|
|
NEWS
Sculpture of
Castro dumped in Miami "dustbin"
By Tom Brown
8 November 2006
MIAMI, Nov 8 (Reuters) - In a typically south Florida end to a dispute
between a Connecticut sculptor and Miami's often-tempestuous Cuban
exiles, a giant head of ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro was
relegated on Wednesday to "the dustbin of history."
The clay sculpture of Castro that artist Daniel Edwards originally
intended to display in New York's Central Park was dumped in a garbage
truck in a mock send-off of the Cuban leader in "Little Havana," the
heartland of anti-Castro sentiment.
"Fidel Castro is where he belongs," exile and activist Ninoska Perez
told about 200 people gathered for the ceremonial trashing of the
sculpture, an event promoted on a popular local Spanish-language radio
station.
"He's gone from the street to the dustbin of history," Perez said.
"Only in Miami, right?" Perez later added in remarks to Reuters as
pulsating music from a salsa band kicked off a raucous celebration of
what many exiles see as the near end of Castro's communist government.
Castro, 80, has only been seen in photographs and videos since
temporarily handing power to his brother Raul after having intestinal
surgery on July 31. A recent video of the veteran revolutionary, looking
unsteady and frail, has many exiles talking hopefully about his death.
The oversized gray-green sculpture of Castro's head -- peering out from
behind prison-like bars -- was dumped in the truck by mock pallbearers.
"There will be people who will hail him as a revolutionary and a social
vindicator (when he dies)," said Ramon Saul Sanchez of an anti-Castro
group called "Democracy Movement."
"But the people who really seek the truth ... and really care about the
facts will dump him in the trash can of history for sure," he said. "He
murdered too many people."
The ceremony ended a dispute that began last month when community
leaders learned Edwards planned to unveil the head of Castro in Central
Park.
The plan was announced in an Oct. 24 news release that said the
sculpture was dedicated "to the man some revere as a champion of human
rights" -- angering anti-Castro activists and Miami Cubans who suffered
under his rule.
Edwards, who also created a life-size nude of Britney Spears giving
birth on a bearskin rug, distanced himself from the statement on
Wednesday as he prepared to witness what he called the "deconstruction"
of the head.
"My feelings were not that he was a civil rights leader. I was raised to
know that he was the opposite of that," he said.
News Archive
| Home
|
 |
|
