For the hundreds celebrating yesterday in Miami's Little Havana neighbourhood, Fidel Castro will be remembered as a murderous dictator who refused to allow the Cuban people to exercise the democratic and economic rights that people throughout the region and the world have come to take for granted.
But for millions of others throughout the world, the 90-year-old Castro, who died peacefully in his sleep yesterday, will be memorialised as a revolutionary hero for overthrowing a corrupt and villainous Mafia-dominated regime in 1959, for his military efforts in support of the liberation movements in Angola, Nicaragua, Chile and elsewhere, and for the humanitarian assistance he provided to dozens of countries around the world.
Whether hero or villain, there is no doubt that Castro was both a uniquely polarising figure and one of the most recognisable world leaders of the 20th century. Obviously, then, an impartial assessment of his many contributions to his country, the region and the world may not ever be possible, as it would very much depend on the ideological prism through which he is seen.
But what is beyond contradiction is that while Cuba has made outstanding strides in healthcare, education, sports and culture since Castro took power almost six decades ago, those advances came at the expense of a one-party, state-dominated system in which dissent of any kind was delegitimised and punishable by imprisonment, if not death.
It is important for the peoples of the Caribbean to form their own judgments about Castro's contributions to the Caribbean and not simply beg, borrow or steal the ideologically outdated tropes of a bygone Cold War era.
Such judgments should first be informed by the invaluable medical assistance that Cuba provided to the region for years, including the doctors and nurses from the north Caribbean country who have served and are continuing to serve in this country.
On the issue of healthcare, T&T owes Castro a debt of gratitude for the several interventions that Cuba made in extending the life of the late prime minister Patrick Manning, starting with heart surgery in 1998, the pacemaker implant in 2004 and the surgery to remove a malignant kidney tumour in 2008.
Cuba has also provided other kinds of assistance to Caribbean peoples: educating scores of professionals, including one former T&T Opposition senator, and by making its sporting coaches available throughout the region, including one who contributed significantly to Keshorn Walcott's Olympic gold medal-winning feat in London 2012.
No assessment of Castro's contribution to the Caribbean would be complete without some insight into his involvement in the so-called Grenada revolution in 1979, which led to the overthrowing of the dictatorial Eric Gairy regime and the establishment of a one-party state that dominated our closest Caricom neighbour for four years.
Clearly, Maurice Bishop, the charismatic Grenadian politician who became leader of the island, received a great deal of financial and human resource assistance from Cuba after the revolution, but it is for regional historians to discern whether he received political and financial support leading up to the action against Gairy.
On balance, therefore, the Caribbean's judgment of Castro may be more positive than negative.
But, with the passing of Fidel, and with his brother Raul due to step down next year, the more salient issue for the region will be to analyse the impact that regime change in Cuba will have on the economies of the region, especially in the context of the seismic softening in the attitudes of the US towards