By Maria Durand. On Special Assignment. ABC News.
H A V A N A, June 29 — Although it’s Elian Gonzalez’s face that appears on posters, T-shirts and television throughout Cuba, it’s the 6-year-old boy’s father who has buoyed the nation’s pride.
Government-controlled Cuban television has been touting the victory of Gonzalez, representing "David," over a U.S. "Goliath."
Gonzalez has always been an exemplary Cuban revolutionary, as the Cuban government likes to call those who espouse the socialist party line. He was a youth leader who organized events like street-cleaning parties. He also led forums where young people stand up to praise the government and
its policies.
And he chose to come back to Cuba — where his parents and wife’s parents lived in a government-run complex during much of the standoff over Elian.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said that in a discussion with the child’s father, during which she called Cuba "a country that’s not free," he still wanted to leave the United States and go home.
Juan Miguel has also said Miami-based Cuban-Americans offered him large sums of money to stay in the United States but said he wanted no part of it.
"He had the best chance to stay in the United States any Cuban has ever had," said Noel Ramirez, a friend and co-worker.
Reasons to Return
In Cuba, Elian’s dad has not only a privileged position at a resort — which gives him access to foreign cash — but also grandparents for his two sons and the favorable eye of the government cast upon him.
His friends say he never showed any inclination to follow his relatives to Miami — the relatives, including an uncle and cousins, who battled him for custody of his young son.
During the months he was away from his son, his co-workers said, Juan Miguel never considered letting the boy stay in Miami, where, Cubans point out, the streets are less safe than in Havana.
"He would say how, when he talked to his relatives, they would tell him so-and-so got shot or things like that," Ramirez said.
As they returned to work on Thursday, some women told of how they cried Wednesday when Elian arrived at the Havana airport after a flight from the airport near Washington, where the Supreme Court ruled just hours earlier that Elian could go home.
Juan Miguel says he wants to get back to a normal life, even though, like his son, he has become a celebrity.
And as a celebrity, he should have little doubt that his patriotism and his willingness to hew to the principles of President Fidel Castro’s "revolution" will be rewarded.
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