Cuban Americans ‘happy’ to see end of Castro dynasty

When Raul Castro announced the end of his family dynasty’s grip on power in Cuba, Horacio Llerena was happy to see him go.

Llerena, a New Jersey contractor, escaped the Communist island as part of a mass migration of Cubans known as the Mariel boat lift in 1980, when Raul’s brother Fidel Castro was at the helm. “We’re happy. We’ve been waiting for it,” said Llerena, 61, who was playing rummy with friends at the Jose Marti Park in Union City. The park features a bronze bust of the 19th century Cuban poet and patriot, who lived in exile in New York from 1880 until he returned to fight against Spanish imperialism in Cuba, where he died in 1895.