Still, “it’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
A small group of women from the Ladies in White movement — founded by the wives and other female family members of former Cuban political prisoners — marched on Sunday on a street named for them in Miami.
An especially large crowd gathered for mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba, where Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski led the Saturday service.
“Fidel Castro has died. Now he awaits the judgment of God, who is merciful but also just,” Wenski said, urging the faithful to pray “for peace for Cuba and its people.”
The Mass was solemn and the scene far from celebratory. Some women wiped away tears.
Elsewhere, many Cuban artists raised their voices. Emilio Estefan, husband of singing star Gloria Estefan, said Cuba now faces “a new dawn with a new sun full of hope.”
The famed musicians Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera and Jon Secada joined the Miami celebration.
Castro “separated our people and made us hate each other,” the Cuban-born jazzman Sandoval said.
Politicians also lined up to mark the occasion.
Cuban-American Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado visited revelers Saturday afternoon, telling reporters that they “should not be criticized for celebrating”someone’s death. “Understand what it means” to them, he said.
