The Cuban actor Armando Tomey starred in one of the most applauded moments of the premiere of the second season of "Maldita Raíz," held on Tuesday at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, as he recalled an anecdote that could have had much graver consequences in Cuba: the night he shouted "Down with Fidel!" in a hotel in Havana and ended up detained.
Before an audience made up of numerous actors and figures from the Cuban exile, Tomey transformed into a humorous narrative what it once meant to confront one of the red lines of the Cuban system. The video was shared by Tomey himself on Facebook and by content creator Leo Brito on Instagram.
According to what he recounted, the incident occurred when he was already a well-known face on national television. After receiving his salary, he met a Cuban and several Mexicans who invited him out to party. The group ended up at the Comodoro hotel, where something—a "trigger," in his own words—provoked his reaction.
Holding onto a jeep, Tomey began shouting at the top of his lungs: "Down with Fidel, damn it! Down with Fidel, damn it!"
Later, the group moved to Marina Hemingway for lunch and drinks. For a while, it seemed that the incident would have no consequences.
But when they returned to the Comodoro, about five patrols were waiting for them.
“Are you Armando Tomey?” he recalled one of the agents asking him.
The actor tried to get out of the predicament by claiming that one would have to be out of their mind to have staged such a scene.
"You must be crazy or drunk to be able to scream. I don’t believe I did that," he recounted.
The strategy didn't last long. A hotel security guard recognized him from his work on television and identified him to the police.
"That is Armando Tomey, I know him from Las Aventuras and I know him from the novels. He shouted 'Down with Fidel'," recalled the actor as the worker mentioned.
The outcome was immediate.
"They took me to the dungeon," Tomey recounted to an audience that responded with laughter and applause.
"They let me go because I was a famous artist."
The incident occurred while Tomey was participating in the filming of the telenovela "El naranjo del patio," alongside Orlando Fundichely, which means his arrest also impacted the production.
According to his account, the authorities contacted the director of the novel and ultimately decided to release him.
Tomey acknowledged that his popularity likely prevented much more serious consequences.
"They let me go because I was a famous artist, supposedly," he said.
And then he sparked a reflection that provoked another reaction from the audience: "If he were unhappy, he would still be in prison."
The anecdote allowed the actor to recall how the same phrase could be either tolerated or punished in Cuba, depending on the context in which it was spoken.
During his graduation from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 1981, Tomey participated alongside Leopoldo Morales in "La Emboscada," a work with a communist theme in which both portrayed "bandits."
Within the stage, they could shout slogans that could lead to serious problems outside of it.
"We were the only ones allowed to shout 'Down with Fidel! Down with communism, damn it!' We had the chance to do it in a play. How happy I felt!" he recalled, laughing.
Message to the artists who remain in Cuba
The actor also took the opportunity during the premiere of Maldita Raíz, a series on the Pronyr TV platform, to address his colleagues still living on the island.
"I tell those artists that they need to assume their role in this historical moment and that they have to be more critical of that disgusting communist system," he stated.
Tomey expressed words of appreciation for the actor Luis Alberto García, who remains in Cuba and has made frequent public criticisms of the authorities and the situation in the country in recent years.
"One of the biggest actors in Cuba, damn it, and he's in Cuba, they're taking advantage of him in Cuba, and he has the courage to speak out every day and criticize the atrocities of this regime," he stated.
Tomey, born in Camagüey in 1955, is part of a generation of performers deeply connected to the television memories of several generations of Cubans. His involvement in productions such as "Sol de Batey" made him one of the recognizable faces of acting on the island.
Emigrated to the United States in 2013, a decision he later associated with the economic difficulties and lack of creative freedom he faced in Cuba.
From exile, he has maintained an openly critical stance against the Cuban regime. Recently, another video circulated in which he lashed out at the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, whom he called “a donkey with fangs”.
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