Calle Ocho, SW 8th street, in Little Havana is alive with emotion today, all of it bound together by news of Fidel Castro's death.
One man repeatedly shouted, "Death to all tyrants." Another walked up the street with a likeness of Castro's head on a spike.
Cuban-Americans here say it was Castro's communist rule-- no political opposition allowed--that pierced their families hearts over the decades. Fernando Crespo said, "My uncle was a political prisoner and because of him I'm here."
I bumped into a longtime friend-fellow journalist Rene Pedrosa.. He is busy reporting so many stories today while remembering his own.
Pedrosa told me, "My family came in 1980 in the Mariel Boat-lift. I was 7 years old. My parents risked everything to come over on a 14 hour boat ride, three hundred people on the boat, my parents having a conversation as to who was going to save my life."
The Albelo family came to Calle Ocho too today--four generations worth. Lissette Calderon Albelo told me, "My grandfather was a political prisoner, killed by the Castro regime.
This country (the U.S) embraced us with open arms and we are Americans. But at the end of the day we have Cuban blood and we are there for our brothers and sisters in Cuba."