Published Thursday, April 6, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Protesters call for dad to come here
By Marika Lynch . mlynch@herald.com
As news spread outside the home of Lazaro Gonzalez that Elian's father was coming to the United States, the 150 protesters gathered outside agreed there could only be one ending to this four-month saga:
Elian's father must come to Miami to work out the problem with his family.
``If he comes here alone, there will be no problem. We'll greet him with open arms,'' said Vivian Trigo, 41, of West Miami.
``Juan Miguel should come,'' said Bruno Pozzo, 15, a Central High student. ``But he should stay.''
Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez asked the protesters to pray and also to call their friends and tell them to be on alert Friday. ``This is the most critical moment of this process,'' Sanchez said. ``We have to defend justice and liberty with our life.''
After the initial excitement of the news, Lazaro's wife, Angela, arrived, carrying a bundle wrapped completely in a blanket. Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said it was a sleeping Elian.
The crowd later welcomed a visit from Lazaro Gonzalez. He assured them that Elian wasn't going anywhere.
His only fear, he said, was that Juan Miguel Gonzalez, like Elian's grandmothers, would never make it to his home.
``We don't want to be left with food on the table, with flowers to give him, and to leave the boy all dressed up and his head hanging low because he didn't come to see him,'' Lazaro said. ``Now we're going to see who are the good and who are the bad.''
Letter invoking Elian draws fire
By Mark Silva . msilva@herald.com
TALLAHASSEE -- After the Republican Party of Florida dispatched a winter fund-raising letter invoking the plight of Elian Gonzalez, the chairman conceded his money-seeking missive was in bad taste.
Now U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, an Orlando-area Republican seeking the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, is defending an Elian-inspired campaign fund-raising letter circulated in Miami-Dade County.
The boy's mother risked ``dangerous waters . . . so that her young son Elian could breathe freedom,'' states McCollum's mid-March letter. ``Her desperate act of love and last wish should not, cannot and will not be ignored.''
Boasting of a bid to grant Elian citizenship that he and others in Congress back, McCollum concluded by asking for as little as $25 and as much as $1,000 for a campaign expected to cost $10 million.
``President Clinton and his henchmen'' have made McCollum's defeat a priority, claims the letter from McCollum, who sought Clinton's impeachment.
The Democratic Party, with little cause for celebration in South Florida since the Clinton administration started insisting upon Elian's return to Cuba, is having a field day with the Republican fund-raising.
``Elian survives the shark-infested waters of the Florida Straits, only to get on land to be surrounded by the sharks of the Republican Party,'' says Bob Poe, newly seated state Democratic Party chairman.
A spokeswoman for McCollum, a 10-term congressman whose letter also boasts of support for Radio and TV Marti, says Elian is simply the issue of the day. He would have issued a similar Spanish-language fund-raiser regardless of Elian's rescue, she says.
``Unfortunately, that is now a Cuban issue -- just another page in Castro's book,'' says Shannon Gravitte, dismissing Democratic complaints of exploiting the 6-year-old.
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican named in McCollum's letter as a supporter of citizenship for Elian, says he complained about this unauthorized use of his name -- and opposes Elian's name -- for fund-raising.
``I was outraged,'' he says. ``I never saw that letter nor approved the use of my name. I called my friend, Bill McCollum. . . . He apologized.''
Diaz-Balart says he penned his own McCollum endorsement, mailed weeks before. This, too, noted McCollum's support for Elian, among other issues.
Crowds target Reno's home
By Karen Branch . kbranch@herald.com
Armed with celestial ``Pray for Elian messages and posters of Attorney General Janet Reno with diabolical horns sprouting from her head, about 60 demonstrators took their frustrations Wednesday to Reno's Kendall home.
Their only audience, blocking the driveway, was a battalion of police officers.
``There very easily could have been 20-plus officers, said Sgt. Pete Andreu of Miami-Dade Police, dispatched to join FBI agents guarding the entrance to the woodsy lot. ``It was very peaceful.
The two-hour demonstration broke as the noontime news crews departed.
A woman who declined to identify herself later at Reno's home said it was vacant during the protest: ``We weren't here.
The exile group Vigilio Mambisa moved its protest to the street across from Cuba Paquetes, 7135 W. Flagler St. Ostensibly, its message was to challenge the business that ships packages to Cuba.
