BY LUISA YANEZ

  Celebrations honoring Cuba's centennial kicked off Monday with the arrival in downtown Miami of a torch that will be carried on horseback to exile strongholds like the Freedom Tower, the Bay of Pigs monument and a cemetery where three former Cuban presidents are buried.

  But for some exiles, marking the 100th anniversary of the Cuban Republic and the end of Spanish-rule during Fidel Castro's 40-year reign is bittersweet.

  ''We are really just commemorating the anniversary; the real celebration comes when Cuba is free again,'' said Rafael Peñalver, one of the organizer's of the centennial events.

  As part of the celebration, the Centennial Torch was brought to Miami-Dade from the San Carlos Institute in Key West where it was lit over the weekend.

  The first local leg began just after 10 a.m. as horsemen in Cuban cowboy attire and carrying a banner honoring Cuba's six provinces stood in front of the Torch of
  Friendship along Biscayne Boulevard.

  The torch, carried by Wenceslao Aguilera, leader of the Caballeria Mambiza, then made a stop at the Freedom Tower a block north on Biscayne boulevard, once a processing center for exiles who arrived here starting in the early 1960s.

  At the tower across from the AmericanAirlines Arena, the horsemen were greeted by a delegation from the Cuban American National Foundation, the influential lobby group which is renovating the tower. With hands over their hearts, all sang the Cuban national anthem on the steps of the tower. A giant Cuban flag flew overhead, draped down the side of the building.

  The horsemen's stops on Monday include the Miami-Dade government center; the Bay of Pigs monument at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue; La Casa de los Presos and Woodlawn Cemetery at 3260 SW Eighth St., where three former presidents are buried: Gerardo Machado, who died in 1939 on a Miami Beach operating table after being deposed in 1933; Carlos Prio Socarras, who led the country from 1948 to 1952, and shot himself in Miami Beach in 1977; and Carlos Hevia, who spent one day as leader in 1933 before the ruling junta changed its mind. After winding through the city, the torch arrives at La Ermita de la Caridad -- the shrine to Our Lady of Charity -- on Biscayne Bay at 8 p.m. to culminate the day's ceremonies.