What do Elian Gonzalez want for Cuba?
Elise González, the phantom star of Cuba, recalls his childhood memories and the “Operation Reunion”
More than two decades after he was found clinging to an inner tube in the Straits of Florida, Elián González is taking on his most high profile role since the bitter custody battle that returned him to Cuba.
On Monday, Cuba’s National Election Council said that more than 400 candidates for the National Assembly were approved by voters. The hometown of Crdenas where Gonzlez is from had over eighty percent of the voters vote for him.
He was deported to the U.S. to live with his relatives in Miami. But back home, his father, Juan Miguel, and the father of Cuba’s communist revolution, Fidel Castro, wanted him back. Together they waged a campaign demanding González’s return.
A legal battle dragged on for many months, stoking Cold War-era hostilities between the two nations. The boy’s family in Miami were unwilling to give him up.
Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal that would keep him in the country. Then on April 22, 2000, armed federal agents launched “Operation Reunion,” storming González’s relatives’ home. The raid was broadcasted on tv and it sent terrified child into homes across the globe. It sparked protests and counter-demonstrations.
The boy was supposed to follow a quiet life, but he has been followed by a celebrity over the years. Castro welcomed the boy home with a massive demonstration, and was the guest of honor at the child’s 7th birthday. The two were friends with Castro the rest of his life.
The decision to take Elin with a group of migrants on the dangerous journey by boat across the Florida Straits was made by his father after his mother drowned in 1999 and Gonzlez had a daughter.
He told ABC that she fought until the very last moment for him to survive, and he thinks she’s not with him today. I think she was the one who saved me. She was the person who saved me during a time of danger.
From father to son: bringing the American people together in Cuba, after Fidel Castro fled to Cuba after his father’s death and returned to the island
He said that the young people in Cuba sometimes think that if they stop being a socialist country and give way to capitalism, they will be a developed country like the US, France and Italy.
The final result was foregone and candidates were pre-selected to run. And being a lawmaker in Cuba does not necessarily imply having a lot of power. Legislators don’t get paid but they support government proposals and meet a few times a year.
González is perhaps the only Cuban who has been inside the centers of power in both Miami and Havana, seeing how those who run Cuba, and those who lost it, think and function.
“I am someone the American people know and I can help bring the American and Cuban people together and not just the people,” a now-bearded González, 29, told CNN.
In the small city of Crdenas, which has been ravaged by economic calamity, Gonzlez spoke to CNN after going to vote on Sunday with his wife and daughter.
He said that it helped him understand his father. It has made me more sensitive. It helped me understand the Cuban dads who are separated from their families and not able to give all the attention and things their children want.
The dispute ignited Cold War-era passions, with then-Cuban President Fidel Castro leading protests demanding Elián’s return in front of the US Embassy in Havana, and Cuban exile leaders vowing that they would not allow the boy to return to live under a dictatorship.
Elin was returned to his father after riots broke out in the city after federal agents raided his relatives home. Elin and Juan Miguel returned to the island after the US Supreme Court did not intervene in the case.
“At 29, he is a show pony for Cuba, as many exiles feared,” said an opinion article published by the Miami Herald Editorial Board in February. “Many historic Cuban exiles in Miami will look away from this news with heavy hearts.”
Even as González has grown up and moved on, the anger between those loyal to the revolution and Cuba exiles forced to leave the island still burns white hot.
At a World Baseball Classic game in Miami in March that in theory was intended to bring different countries together over a shared love of sport, exiles jeered the Cuban players on the field.
Even more than six decades after the Cuban revolution, it is not easy for either side to believe that they are winning.
Despite being thrust into the middle of that bruising tug of war, González said he bears no ill will, that he’s grateful for the Americans who helped him get home and that he hopes to reconcile with the relatives in Florida who tried to prevent his return.
And as a rare Cuban who has left and come back, he hopes the exodus of Cubans currently leaving the island will also be able to see a future in their homeland.
