While Cubans on the island celebrated the 85th birthday of Fidel Castro with a serenade concert, exiles in Little Havana wished the communist leader would not see another year.

“He is a symbol of evil and what’s needed is for his life to end as soon as possible,” said Jesus Permuy, 75, as he gathered for coffee with other longtime exiles at Versailles on Calle Ocho.

Permuy said he believes officials on the communist island are open to change — but not while the revolutionary icon lives.

Castro still casts a long shadow over Cuban society and the government, though he is rarely seen in public these days. He marked his 85th birthday outside of the public spotlight Saturday.

At Versailles, the political backdrop to Cuban exiles for 40 years, Castro’s birthday was not the main topic of conversation. Permuy and his colleagues talked instead of the Obama administration and its policy toward Cuba, such as relaxing travel restrictions to allow people-to-people exchanges on the island. But Castro was not forgotten.

“Year after year our contempt for him has increased,” said Lázaro Segundo, 83, who lives in Kendall. “We have a certain joy because it’s one year less that he will live.”

Even in retirement, Castro has continued to be a player on the island. Raul has said he consults with his older brother, and some Cuba-watchers say his presence has acted as a brake on reforms that Raul is betting will save the island’s economy by loosening some state control.

“I think the issue is how long (Fidel) is going to linger on and how long he’s going to meddle in the government,” Ann Louise Bardach told The Associated Press. Bardach is a longtime Cuba watcher and author of the book “Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington.”

“As long as he is alive and he is compos mentis, he’s not going to change his thinking,” Bardach told the wire service. “He’s not going to have an epiphany about economic policy. He’s going to do what he always did, which is the preservation of the revolution at all costs.”

Castro has publicly backed Raul’s reforms, however, even though he expressed ideological dislike for similar openings while president. Stopping by Versailles’ outdoor window for a cafecito, retired trumpet player Manuel Coll, 77, said he didn’t care much that it was Castro’s birthday.

“That man should never have been born,” Coll said.

On Saturday, Coll received two letters from his older brother, his last surviving family member on the communist island. Coll’s family never joined him in Florida after he arrived in Miami on July 2, 1960, to play a Fourth of July concert in Bayfront Park, and ended up staying. Coll still carries his worn sky blue passport, titled the Republic of Cuba, with him.

In Havana, neither Castro nor his younger brother and presidential successor, Raul Castro, attended a birthday bash held Friday night. Two dozen musical acts from across Latin America held a concert in his honor.

“What we say in the songs of our invited artists will be little next to what he deserves,” Alfredo Vera, one of the organizers, said late Friday, according to The AP. “Congratulations, beloved and eternal comandante.”

Castro has appeared infrequently since he stepped down in 2006, at first temporarily, and then permanently in 2008, due an intestinal illness that he later said nearly killed him.