Dr. Luis Fernandez (far right) is pictured with other students at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. Courtesy Photo

For about a decade, Dr. Luis Fernandez, 58, of Tyler, has kept a Cuban flag that once draped across his father’s casket resting inside a display case in his study.

After hearing the news announced Friday that former Cuban President Fidel Castro had died at age 90, the flag came back out of its case and is currently hanging near his U.S. military memorabilia.

“(Fidel) killed and tortured thousands of people,” Fernandez said. “I’m just sad that my dad couldn’t see this day but I know he is smiling upstairs.”

In 1965, when Fernandez was 7 years old his family fled from Cuba. His father, Dr. Luis Fernandez-Leal, was a top surgeon in Havana, and after refusing a position similar to that of the U.S. Surgeon General, he learned his life was in danger.

Fernandez said the family of five was able to escape from the country with help from a man his father had once operated on who had by then become a high-ranking commander in the Cuban military.

The family traveled to Mexico for what they said was a medical conference, sought asylum at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City and moved to Miami. They later became U.S. citizens in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Fernandez-Leal – along with some of the family’s other relatives who were able to make it to the U.S. – had to retrain in order to practice medicine. But through the years, the family prospered and rebuilt their lives.

Fernandez is a physician, just like his father, while his brother, Richard Fernandez, works in real estate and his sister, Mrs. Sylvia Posu, has an international law degree.

Fernandez said he’d spoken Saturday with several relatives and friends who are rejoicing because of what the death Fidel could mean for the country moving forward.

Fernandez said he hoped Raul Castro may soon give up his presidency and he believes the country may become more democratic in the future.

He said those who live in the U.S. are blessed because of the freedoms they are able to enjoy.

“You can really appreciate what we have here when you come from a place where you have nothing,” Fernandez said. “Compared to everything else out there, this is the best thing going.”

TWITTER: @TMT_Augusta