ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Dozens of members of Orange County’s Cuban community gathered at Old Cuban Café Express Saturday morning to celebrate the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The restaurant, on North Goldenrod Road near State Road 408, opened at 4 a.m. to welcome customers.
Grecia Perez, whose mother owns the gas-station-turned-restaurant, said the mood was more cheerful than somber.
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“We saw Miami was super packed, celebrating,” she said. “We came over here. We started handing out coffee. We started going out with signs. It’s really exciting [to] finally [have the] dictatorship over with.”
Perez said she has visited Cuba and still has dozens of relatives living on the Caribbean island.
“It’s like going back to a country back in the '50s,” she said. “The old cars, you have their food rationalized, [it’s a] communist country, the streets are very dirty, the buildings are old.”
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Though some were shy to say it aloud, several patrons expressed relief, excitement and hope for the change that could happen now that Castro has died. %
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“I think it means a step towards independence,” Perez said. “Even though it’s not a full step, we are a step closer to independence.” %
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Many are now left wondering if the hemisphere’s only Communist government, a government Castro worked so hard to hold together, can continue to be sustained under the rule of his brother Raúl.
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