CUBANET ... CUBANEWS

April 11, 2000



Tomorrow's history class in Cuba -- Elian Gonzalez

By Pascal Fletcher.

HAVANA, 11 (Reuters) - When 6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez finally returns to his school in Cuba, he will probably find he has become part of the curriculum -- as a living protagonist of his country's revolutionary history.

Following the example of Cuba's 19th century independence hero Jose Marti and Argentine guerrilla legend Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara, the name of Elian Gonzalez is being written into the history books across the communist-ruled Caribbean island.

Since he was rescued from the sea last November and sucked into a tempestuous custody battle between relatives in Miami and his father in Cuba, the boy described by his Cuban teacher as ''shy'' has been transformed into a local patriotic celebrity.

At their morning assemblies, Cuban schoolchildren dressed in their eye-catching red-and-white Young Pioneers uniforms routinely sing the national anthem and salute the Cuban flag with the slogan ``Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che.''

But now they are learning about Elian from their teachers, who invite them to talk, draw and write about his ``kidnap'' in the United States and how this shows the evil of ''imperialism.''

``They tell us that the Americans are bad and that they should let Elian come back to his country,'' said 8-year-old Elisabeth, from a Havana primary school.

As the moment of Elian's expected homecoming to Cuba draws closer, his dramatic story, from his miraculous survival of a shipwreck that killed his mother to President Fidel Castro's extraordinary patriotic crusade to obtain his return, is being systematically incorporated into Cuban revolutionary lore.

``His life won't be the same as before,'' predicted one Havana housewife, expressing a widely held view.

Elian's face already is printed on thousands of T-shirts, posters and propaganda billboards across Cuba. State media has churned out hours of one-sided coverage on his case, unashamedly hailing him as a "boy hero.''

A brand new statue of Jose Marti recently erected outside the U.S. Interests Section in Havana carries a little boy whose cherub-like face bears an uncanny resemblance to Elian.

At the ``Marcelo Salado'' primary school at his home town of Cardenas, Elian's desk has been converted into a political shrine. The local museum has opened an Elian exhibition room.

Castro, who has already claimed victory against his Cuban exile foes in Miami in the battle for Elian, has pledged that his homecoming will be private and shielded from media scrutiny.

Cuban exiles, presenting Elian and his dead mother as victims of Castro's ``dictatorship'', have charged that the 73-year-old leader will exhibit the returned boy as a political trophy to bolster support for his 40-year-old Revolution.

An army of Cuban doctors and psychiatrists is standing by to help with Elian's ``reinsertion'' into life in Cuba.

Cuban officials from Castro downwards have gone out of their way to present life on the island as safer, more spiritual and less materialistic than in the United States.

They cite reports of gun battles and drug use in U.S. schools.

Few who know Cuba will dispute that it is surprisingly free of violent crime, boasts a health service that is the envy of most developing countries, and, like many Latin societies, offers a warm and caring human environment for children.

But it is also indisputable that Cuba's school system, while widely praised as an example of free public education, is also inseparable from the island's one-party political culture.

Castro, 73, has made no secret of the fact that he considers the country's children as "dear little comrades'' in his "battle of ideas'' against the capitalist United States.

Dozens of Cuban children, from toddlers upward, have been enlisted over the last few months to disgorge from memory political songs, poems and statements at pro-Elian rallies.

Elian may have survived the sea but, until Washington and Havana bury their differences and make peace, he may find it difficult, if not impossible, to escape from politics.

09:09 04-11-00

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited

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