Little Brother Raul: Same Old Castro for Cubans

People confuse me. Maybe people confuse you too, and I’m not just talking about your regular, run of the mill, confusing-type people like the people who run the summer carnivals or the town drunk with the cleft lip, but normal, everyday people, the kind that Sly & the Family Stone sang of. I’m talking about the Cuban people who were dancing in the street on the night dictator Fidel Castro went under the knife for a routine gastrointestinal surgery.

Wait, maybe I’m the one doing this confounding. Maybe I got the news wrong. Perhaps those Cuban people were celebrating the fact that Fidel Castro was dead and all the Cuban people were free, that democracy was spreading like a California wildfire on that forsaken island. Maybe they were finally coming home

Because they sure looked happy, hopping on cars, waving flags, singing songs and dancing in the street. You know, I bet that’s what happened. I am so silly. I guess I must have heard it wrong: Fidel Castro DID die. I thought the newsman had said “Castro was having surgery,” and not “Castro was killed in surgery.” My mistake. But you know, let me check just to be sure.

Wow, you know something. I was right the first time. Fidel Castro’s not dead; he came out of surgery fine, though his brother Raul is still in power while he recovers. And this brings me to my next point, what the fuck were those people celebrating? Do you mean to tell me that I have a better understanding of Cuban history than actual Cubans, and by that I mean this: Raul Castro is just as bad as Fidel Castro, if not worse! On what grounds did those people base that celebration? The only difference between Fidel and Raul Castro, and I mean the only difference, is the way they wear their facial hair. Fidel opts for the long, graying power beard while Raul goes for the classic, dictator-stache. That’s it. There was no newfound freedom, not for one fucking second. The only thing those Cuban-Miamians (Cubanamians?) were celebrating was their own ignorance and stupidity.

I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up over this. Any way you look at it, this whole scenario doesn’t affect me in the slightest. It actually made me feel sad for some reason. I wondered how these Spanish speaking Cubanamians, and the defected Cubans all over the county, were getting their news, their information. Maybe this misunderstanding could have been avoided or something. This is what I was thinking about, thought about it about for way too long until hit me.

The Cuban people just like to party, any excuse for a party and they’re game, it’s brilliant. Even if there was no realistic chance anything would change in their homeland because of this surgery, they got together and threw an impromptu rager in the streets. Maybe we could learn something from those crazy Cubans after all.

[5 MINUTES LATER]

Or maybe that footage of the Cubans partying was part of a government ploy to fire up anti-Castro sentiment among the general public. Yeah, that’s it.