Family Who Once Lived In Cuba Reacts To Passing Of Fidel Castro
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the past week has re-kindled all kinds of emotions in the people who once called Cuba "home".
37-year old Maria Ruiz came to the United States from Cuba at the age of one in 1980. She said her 76-year-old father, Franklin, was once a lieutenant colonel fighting alongside Fidel and Raul Castro during the Revolution. WBBM's Bernie Tafoya reports.
Ruiz said her father had been friends with Raul Castro. She believes her father, mother Juana and she were allowed to leave Cuba because her father had been willing, at one time, to lay down his life for Fidel Castro.
"The man betrayed our family personally," Ruiz said, referring to Fidel Castro. "He betrayed the country. He destroyed countless lives. He was pure evil. He was a monster."
Maria Ruiz said when she called her father to tell him about Fidel Castro's death Saturday, she said he responded mostly with stunned silence, first saying, "Wow," and later saying he hopes no one ever governs Cuba for more than four years from now on.
"(Castro's) death is like the death of a big betrayal of his country and a big personal betrayal for my dad because my dad fought with him," Ruiz said. "My dad was willing to risk his life for him. My mom got shot for him and then he betrayed my family and he betrayed the country."
Maria Ruiz said that, although her father served in Castro's revolutionary army, he did not sign up for the communism Castro later turned to.
Ruiz said she cried after she spoke with her dad as "sort of a relief" but she adds that when she stops and thinks of it, "nothing's really going to change immediately" in Cuba.
Maria Ruiz said she spent her first birthday at Guantanamo Bay which is where her family and others stayed in tents, while they awaited permission to leave for the United States.
