The Commentators: Castro’s Cuba

Commentary by Will Arrington

Recently, the world was rocked by the death of one of the last remaining champions of communism.

Fidel Castro’s death, to many, was a cause for celebration. To those who reveled, his death represented the beginning of the end of a system that has been blamed for mass exodus from Cuba, arbitrary imprisonment of dissidents, brutal political repression and crushing economic hardship. For many others, it was a time to mourn.

They have praised Castro’s reforms to Cuban healthcare and education – which even today are amongst the strongest in Latin America – the role he played in ending apartheid in South Africa and his downright miraculous transformation of Cuba from effective US protectorate in the 50’s into a world player during the Cold War.

The death of Castro probably seems fairly irrelevant here in Chapel Hill, yet I think the mixed reactions to Castro’s death highlights a point not just for Chapel Hill or North Carolina, but our country as a whole. People are decrying those who mourn Castro’s passing as being fools and communists. You don’t get much kinder rhetoric from those who supported Castro, who insult their detractors as being capitalist stooges. This is a problem, because people simply are not seeing the full picture on either side.

Castro was a complex figure, and he required careful study in life to understand and maybe more so now in death. As someone who has had the privilege to see Cuba before Castro’s death, I see both sides of the coin. I can say both sides have equal merit. Which leads me to my point: something I see all too often in Chapel Hill, and elsewhere from people all across the political spectrum, is one sidedness.

This is not only sad, but worrying. It means that people dismiss those who disagree with them as “others” to be shunned, mocked, ridiculed, what have you. That’s not to say one doesn’t have the right to disagree with others. But it’s equally important to have an understanding of what that other side is saying and what it stands for. Like with Castro, the truth is always much more complicated than simplifications from either side would lead you to believe.