November 25th will forever be a date in history that my family will remember. This date marks the fall of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, aka the crippling figure that haunted my family's thoughts even past their migration to the states. To rejoice at the death of a human being is inherently wrong, I acknowledge that. You know what else is wrong ?

Having a ration system that essentially leaves people starving and then imprisoning them for trying to feed their families by raising their own livestock because they are apparently stealing from "government assets". Stripping people of their properties and consequently forcing numerous families to live together in a space unworthy of being called a home, and then imprisoning people for being homeless.

Planting the seeds of a revolution on the backbone of the people’s values and then imprisoning them for speaking out about their very values once gaining ultimate power. Having a water system so poor that people have to manage with as little as only one bucket of water to clean not only themselves but their entire family for a week. Valuing sanitation and general health of the public with such disregard that the majority of bathrooms are literally three-inch holes dug into dirt floors (you can forget about toilet paper). Having a system so vulnerable to the abuse of human rights that sex trafficking is not only present, but a norm.

Cloaking your ideals as a communist utopia with a fair distribution of wealth and assets when the only thing that is truly fairly distributed is utter despair and fear. Shutting your citizens off from the outside world for nearly 50 years.

This is why I am not sorry. I am not sorry for rejoicing with my family as soon as I heard the news. I am not sorry for feeling a weight lifted off of my ancestral shoulders. I write this for my fellow Cuban people who are not as lucky as I and have not been given the same opportunities as I to live in a free country. I write this for the people currently in my home country who are being imprisoned for expressing the same relief that I feel. I stand in solidarity with you - the reigns of our oppression have not been released, but loosened.