By the time his death at 90 was announced late Friday, Fidel Castro had become what he most feared during a prolonged and dramatic life -- an irrelevancy, a living museum piece trotted out for ceremonial occasions, but no longer the man in charge of Cuba's destiny. He was the living embodiment of the Cuban Revolution, to be seen and applauded in public functions, but real power had passed to his brother Raúl and others in the inner circle.

Well before Castro left the scene, the revolution he created was itself long since dead, an empty slogan few could believe in. Castro himself had become a pathetic, shuffling figure who outlived his own era while Cuba began to take the first steps toward a transition that its once fierce leader swore would never take place.