When Javier heard the news on the radio last July, his first reaction was to go out and buy 15 packets of cigarettes, in case any ensuing tension lead to scarcities in the city. Then he returned to his flat to wait and to watch. He stayed inside for several days. Many others did the same. Fidel Castro had handed over power to his brother, Raúl. It should have been momentous. There were rumours of further political change, there was speculation that the comandante en jefe was actually dead, there was talk of jubilation in Miami, but all was quiet on the streets of Havana.
The subsequent months have been like a continuous Sunday evening, says Javier: quiet, expectant, but laced with an underlying anxiety. “Nothing really has happened, nothing really has changed.” He looks at me knowingly. We rock to and fro on his rocking chairs and ease back into our old ways. “Es igual, Bella, es exactamente igual.” It’s exactly the same as it was.
In spite of his intestinal illness, Fidel Castro has stage-managed yet another brilliant manoeuvre to ensure the survival of his 48-year-old regime—to act out a rehearsal for his eventual death, to hand power to his younger brother Raúl, and to be there to witness the consequences. Some have described it as an ensayo of what might happen: an essay, a trial death, almost a magic realist death in which the ambiguity of a living death paralyses those left behind. It is a way, too, for Fidel to see how his influence may be perpetuated after he steps aside.
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