975, Fidel Castro declared a month’s mourning for the death of Francisco Franco (who had bridged the gap between the U.S. embargo and Soviet patronage).
I’m not Cuban, but I hate injustice and dicators. I lived in Chile for two years (post-Pinochet) and know people who suffered under his rule. I lived in Miami for two years and have a good friend whose father spent four years in one of Castro’s prison camps before they escaped the island.
I smiled the day Pinochet died, although I was unhappy he never spent a day in prison, and I will be very happy the day Castro leaves this earth. I hope his is a painful death. My only regret will be that I won’t be in Miami when it happens because I hate to miss a Cuban party.