Alabama’s Cuban-American immigrants wouldn’t say that they were celebrating the death of Cuba’s communist dictator. Castro, who died on Friday at the age of 90, had driven most of them out of their home nation in search of freedom. Now, they say that they have hope that many of their past countrymen can experience the hope of future freedom that they have found in America.
Jose Betancourt came to the United States with his parents when he was just five years old. Now an art professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, he told WAAY that his family had mixed emotions over the news of Castro’s death.
“I remember things like standing in line, I do remember that. But as a five-year-old, it’s a different kind of memory than if you asked my mother who was standing in line for hours to try to get food,” Betancourt told the station.
“The celebration of death is one thing, but the kind of end of an era and the remembrance of all the bad things and all the bad stories that I’ve heard,” he added.
WBRC reported that Kool Korner Sandwiches, a Birmingham-area restaurant, hosted dozens of Cuban immigrants on Saturday. They played upbeat music, danced, prayed, and passed around food and drinks.
The small shop is operated by 93-year-old Idelfonso Ramirez, who survived six years of forced labor on a hemp farm after refusing to support Castro’s regime. He left Cuba with his family in 1970.
Ramirez told WBRC that he has no desire to return to Cuba.
“My age – I don’t want to go,” Ramirez said. “I’m an American citizen and I love this wonderful great country and I want to die here free.”
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