Yawn Over Miami

As the Sun rose over the Northernmost City in Latin America, Mayami, the cameras and microphones were all at the usual places waiting for the exiles.

But as the TV reporters reported live, there was only dead air as most Cuban Exiles in Miami collectively Yawned.

“Please! Someone come down to the Versailles, Por Favor” they seemed to plead desperately looking for someone to interview. “The Cameras are here”. “Come down” “this is your chance to get on TV!” “We’ll interview all and put the most inarticulate, ridiculous and ignorant comments on the news” “Bring the pots and bang them”

But, there weren’t too many takers.

The Sun-Sentinel’s disappointment:

At Versailles, the popular Cuban coffee shop on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, reaction early Tuesday morning was marked by excited journalists outnumbering the Cuban exiles they sought to interview.

The Washington Post was also looking for celebrations and labeled the reactions in Miami as “muted”:

MIAMI, Feb. 19--Outside the Versailles Restaurant, the traditional gathering place for this city's Cuban immigrants, the news that Fidel Castro was ceding power gave rise to the predictable clutch of demonstrators Tuesday morning.

But there were no massive street celebrations like the ones that have erupted in the past over news and rumors regarding Castro's illness. Indeed, with control over the island already shifted to Castro's brother, Raul Castro, the reaction to the long-anticipated end of Castro's reign was muted.

(Notice that at WaPo, we’re Immigrants, not exiles.)

They did happen to find someone in Miami, at FIU of course, that managed to totally distort and give the wrong reason for the collective Cuban exile yawn:

Dario Moreno, a Florida International University professor who studies Cuban politics. "People haven't seen any signs of change in Cuban policy or increased democratization. The muted response shows that frustration and disappointment that people are feeling." "People haven't seen any signs of change in Cuban policy or increased democratization.

Ummm, no. We’re not frustrated or disappointed, We’re realistic. The muted response is due to the fact, as Senator Menedez explains, that nothing has changed.

"This is not the cause for celebration that some would believe. This does not represent the replacement of totalitarianism with democracy. Instead, it is the replacement of one dictator with another. ... What this move does perhaps present is a moment of hope."

Yawn.