At Arco Iris Restaurant in West Tampa, Pepe Noval of Clearwater is anticipating his lunch of fried rice and fish.

But that’s not why he can’t contain his glee.

He’s been feeling a sense of anticipation since early this morning, when he woke up with a “wow” to the news that Fidel Castro was stepping down.

“I’m excited,” says Noval, 57, who left Havana with his mother and three sisters in 1961. “I wish that things would change, and I hope it happens within my lifetime.”

He acknowledges there have been recent changes, with university students in Cuba voicing their concerns to high-ranking officials. That they want to be able to speak up without fear. That they want to travel abroad freely.

“Before, nobody could say anything. You couldn’t talk to your brother or anybody for fear of what would happen,” Noval says. “It’s going in the right direction. [Although] I don’t think it will be that quick. If Fidel dies tomorrow, everything’s going to take some time. You’re talking about [a system in place] 40, 50 years.”

More recent arrivals from Cuba seem more cautious.

Gustavo Gonzalez, 47, left Cuba on a raft in October 2006.

Now a waiter at Arco Iris, his brother Jorge Gonzalez’s restaurant, Gustavo said Castro’s departure from power doesn’t change the system.

“I don’t see any change,” Gonzalez says. “It’s the same government.”

Annia Cuba, 38, left Pinar del Rio, Cuba, in 2005 with her two daughters when her name came up in a visa lottery. She feels the same as Gonzalez.

“In the end, it’s going to be the same,” Cuba says. “I don’t think it means anything. I hope to God it would change things, but this was all planned out. This is part of their plan to prepare the people of Cuba psychologically.”

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