But the pro-Elian and anti-Reno posters are what prompted an endless blasting of horns by those driving past demonstrators, who had dwindled to 40. Jose Antonio Freijo, 63, first said the group wasn't trying to link Cuba Paquetes with Elian's fate.
Then he changed his mind: ``It has to do with Castro! Castro has to do with everything!
Vigilio Mambisa President Miguel Saavedra shouted through a bullhorn the anti-Cuba-Paquetes and anti-Reno statements. ``Janet Reno doesn't want to give Elian his day in court, he said.
Again, seven uniformed Miami officers were the witnesses.
Cuba Paquetes, open earlier in the day, shuttered its storefront for the two-hour event. The group, undeterred, returned to their preferred target: Reno.
Several said they've dedicated the last four months to joining Elian protests and standing vigil at the home of his Miami relatives.
``Fifteen of us go there every night to pray, said Aida Taylor, 45. ``I'm a Christian, and I believe God will perform a miracle.
Barbaro Rodriguez, 57, a butcher by trade, took six months leave to protest.
``It's no sacrifice. We have to help Elian, said Rodriguez, whose wife also wanted to take leave from her accounting job. ``I told her no, because we both can't stop working. We have two kids, 5 and 7 years old.
Rodriguez berated Reno and challenged her judgment because of the Parkinson's disease, diagnosed in 1995, that causes her to tremble.
``Naturally, it's affecting her judgment, because it's impossible that such a woman could violate the rights of child like this, he said.
Eugenio Perez, 72, took the barb one step further.
``That problem she has must make her psychotic, Perez said. ``She's acting like a wretch. Why else would she do this?
Reno's communications office did not return phone calls for comment.
Rodriguez also proudly waved the poster of Reno with horns. He said a woman distributed them Tuesday outside the home of Elian's family.
The posters were glued to paint sticks from the O-Gee Paint Co. Owner John Schultz said a man named Eliut Prada in the past few days bought 400 sticks -- their traditional use to stir paint.
There was no answer at Prada's home phone.
``That's unintended advertising, but we'll take it, said Schultz, who had no idea the sticks would become handles for the anti-Reno posters.
``My mother, Peggy Schultz, went to school with Janet Reno and we supplied the paint for Janet Reno's house, so she told me to let you know she had no part in it.
Case provokes harsh feelings, hope
By Paul Brinkley-Rogers, Curtis Morgan, Elaine De Valle And Audra D.S. Burch . pbrogers@herald.com
Not since the Mariel boatlift, exactly 20 years ago, has so much perplexed attention been focused on the Cuban community. The struggle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez has deeply divided Cubans and non-Cubans, and is testing the stamina of one of America's most resilient cities.
``It is time for this to come to an end,'' said Cuba-born Esther Fishman, 50, whose family-run paint business is emblematic of Miami's immigration success story. ``It is time for everyone to go on with their lives.''
Fishman said she and her family are exhausted by the turmoil, and that she hopes other Americans understand. But the truth is, she said, they will probably never comprehend her opinion as a Cuban that Elian is the victim of what she calls ``our Holocaust.''
Nationally, the debate over Elian boils down to this: Should he stay or go? But in South Florida, the issue is more complex, wrapped in the wrenching stories of a 41-year exile.
Many non-Cubans have thrown up their hands, venting long-suppressed frustration with Cubans on both sides of the water.
Respect the laws, they say. Why wave the Cuban flag? Callers to a radio station popular with Jamaicans complained Wednesday that Cuban refugees receive privileges denied emigres from black Caribbean nations. Listeners to other stations suggested that Elian partisans who protest unlawfully should
go back to Cuba.
As the controversy drags on, it has taken on an undertone of ``us'' vs. ``them.''
Anti-Cuban rhetoric ``has to some degree reopened the old wounds,'' said Lourdes Cue, executive director of Facts About Cuban Exiles, a Miami-based group founded in 1982 as a result of Cuba-bashing.
`I think the Cubans have come out looking more emotional on this issue than level-headed,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute of Cuba and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. ``A lot of people see the Cubans not as American citizens protesting. They see them as Cubans
protesting America.''
A BLURRED LENS
He believes much of the negative reaction from non-Cubans comes from viewing events through a lens blurred by xenophobia.
