The Cuban actor Armando Tomey starred in one of the most acclaimed moments of the premiere of the second season of Maldita Raíz, held on Tuesday at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, by recalling an anecdote that could have had much more serious consequences in Cuba: the night he shouted "Down with Fidel!" in a hotel in Havana and ended up being detained.
Before an audience made up of numerous actors and figures from the Cuban exile community, Tomey turned what at the time was a confrontation with one of the red lines of the Cuban system into a narrative filled with humor. The video was shared by Tomey himself on Facebook and by content creator Leo Brito on Instagram.
According to him, the incident occurred when he was already a well-known face on national television. After receiving his salary, he ran into 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 words—provoked his reaction. Tomey began to shout at the top of his lungs: “Down with Fidel, damn it! Down with Fidel, damn it!”
Later, the group moved to Marina Hemingway to eat and drink. For a while, it seemed that the incident would have no consequences, but when they returned to the Comodoro, about five patrol cars were waiting for them.
"Are you Armando Tomey?" he recalled one of the agents asking him.
The actor tried to wriggle out of the predicament by claiming that someone would have to be out of their mind to have staged such a scene.
"It takes someone crazy or drunk to be able to shout. I don't believe I did it," he recounted.
The strategy lasted little time. 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 said.
The outcome was immediate. "They took me to the cell," 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 soap opera The Orange Tree of the Courtyard, alongside Orlando Fundichely.
According to his account, the authorities contacted the director of the novel and ultimately decided to release him.
Tomey acknowledged that his popularity likely spared him from much more severe consequences. "They let me go because I was a famous artist, supposedly," he said.
And immediately he sparked a reflection that provoked another reaction from the audience: "If he were unfortunate, he would still be in prison."
The anecdote allowed the actor to recall how the same phrase could be tolerated or punished in Cuba depending on the context in which it was spoken.
During his graduation from the Higher Institute of Arts (ISA) in 1981, Tomey participated alongside Leopoldo Morales in The Ambush, a work with communist themes in which both portrayed "bandits."
Inside the stage, they could shout slogans that could lead to serious trouble outside of it. "We were the only ones allowed to scream 'Down with Fidel! Down with communism, damn it!' We had the chance to do it in a play. How happy I felt!" he recalled with laughter.
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 who still live on the island.
"I tell those artists that they need to take on their role in this historical moment and they must be more critical of that disgusting communist system," he stated.
Additionally, he expressed words of recognition for the actor Luis Alberto García, who remains in Cuba and in recent years has made frequent public criticisms of the authorities and the situation in the country.
"One of the biggest actors in Cuba, damn, and he's in Cuba, they're sucking up to him in Cuba, and he has the courage to speak out every day and criticize the atrocities of this regime," he expressed.
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 participation in productions such as Sol de Batey made him one of the most recognizable faces of acting on the island.
emigrated to the United States in 2013, a decision he later linked to 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 attacked the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, whom he referred to as “a burro with fangs”.
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