When Raul Castro came on state tv just after 10:30pm to announce Fidel’s passing, I was fast asleep. I’m not usually that lame but I was first put in a room in the casa directly facing the street & night 1, it’s almost as if the sound of the cars, motorcycles, trucks, horse carriages & people passing by my window was amplified by the beautiful 20ft ceilings in my room as the noise seemed louder than it does even on the street. So no sleep on night 1 meant an early bed time on night 2 & decent sleep thanks to a room switch. 
I didn’t hear the news until the following morning. As soon as I woke, I walked out & 4 different family members told me in a matter of 5 mins. The casa owner told me first, 30 secs after I walked out of my room. He looked crushed, like his favorite uncle died. I said I was sorry for your loss. He thanked me & grabbed & held my hand. He seemed upset. 
I got dressed & re-watched the Raul announcement on local Cuban state tv over breakfast & couldn’t get out of the casa fast enough, heading directly to Parque Vidal. First off, FAR more people at 10am than the prior day. But I got a sense of general uncertainty. No real emotions. Two hours later (bc I couldn’t leave… this is the gathering spot of the city & I had a front row view), people seemed to loosen up a bit. I saw a couple people crying (& overheard “it’s like my father died”) & a few handshakes amongst older men w perhaps a hint of a smile but maybe that was my imagination. Most were still very somber & reserved. I’m sure Cuban-Americans were celebrating but there were absolutely no celebrations here. I hesitantly asked my casa owner’s 2 daughters & son-in-law what they thought his death would mean for Cuba. Cubans consider Fidel part of the family, he loves Cuba, fights for them against the big US (which many don’t seem to like so he had very effective messaging) & everyone feels connected to him in some way or another so the whole country will grieve his loss. One daughter replied that she doesn’t expect anything to change as he hasn’t been in charge for 10 years. These were very similar sentiments I heard as the week progressed from all Cubans regardless of age, sex, job, etc. Cubans young & old were very sad, I’m guessing a very different message vs the US media machine. Have people been jailed here for talking shit about the government? Sure, just like many other countries currently ruled by dictators. But it’s clear this feeling of loss is not the result of fear.
I felt so blessed to actually be in Cuba seeing the reaction first-hand in a city that really fucking matters. Did I say I was in Santa Clara? Two different Cuban casa owners groaned when I said I was going to Santa Clara, saying “there’s nothing to do but the Che mausoleum & the train thing”. From everything I’ve read about Cuba over the years, SC was prominent in its revolutionary history. Che orchestrated maybe the coolest & certainly the most decisive take down of Bautista, when he & 18 teenagers took down Bautista’s army of hundreds on train tracks using a borrowed bulldozer, forcing the surrender immediately thereafter thus giving Fidel’s revolutionaries the victory. Fidel gave his victory speech in Santiago de Cuba the next day & then made a victory run to Havana, swinging through all of the crucial cities over the route.
Therefore SC is Che’s city – it’s devoted to him – multiple statues, museums, monuments & since his death & recovery of his remains from Bolivia, his mausoleum. The locals be damned, I was going. Thankfully I listened to my gut bc there was no better place to be when THE news came down. Now it seemed very fitting that the day of Fidel’s death, I walked 3km out to Che’s official memorial, museum & mausoleum where Fidel gave a speech in ’97 lighting his eternal flame when his remains were interred after being found in a secret Bolivian mass grave w the 37 others captured & then immediately executed courtesy of the CIA. Spooky almost. I think I tend to have pretty good timing, but this was impeccable. 
My casa owner shared w me the state newspaper, the Granma (named after the boat that brought Fidel, Che & Raul to Cuba to start the revolution – 3 of the 12 out of 80+ that survived the initial landing), which was wholly focused on Fidel & despite only being 8 pages, it took me 2 hours to read. Thanks shitty Spanish. The owner was laughing at me. But I think I eventually understood most of it. It just took me awhile bc there were a lot of words I didn’t know (he was no help… his accent is brutal & speaks zero English) so I re-read many sentences to try to glean context. So I know what’s going on. For the most part. I was going to ask if I could perhaps keep it but he seemed to be keeping a close eye on it. I learned there’s a period of mourning over the next 9 days during which state radio and television will broadcast patriotic and historical programming before his funeral in Santiago de Cuba on Sun Dec 4. There’s a big ceremony in Havana on Tues in revolution park where I visited. Then his ashes will caravan from Havana to Santiago, taking the same reverse route he took after his victory speech in 1959, before a similar ceremony on Dec 3 in Santiago & his burial on the 4th. I’m going to do my best to be there. 
More importantly, as far as I’m concerned, is this period of mourning which apparently means no music, no party, no alcohol for 9 days. I heard rumors all restaurants & bars would be closed. Given I have nearly 1.5 weeks left in Cuba, I really hoped that would not be the case bc I may starve & be bored to death. A bit worried, I asked my casa owner but he said while they did that in the past for other revolutionary deaths, that was when everything was state owned & now there are many privately own businesses that can make their own decision. For a late lunch, I was not allowed to order a beer but they inexplicably allowed me to order a mojito instead so perhaps people are still feeling things out. My dinner that night was status quo – good food & any drink on the menu. But that was night one. In the days since, I’ve sorted out that state run places have closed (fine, as I tried to stick to privately owned joints), private run restaurants have chosen to remain open but not serve alcohol (although some will serve beer or wine but no mixed drinks) & private run bars have closed. 
But there’s one thing that’s clear. There is no music. None. Anywhere. Passing people’s homes yesterday, opened doors revealed music & laughter. Today, each house seems to be tuned to state-run tv & radio that is perpetually replaying Raul Castro’s speech last night as well as reporting on global reactions (or at least those Granma wishes to report upon). My plan for the first night of mourning had been to attend Cuba’s only official drag show & potentially become a groupie of this really cool band. Of course neither happened. Just to be sure, I swung by Club Menjune & even that liberal hotbed teeming w hippies the day prior was lights out, doors locked. Just the city itself had changed so much, especially at night. The night prior, the square was packed w people socializing & now the streets were eerily quiet, everyone was home & really mourning. 
The music I’m going to miss. A lot. I can’t imagine having visited Havana, Cienfuegos or Trinidad without music as it’s such a massive part of the everyday lifestyle. So again, I felt lucky to be in Cuba to experience this historic event & luckier that his passing happened at this point in my trip.