CUBAN COMMUNITY
Victims of Castro's Cuba honored
For the fifth year, the Cuban Memorial honors the victims of Cuba's
communist government with rows of makeshift crosses in Tamiami Park.
BY CASEY WOODS
cwoods@MiamiHerald.com
To an outsider, the individual pieces of the Cuban Memorial might not
seem very impressive: foam crosses, bolted to a grass field in Tamiami Park.
But for Mirta Costa, it's all she has.
''I have nothing from my son's body, not even a tooth,'' Costa said
Friday as she taped red roses to the makeshift marker. ``For me, this
means I have a place that marks his passing, where I can come to
remember him.''
Her son Carlos Costa died on Feb. 24, 1996, when his small plane was
shot down by the Cuban military as he flew for the exile group Brothers
to the Rescue, which looked for rafters at sea.
His name is one of the more than 10,000 neatly affixed to the Memorial's
rows of white crosses, arranged in alphabetical order so members of the
exile community can easily find their fallen.
Once a year, the Cuban Memorial honors the victims of communist Cuba's
government, including those who died in Cuban prisons, rafters who
perished at sea while trying to escape, and those who were killed by
firing squads in the revolution's early years. The display will be open
to the public at Tamiami Park until 5 p.m. Sunday.
''This is essentially a parking lot in a field, but people come with
flowers and sit next to the crosses, because for them they are real,''
said Emilio Solernou, a member of the Memorial's organizing committee.
``It's amazing what it means to people.''
Next year, on its sixth anniversary, the Memorial's organizers say that
families will have a place to pay respects to the victims year-round,
when a permanent monument is expected to be erected in Tamiami Park.
The new memorial will be in the shape of a star, crowned with five black
granite walls engraved on one side with the victims' names. An obelisk,
covered in a Cuban flag made out of colored tiles, will rise up in the
center.
The circle of palms that will surround the monument have already been
planted.
''When someone comes to see a Panthers game, or comes to [Florida
International University], they will see something that shows them the
story of Cuba and what happened to its people,'' said Renato Gomez, a
Cuba Memorial board member. ``We need to follow in the footsteps of the
Jewish community, because they work and work to make sure that no one
forgets [the Holocaust].''
Miami-Dade County donated the land for the permanent memorial, but it
will be built through donations from the exile community, Gomez said.
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