A CHANGE OF HEART: David Cabarrocas returned to Cuba after a 38-year absence.

After 38 years of exile, David Cabarrocas broke an oath many Miami Cubans took when they left Cuba -- never to return to a homeland ruled by Fidel Castro.

Faith in the historic presence of Pope John Paul II moved the 61-year-old Coconut Grove architect to return. Like many others who made the trip, he now speaks with an almost evangelical fervor about his visit.

``Our historical error,'' Cabarrocas said, ``has been to allow one man to get rid of all his enemies -- and to have them promise never to return until he dies. What a coup!''

The Pope's visit to Cuba is not only working what seem like miracles in the Communist island. It is also changing el exilio, challenging traditional thinking on Cuba, opening options that until last week seemed improbable to many.

While many hard-liners remain cynical about any move involving Castro's government, the remarkable events surrounding the visit are driving a renewed sense of enthusiasm among exiles -- a hope for democratic change in Cuba that had been all but lost after the island remained a bastion of communism long after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

``We're entering a new period and you have to read the signs of the times,'' Cabarrocas said.

Some exile groups are already busy drafting new strategies. The influential Cuban American National Foundation, acting on the Pope's condemnation that the U.S. embargo hurts the people, is working on legislation to send food and other humanitarian aid to Cuba through the American Red Cross or the Catholic Church.

The Foundation's move comes two months after the death of chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa, who had shown signs that his strategy toward Cuba was changing and surprised many by debating a high-ranking Cuban official on Spanish-language television.

Now, even conservative exiles who caution against changing hard-line strategies until there are more substantive reforms in Cuba are saying the Pope's visit provokes soul-searching.

``The Pope has made us think and reassess,'' said Rafael Peñalver, a Miami lawyer who led a successful campaign to cancel a pilgrimage from Miami to Havana by cruise ship. ``The church is in the process of nation building, conscience building and it's looking beyond Castro. The Pope has extended the bridge between the Cuban exile community and the island and we need to reconsider our position.''

On Cuban radio airwaves, often the barometer of exile opinion, there's talk of a need to look in new ways at a more complex Cuba, of forging new strategies.

Many more listeners are weighing in with opinions that had previously only brought scorn and harsh criticism from commentators, and had been viewed as the work of Castro agents.

``If we lift the embargo, we may just scare [Castro] to death,'' said a caller to WWFE La Poderosa.

Perhaps for the first time in four decades of exile, some in South Florida believe, more exiles are ready to discount an armed struggle or a U.S. invasion in favor of a peaceful transition process.

In a town where war on Castro was the only respectable prescription, talk of fomenting change through a strategy of national reconciliation is taking root.

``A catharsis has taken place in exile,'' said Miami lawyer Alfredo Duran, vice president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, an exile group that advocates dialogue. ``People are more readily disposed to explore new avenues. What the Pope has done is flash a light into a semi-dark room.''

Fueling the optimism were displays in Cuba of religious fervor, the live television images of a giant Jesus Christ in the Plaza de la Revolucion, people's daring chants of ``Libertad!,'' the Pope's urging of a national reconciliation, and now that they are back in Florida, the testimony of exiles who witnessed it all first-hand.

A painful concession

While exiles have been traveling to Cuba since the Cuban government began allowing it in 1979, the visits were seen as a painful concession in order to reunite with family.

Those who traveled to Cuba faced the scorn of many exiles. One militant group even videotaped exiles at the airport in an attempt to expose and embarrass them.

But at the urging of the Catholic Church, some respected long-time exiles who had never been back decided to heed the calling and travel to Cuba.

Most had booked seats on the controversial cruise ship, but instead traveled by plane with the Archdiocese of New York after the cruise was canceled due to exile protests that it would be used as a propaganda tool by Castro.

While the Cuban government did deny many visas, and many exiles who wanted to could not go, those who did returned this week with powerful testimony.

Cubans welcomed them with open arms, were grateful for their presence and want more contact with exiles, they said.

Through one-on-one conversations, they said, they were able to abate fears -- and the perception that exiles are waiting for the fall of Castro to return and claim their properties, taking away what little people there have.

``I went to change hearts and I found a lot of harmony, a lot of need to talk with people from the other side,'' said Cabarrocas, who handed out rosaries at the Plaza de la Revolucion. ``The ideological war on Fidel Castro has already been won.''

Marivi Prado, a human-rights activist who describes herself as ``a typical Cuban in Miami who would have never traveled to Cuba,'' said her days there were ``the experience of a lifetime.''

She has returned convinced exiles need to establish closer links with Cubans on the island and support the church's efforts by making donations to Caritas, the church's charitable arm, without worrying about whether it's going to a communist or not.

She got to know all kinds of people in Cuba and feels many who support the government -- ``they are survivors,'' she said -- can be won over with goodwill.

`Nice to meet you'

Cabarrocas said the first Cuban he met was an agent of the feared Ministry of the Interior who inquired about his motives for going to Cuba.

``Do you have family here?'' he asked.

``No,'' Cabarrocas said.

``Are you visiting friends here?'' he asked.

Cabarrocas extended his hand and told him: ``No, you are my first friend here. My name is David Cabarrocas, and it's very nice to meet you.''

The man smiled, shook his hand, and waved him through.

Another exile, Elena Valdes-Crespo Freyre, said an immigration officer handed back her passport and said: ``Bienvenida a su país.''

Welcome to your country.

``It was an incredible moment,'' Freyre said. ``People need to go and make contacts for themselves, people-to-people.''

There are ways of leaving as little money as possible in the hands of the Cuban government -- a major exile concern, Freyre said.

She ate in family-run paladares, mini-restaurants Cubans have set up in their in homes to survive economic hardships. And she rented a driver not from the official Cuban agencies but from an independent association.

``Whenever I went to a beauty salon, a paladar, or stood in a street corner waiting, people would ask, `Señora, you think there will be change?' It's like they are waiting to receive any news, any kind of sign,'' Prado said.

She told them that everywhere the Pope visited change for the common good had occurred.

``Their faces would light up,'' Prado said.

`The pounding'

Despite the optimism, some exile activists warn that exiles must continue to play the role of opposition -- ``the pounding,'' Peñalver calls it -- that has called attention to the regime's abuses the last 39 years.

Any drastic change of strategy in Miami has to take into account the feelings of exiles who suffered persecution and personal tragedies at the hands of the Castro government, Peñalver said.

``Castro is the one who doesn't want dialogue. He is the one who doesn't want to open up,'' he said.

He points to the selective process of issuing visas for the Pope's visit and says a massive flood of exiles traveling to the island could ``open the floodgates of American tourism and increase the sexual tourism that exists with the European community.

``There has to be greater freedom to merit a greater response,'' Peñalver said. ``To just open up under the present conditions would have negative consequences.''

But he agrees with the pilgrims in wishing for the Catholic church to continue to play the role of change agent and reconciliator -- both in Cuba and in Miami.

``We need to make sure the Cuban people see us as allies in the process of freedom,'' he said.