Waiting for Castro’s death like your life depends on it

Downtown Los Angeles is home to the the nation’s largest affordable senior housing project. Angelus Project is home to more than 1400 people over 62.

One of them is 89-year-old Don Miguel Borrayo. He’s from Cuba and he pays close attention to what happens there. In November, he got some news he’d spent his life waiting for: the death of Fidel Castro.

Miguel leads something of a spartan life, each day is the same as the one before. In many ways, his life now is a product of the 17 years he spent inside a Cuban prison for a foiled assassination plot against Fidel Castro.

In 1978, after 17 years of forced labor, Miguel was released. He was sent to Miami as a result of talks between Cuba and the Carter administration. He arrived there at the age of 52, carrying only the clothes he wore and a small black-and-white photo of his mother, Conchita. He later found out that he was the very last on that list of political prisoners to be freed.

“Life is such a wonderful thing. What happens in life is something that you don’t understand,” he says.

Miguel’s story

Life, Death and Fidel Castro

Don Miguel Borrayo once tried to assassinate Castro. Then he just wanted to outlive him.

All photos: Bear Guerra