Fidel, the Horse Awaits You: University of Havana Honors Dictator with Alex Castro’s Photo Exhibit

This week, the University of Havana unveiled the photographic exhibition "Aurora of the Future," created by Álex Castro Soto del Valle, son of the late dictator Fidel Castro. This event is part of the official tributes marking the 100th anniversary of Castro's birth, which was celebrated on August 13, 1926.

The exhibit, featuring 20 photographs taken by Álex Castro during the final years of his father's life, was showcased in the institution's Aula Magna. The opening ceremony was led by Dr. C. José Antonio Baujín, who delivered a speech filled with grandiose—some might say outlandishly grandiose—praise for the man who ruled Cuba with an iron fist for nearly five decades.

Baujín began with textbook philosophy: "Every genuine leader is accompanied by an iconography that both represents and constructs him. [...] Fidel is both singular and multiple." He went on to describe the dictator as "the accused accuser of '53," "the bearded insurgent of the Sierra, victoriously entering the capital with a white dove on his shoulder like a laurel crown," and, lest there be any doubt, he declared him "one of the most important figures in Contemporary History."

Not missing a beat, Baujín acknowledged the natural law of leadership: "The life cycle of a leader usually follows the natural law: emergence, peak, and decline," but quickly added that Fidel was not bound by such earthly limitations: "Defiant against the nullifying norm, neither old age nor illness could bring him down." A man above time, biology, and, apparently, reality itself.

The speaker described the images as an intimate portrait: "Absent of marble pedestal figures or divine aura, the images humanize the subject, perhaps from a more intimate perspective and, if possible when speaking of Fidel, even more personal and honest." The unintentional irony of humanizing someone while denying them the possibility of decline is undoubtedly one of the great rhetorical achievements of the event.

The photographs depict Fidel Castro with students, scientists, and intellectuals, "happy with Chávez, complicit with Raúl," according to Baujín, who also emphasized that "Fidel never sees, Fidel observes, devouring the world with the depth of his gaze." Apparently, supernatural powers.

The climax came at the end, with a phrase blending revolutionary epic and equestrian metaphor: "As in the grateful song, ahead of the caravan we all form, ready for the charge, Fidel, the horse awaits you."

This is not the first time Álex Castro has exhibited his work as part of tributes to the dictator. In August 2025, he opened the exhibition "All the Glory of the World" at the Memorial José Martí, featuring 50 photographs of Fidel Castro. The photographer is also known for calling the 11J protesters "criminals" on Facebook in January 2022, at a time when the Prosecutor's Office acknowledged that 790 people were being prosecuted.

The exhibition adds to a series of tributes organized by the regime throughout 2026, declared the "Year of the Centennial of the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz," which included the First International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future" with over 1,500 delegates from 63 countries. All of this while power outages frequently exceed 2,000 MW, with blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day in Havana and records of over 80 hours in Matanzas.

This Sunday, the government announced a maximum expected outage of 2,193 MW. The horse waits. The Cuban people wait too, but in the dark.