hedge em any. he became a bitter adversary with the united states. he survived numerous assassination attempts. he outlived many of his opponents. even living to see relations thaw with the united states. cnn s rafael romo has more now on his final years. fidel castro knew his days were dwindling, telling cuban communists before his 90th birthday this year, soon i will be like everyone else. after a near fatal illness, he turned the reins of parr over to his younger brother raul. as cuba s new president began taking tentative steps toward reform, the u.s. began to ease restrictions. but fidel castro was suspicious writing in january 2015 that although he doesn t trust u.s. policies, had not exchanged a word with them, this does not mean i would oppose a peaceful solution to conflicts or threats
the united states. but i had no idea what that entailed. this is my passport we got in cuba. my parents got it in anticipation of us coming and moving here, seeking exile. the stamp to the country, september 3rd, 1960. it s the naturalization service of miami, florida. that was the one and only time we used this passport. this was a one-use passport. we used to get out of cuba and come to the united states. my mother died on the fourth of july of 2011. one of my major regrets is she never saw cuba again without castro. i wanted her to be able to live through that. my dad had a saying. whenever something would go wrong, he would say we lost much more in cuba. that s how he put things in perspective. he would say this may be a setback or we may not have
castro and his men drove down the central highway into havana in a very jubilant victory parade. a few days after taking over, castro held a speech, his first public speech. and it was just people as far as the eye could see. i guess i was watching it on tv, i do remember that. castro was giving a speech. in the middle of the speech, this white dove comes and lands on his shoulder. i remember as a young child, i was six years old thinking wow, this is really strange. that sort of stuff doesn t happen. i was very excited. everybody was excited and hopeful. fidel was a mythic larger than life figure who had done the impossible. he had overthrown a dictatorship that had a large army, all the
it s very sad. translator: and painful. he was a person who helped us a lot. the cuban people, specifically those who struggled the most. it s something that truly left us all traumatized. we are sad and he s a person we will never forget. really sad, the separation of family, all they ve been going through. i really celebrate. the guy has been a monster. translator: the cuban people is feeling sad because of the loss of our commander in chief, fidel castro. we wish him wherever he is that he s blessed. us cubans love him. a mix of reactions there. many different reactions also coming in from around the world. one of our own here at cnn grew up in cuba under fidel castro s government. we want to share his story with you now. my name is arthur brice. i m an executive producer with cnn. i was born in cuba in april of
1953. my life started basically about the same time as the cuban revolution, on july 26, 1953, when fidel castro and about 100 other people, including his brother and followers, attacked the army barracks in santiago, de cuba. he was a young lawyer and idealistic and wanted to overthrow the man in power at the time. i was a child and didn t know at the time but i had a front row seat to history. a history that s still evolving to this day. i would say that the main emotion in the house during that whole period was of concern, of fear, of nervousness, of having to lead a life and live a life where you couldn t do the normal things that many other people, adult or children, could do. i could not go outside to play. i spent 2 1/2-some years of the