Exile leader mourned

By FABIOLA SANTIAGO
Herald Staff Writer

His body flanked by flowers in the shape of the flags he loved, Cuba and the United States, Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa received Monday the vigil of a beloved statesman.

As condolences poured from around the world, thousands of tearful Cuban exiles flocked to a Little Havana church under mournful gray skies to show their admiration and respect for Mas Canosa, 58, who died Sunday after a battle with lung cancer.

''The void he leaves is great, but so is the legacy of his dream, our dream -- a free Cuba,'' exile activist Silvia Iriondo said.

Scores of people -- from powerful civic figures to frail elderly people who walked from nearby homes, many tearful, dressed in black and some carrying white roses -- stood in a long line that snaked around St. Michael's Church all day long.

Slowly, praying and weeping, they walked up to the white open casket displaying Mas Canosa's body and a silver cross.

The highest-ranking directors of the Cuban American National Foundation stood at both sides of the coffin. They took turns flanking the body throughout the day and night. Mas Canosa's widow, Irma, and their sons Jorge Jr., Juan Carlos and Jose Ramon sat weeping in a front pew.

Just minutes after 1 p.m. Monday, the sons had escorted their father's body into the church on busy Flagler Street. As they took their father's coffin out of the black funeral car, the crowd already gathered outside the church broke into a moving rendition of the Cuban National Anthem.

After a short, private ceremony, the family opened church doors to the public. It didn't take long for the crowd to build, the line to grow and huge wreaths of flowers to arrive, so many that they were lined up along church aisles.

''I brought my children because they hear us talk about Cuba and what's happening there,'' Virginia Prado said. ''I want them to know what Jorge meant to us. Our loss is huge.''

''He was our leader,'' said Isolina Sotolongo, 84, who stood in the long line crying. ''There isn't another like him. I don't know if we'll have luck in finding someone like him again.''

''He has given a lot to the cause of our homeland, and we have to be grateful,'' said Ana Gomez, 68, who once met Mas Canosa on a flight from Chicago and was impressed by his willingness to readily talk about Cuba ''as if we had known each other all our lives.''

Burial after Mass

Mas Canosa will be buried today at Woodlawn Park after an 11 a.m. Mass at St. Michael's, 2987 W. Flagler St.

Condolences poured in from all over the nation -- the White House, Congress, state government -- and from around the world.

''America has lost a great man, has lost a great fighter for the liberty of his country, Cuba,'' Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman said in a statement. ''We Nicaraguans have lost a great friend . . . who in the most difficult times of the Nicaraguan people . . . was always ready to aid and help.''

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, recalled how she met Mas Canosa when she was a little girl in Havana and Mas Canosa came to her parents' house seeking protection before escaping from the island.

''The noble cause of freedom for Cuba has lost one of its most dedicated gladiators,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. ''His intelligence, dedication and perseverance triumphed over all obstacles.''

'Courageous brigadier'

Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles said Mas Canosa was ''a tireless patriot who moved confidently through the corridors of power but never lost his common touch.''

''Florida,'' Chiles said, ''has lost its most courageous brigadier for Cuba's freedom.''

Others displayed their sorrow with symbols.

The Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Center at Southwest Eighth Street and Seventh Avenue draped a huge Cuban flag with a black bow across it all the way from its roof to the sidewalk. And some of the mourners brought to church white roses as a symbol of the deep friendship that Jose Marti expressed in his famous poem La Rosa Blanca (The White Rose).

In Miami-Dade, city and county governments made arrangements to facilitate people's attendance to funeral services.

The Miami City Commission rescheduled today's regularly scheduled meeting from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. ''to show respect for Mr. Mas Canosa,'' city spokesman Javier Marques said. Mayor Xavier Suarez was a close friend of Mas Canosa's. And Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said county employees would be ''given flexibility'' so they could attend funeral services.

Filling the airwaves

Most Cuban radio stations eulogized Mas Canosa in virtually every program and opened their phone lines so listeners could express their feelings. Many of them were in tears.

Foundation director Ninoska Perez Castellon, her voice breaking, told listeners of her daily talk show on WQBA how hard it was to speak just hours after his death.

''Today, sorrow reigns,'' Perez Castellon said.

Even longtime Mas Canosa critics Francisco Aruca and Alvaro Sanchez Cifuentes voiced their regret at the death of a noted fellow Cuban, expressed their condolences to the Mas family and cut off any caller who attempted to speak ill of the late exile leader.

Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman, the exile community's longtime Catholic icon, eulogized Mas Canosa as a patriot and remembered when the young, exiled Mas Canosa would go to the bayside shrine of Our Lady of Charity to pray with his three young sons.

''The love of Cuba,'' Roman said, ''burned in his heart, in his soul.''