Focusing on Future, Cuba Leaves Fidel Castro to History

Focusing on Future, Cuba Leaves Fidel Castro to History
By DAMIEN CAVEDEC. 18, 2014

At a moment described by many as an equivalent to the collapse of the
Berlin Wall, the absence of Fidel Castro — he has said nothing about it,
and has not appeared in public for months — spoke volumes. For many
Cubans, it confirmed that Fidel, perhaps by his own design, is slipping
further into the past, into history, at a time when his approach to the
United States seems to be fading as well.

"It's a break with the past, and a transition," said Jorge Luis Rivero
González, 26, a master's student in information technology. "What we
have now is hope for a new path. We don't know what's coming, but it
better be good."

Fidel is still an imposing figure in the Cuban consciousness, a leader
so venerable and fiercely protected that many avoid talking about him at
all. Few here or in Washington, where the name Fidel is often shorthand
for communist revolution itself, suggested that détente with the United
States could have happened without his approval.

Some of the former leader's most loyal followers here have even
described Mr. Obama's recognition of Cuba with a Castro still in power
as a final triumph for Fidel — a formal nod of respect that the old
guerrillero has demanded since 1959.

There was even some Fidel-like braggadocio in the speech by his brother
Raúl, who celebrated the return on Wednesday of Cuba's three convicted
spies from the United States with a rare flair for theatrics. After
years of appearing mostly in a suit, Raúl was careful to wear his
military uniform, linking the prisoners' release to "Comrade Fidel" and
his promise years ago to bring the men home.

Some experts argued that it was yet another sign that on big,
geopolitical questions, the Castro brothers largely remain in sync.

"Raúl and Fidel have no daylight between them on things like this," said
Julia Sweig, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies
Cuba. "They have been in complete lock step on Cuban foreign policy."

And yet the new Cuba that Raúl is fashioning from the old is a far cry
from Fidel's youthful revolution. Today's Cuba seems less concerned with
ideals than dollars. It is a hatchery of private enterprise and nascent
inequality, where property can be bought and sold, along with cars and
filet mignon. It is a proud country, tired of struggling, where the poor
can see the rich rising along the way to Raúl's stated goals: economic
growth and stability.

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"Raúl is a pragmatist; he is not a mindless idealist," said Brian
Latell, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who has written
books on the Castros. "Fidel has always been the heavy anchor on change
and reform."

Perhaps the difference is that now, with Cuba's economy still on the
edge of collapse, that weight seems to be lifting as Fidel fades further
from view.

Young Cubans like Honey Hernan, 14, who was walking home from school on
Thursday past the Museum of the Revolution, can hardly remember a time
when Fidel was a recognizable presence. "He's never really on TV," she
said. "It's really just Raúl."

Little of the gated, heavily guarded compound where Fidel lives in west
Havana is even visible from the street. Much of what is known of it
comes from the pictures and videotapes of buildings and landscaped
gardens that associates of the family have leaked over the years.

Some older Cubans, like Prospero Gamboa, 68, who was discussing the new
era with friends on a street corner in Old Havana, noted that the deal
with the United States had been set in motion with the economic changes
that Raúl established starting in 2006, when he first stepped in for an
ailing Fidel.

"This has been building," Mr. Gamboa said. "There's been a change in the
mentality."

This waning of Fidel is the norm even in some of the places where he
defined his destiny. In the lobby of the University of Havana Law
School, a poster offered students a chance to study his famous defense
after being arrested for storming the Moncada barracks in 1953, when he
said, "History will absolve me." But the poster was only one of many
offerings, with others promoting live music or posting final grades and
student election results.

If anything, the university and a half-dozen other stops across Havana
on Thursday seemed to demonstrate what many Cubans describe as the new
reality: Fidel Castro is increasingly a figure of the Cold War, to be
celebrated, scrutinized, reviled — but almost never experienced.

It is not the principles that have changed, many students emphasized.
Equality and sovereignty are among the most cited virtues by young,
passionate Cubans following in Fidel's academic footsteps. But to many
of them, the relentless campaign against the ever-present enemy of the
United States — Fidel's lifelong mission — seems as dated as the tanks
that dot the campus and countless public spaces all over Havana.

Cubans of all ages now say that there are simply too many relatives in
the United States who come back to visit regularly to justify the idea
of perpetual conflict.

"It's the same revolution in a totally different phase," said Anabel
Bollet, 22, a fifth-year law student. The changes announced this week,
she said, amount to a historic but subtle "adjustment." It is not peace.
Rather, she added, "it's a way to resolve the conflict without guns."

To some degree, many Cubans argued, the openness of Mr. Obama and Raúl
to normalized political relations amounts to a classic case of
government catching up with the people.

Ever since Mr. Obama opened unlimited travel and remittances to
Cuban-Americans in 2009, followed by Raúl's easing of limits on travel
for Cubans, a steady flow of Cubans and dollars has strengthened the
filial bonds that were severed during the revolution between Cubans on
opposite sides of the Florida straits.

This is the United States-Cuba relationship that a growing number of
Cubans know, understand and cherish, no matter where they are. The
distrust and defiance that their leaders are only now addressing is more
of a backdrop.

It was no coincidence that on Thursday, when asked who would benefit
most from the new thaw, many Cubans answered "the Cuban people," even
before they were asked to choose between Raúl Castro and Mr. Obama.

That was true for loyal Fidelistas and for stiff-backed critics of
Fidel's government.

Nor was it a surprise that there was only one person outside the United
States Interests Section on Thursday morning: a woman with a broom who
was sweeping up outside a monument painted in large block letters with
the Cuban government's message declaring "patria o muerte" (fatherland
or death") and "venceremos" (we will overcome).

A block away, hundreds of Cubans of all ages gathered in a small park,
carefully holding folders of documents, waiting to be told where to
stand to get an American tourist visa to visit their sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters, or fathers and mothers in Miami and beyond.

Randal C. Archibold contributed reporting from Mexico City.

Source: Focusing on Future, Cuba Leaves Fidel Castro to History -
NYTimes.com -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/world/americas/the-revolution-fidel-castro-began-evolves-under-his-brother.html