Irish actor and writer Mark O’Halloran, who wrote the Cuba-based film Viva and also wrote and starred in Dublin black comedy Adam and Paul, says the news of the passing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro last Friday arrived with more of “a whimper than a bang” in Havana.
The Clare man has made Havana his second home in recent months following the release of Viva, which tells the story of a young drag queen in the Cuban capital and which narrowly missed out on an Oscar nomination earlier this year for Best Foreign Language Film.
Writing for RTÉ Entertainment and RTÉ Culture he said, “The death of Fidel Castro was announced, here in Havana, on Friday night and the news arrived with more of a whimper than a bang.
There was no great public display of grief and indeed a young woman I was speaking said that this is news she has been expecting for all of her adult life. If anything a mood of contemplation and introspection fell on the city.
Fidel is a deeply divisive figure here. To some he is a hero and the symbol of Cuba itself. To others he is a wildly destructive figure who intruded his way into every aspect of their lives and whose unbending dogma cost them any semblance of a normal life.
For the majority, their feelings are a mixture of those two positions and a source of deeply conflicted emotions. The questions raised by his passing are existential ones: who are we; where next; how do we achieve change?
On Saturday there was little to notify the casual observer of what had happened. People went about their business and the world turned. It was only with the announcement of nine days of mourning and a ban on alcohol sales that shock really began to register. This has to be the first time in decades that Havana has been sober.
Today's headlines in Havana. pic.twitter.com/YLjuoxjMoD
— Mark O'Halloran (@markohalloran) November 27, 2016
As with most things here it only took a few hours for the black market to kick in and alcohol is now obtainable with a nod and a wink to the right person. All concerts, clubs, theatre events, ballet etc have been closed though and the nights here are slightly adrift with people meeting and chatting soberly in various cafes rather than dancing and singing. This is unusual for Havana and a rather welcome break.
Monday saw the first of three days of public events to mark Fidel's state funeral. Monday night in Plaza de la Revolución was thronged. And I was there too, to mark the end of decades of trauma and hopefully the beginning of a new and better era."
