By Mary Beth Warner. States News Service. Bergen Record. Friday, April 28, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Dora Cayado was tired and hungry as she stood with hundreds of other Cuban-American protesters in front of the White House on Thursday afternoon.
She had just spent more than four hours packed into a bus from Elizabeth, one of more than 400 North Jersey residents who came to the center of political power to express her "solidarity" with 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
"We want to show Americans that we were appalled at what happened on Saturday," when the Cuban boy was removed from Miami's Little Havana, said Cayado, who is the principal of Charles J. Hudson School 25 in Elizabeth.
Chanting "Freedom for Elian," and carrying American and Cuban flags, the protesters from New Jersey hurried off their buses and pushed through Lafayette Square to the fence in front of the White House. They were joined by about 100 other Cuban-Americans from Miami and the Washington
area.
Many in the crowd carried posters with blown-up images of the boy being taken from the home of his relatives in Miami, framed with slogans such as: "Reno's Easter Gift -- Wake Up America!" One woman carried a large poster with a photo of Janet Reno's head on the body of a dinosaur and
the words "Renosaur Attack."
The demonstration came on the same day that a federal appeals court denied a request by Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez for visits with him or an outside guardian.
In addition to the two buses from Elizabeth, six full buses of Cuban-Americans left Union City at 8 a.m. Thursday for the one-day trip to Washington, said Emilio Del Valle, an aide to Union City Mayor Raul "Rudy" Garcia.
"We wanted to send the message of support to Marisleysis and to Lazaro [Gonzalez] that we are behind them 100 percent," Jose Manuel Alvarez, district director for U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City, said of Elian's Miami relatives. Menendez could not attend the demonstration
because of prior commitments, Alvarez said.
"I'll go wherever I have to go [to protest]," said Maria Vela, 47, of Passaic. Vela, who left Cuba at the age of 5 in 1959, said that she is frustrated because although many Cubans would like to come to America but never got the chance, Elian may have to go back.
Vela's brother, Julio Alvarez, navigated the crowd with a video camera in hand. He said he has filmed a visit with relatives back in Cuba, plus Elian protests in Miami, Union City, and now Washington. He plans to make a documentary with the footage.
"I think we can put enough political pressure on the powers that be to influence something," said Alvarez, 32. "If not, then it's a show of solidarity."
Lourdes Garcia, a 29-year-old costume designer from Elizabeth, said that she got the word two days ago to help organize for the protest.
"This is exactly what we're fighting for," Garcia said of the right to demonstrate in front of the White House. "But we have a strong solidarity with the people of Cuba. We still love this flag."
Though the protesters did not abandon their calls for Elian to remain in the United States, several said Thursday that they are resigned that it may never happen, and they are focusing instead on other issues.
"I look beyond the Elian case," said Machin Manny, 22, who handed out literature at the rally. "It's a smoke screen on both sides. [The case] is a sign that the U.S. wants to normalize relations with Castro."
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