MIAMI _ On the second day after the death of Cuba's longtime leader, Fidel Castro, Miami's Cuban-American community tapped the strongest symbols of its exile, gathering Sunday in Little Havana at a museum honoring Bay of Pigs veterans and calling for a huge rally Wednesday for "all who have been affected by this regime."
And not far from the Bay of Pigs Museum, crowds again gathered in front of the Versailles Restaurant. People filled the sidewalks waving American and Cuban flags as passing cars blared their horns.
Some carried photos of loved ones whom they said had been jailed and persecuted by Castro, but had not lived to see the day when he died late Friday at age 90. Others banged pots and pans, and chanted rhythmic slogans in Spanish, demanding democratic reforms.
Nearly all had stories of how Castro had changed their lives, forever.
At the museum honoring the 2506 Assault Brigade, symbols abounded of the decades-long struggle against Castro's rule _ representing efforts by exiles in Miami, and by dissidents inside Cuba.
Gathered in a room with walls covered in portraits of men who died in the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, brigade veterans joined representatives of Ladies in White, an anti-government group in Cuba formed by the wives of jailed dissidents.
Throughout a news conference, they exhorted President-elect Donald Trump and Miami's Cuban-American community to push hard for freedom in Cuba.
"The tyrant has died, but tyranny remains," said Humberto Arguelles, president of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. He announced the Wednesday rally "for liberty and democracy in Cuba."
Arguelles said the rally will include a memorial for the victims of Castro's repressive state, a "unified message from the Cuban resistance," and a call to action.
Arguelles said he expects thousands of people to attend the rally." to attend the rally.
"People are going to feel more united than ever," he said.
Maria Elena Alpizar, a member of Ladies in White, said that upon learning of Castro's death, she felt relieved.
"I thought, 'I survived him,'" Alpizar said. She said she lived in Cuba for 47 years "accosted and persecuted".
"This is not the end of communism, but the end of an era," she said.
Alpizar said Cubans who remain on the island are "Fidelistas," loyal to the former president but not communists faithful to the current regime led by Raul Castro.
She expressed hope that the death of the iconic Fidel Castro, and Trump's election, will turn the tide toward democracy in Cuba.
Arguelles thanked Trump for his "truthful and morally correct words of encouragement for the Cuban people" in his statements after Castro's death.
Saturday morning, Trump called Castro a "brutal dictator" and promised to reverse President Barack Obama's agreements and other U.S. efforts at rapprochement with the Cuban government.
Little Havana was not the only place in Miami where Cuban Ameicans gathered Sunday to express their emotions and desires for democracy on the island after Castro's death.
A similar, though less festive, exhortation was echoed during Sunday morning's Mass at San Lazaro Catholic Church in Hialeah, where the priest issued a stern rebuke of jubilant demonstrations celebrating Castro's death.
"We, as Christians, cannot applaud the condemnation of anyone, no matter how bad that person has been," said Monsignor Willie Pena, who is from Cuba and serves the church in Puerto Rico.
"We are all Cubans and we have all been the victims of this person."
Pena acknowledged that he, too, had felt mixed emotions upon learning of Castro's death. But, he assured the congregation, justice was in God's hands.
"At this moment, the book of Fidel Castro's life is being read by God and God is dictating the sentence," he said. "The only one who knows how to bring justice is God."
As the congregation rose for the Prayers of the Faithful, which include specific mentions for respect for all human life from conception to natural death, Pena included Castro in the prayer for those who had passed away during the week.
Then, Pena led a prayer "for all of the people who have been the victims of this man so they can forgive."