Cue has seen it in national press reports, with sweeping dismissals of Miami as a ``banana republic'' controlled by ``right-wing extremists.''
She said, ``There is a tendency to resort to old stereotypes, descriptions and epithets. . . . In environments where there is less exposure day in and day out to the Cuban story, there is less sensitivity to the Cuban argument -- which is that we seriously doubt that the father is speaking
freely.''
Brenda Shapiro, a Miami family law attorney who joined the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal court brief that sought to protect Elian's right to a political asylum hearing on the one hand, and the father's right to his son on the other, said the hostility is not just confined to
predictable outlets for outrageousness like radio talk shows.
NEGATIVE VIEWS
``My greatest fear is that there are very good people who have held negative views regarding the Cuban community,'' she said, ``and now it's as though they've been given a license to say truly reprehensible things.''
Whether the intolerance abates depends on how peacefully the issue is resolved, she said.
``There are people who will say to me, `I, of course will do anything I can to help you, but I can't be public in my position.' I deplore that. That speaks very seriously to the state of relations in our community,'' she said.
``If we give credence to this climate of lawlessness . . . no society can survive that, let alone little ol' Dade County.''
One measure of how deeply the Cuba issue pervades Miami-Dade culture was the recent experience of Edwin Goldberg, rabbi of Temple Judea, a largely non-Hispanic synagogue in Coral Gables.
EMBARGO A TOPIC
A topic for an upcoming Reform Movement rabbinical convention is the American economic embargo of Cuba. Goldberg decided to bring up the issue with a committee of synagogue members, and the resulting discussion was heated, to say the least.
``It got to the point of my feeling like it wasn't something we could even deal with,'' he said. ``And we're talking about a 40-year-old issue, not about a little kid. I would be afraid to bring Elian up as an issue. It would even be worse.''
There are optimists.
``One issue does not spell doom and gloom. Humans aren't constructed that way,'' said George Wilson, a UM sociology professor specializing in race relations. Though he said some colleagues disagree, Wilson predicted passions will cool, no matter what happens to Elian.
But he expressed concern that Cuban-Americans will become more alienated as they discover their anti-Castro zeal is no longer shared nationwide.
IT'S ABOUT CASTRO
Suchlicki said it should not be forgotten that the fight isn't so much about Elian: It's with Fidel.
``American public opinion can change very easily if the father was to stay here and denounce the Cuban government or if the child was to go back and Castro make a big mockery out of the issue,'' he said.
Alicia Corral, an architectural engineer who works in Coral Gables, says most Americans cannot understand why most Cubans feel strongly that Elian should stay.
``The family unit is a very important thing to Cubans,'' she said. ``For us, family is the most important thing, and what the world has to understand is that if we are advocating that the boy stay here, it is because there is a very strong reason. We understand that sometimes you have to make a
parent-child sacrifice in order to save the child.''
A DIVIDED FAMILY
Corral said her mother was sent from Cuba by her grandparents when she was just a teenager. Two of her uncles are Pedro Pan kids who came alone, without their parents, in a massive Catholic operation that removed 14,000 children out of Cuba in the 1960s.
She said those who want to give Elian to his father do not realize that in Cuba he would no longer belong his father -- he would belong to the state.
``At the beginning this could have been solved within the family. But now, it's no longer the father. Now it's Castro and it's the regime that's taking him back.''
But Cuban Americans have not convinced many other Americans.
The Rev. Wayne Lomax, pastor of The Fountain in Pembroke Pines, for example, took up a familiar theme on Tuesday among black Americans, who view the struggle as primarily a legal and political one.
``There is hostility surrounding what is perceived to be the manipulation of the system,'' Lomax said. ``[The perception is] if Elian were another ethnicity, this would not have unfolded this way, or lasted this long.
`IT'S NATURAL'
``The child belongs with the father, period. It's natural. It doesn't take much training to understand that.''
``The child is being used for political purposes'' by all sides, he said. ``Even the presidential candidates are getting in on this.''
Carmen Morris, marketing consultant in South Dade, said the rest of the world sees a community coming apart. ``People are clearly seeing us in a light that we don't want to be seen in,'' she lamented. ``People are saying they turn on the radio or television and look at the newspaper and they are
seeing something that seems to have taken on a life of its own.''
LaJuane Mack, a technology company manager in Broward and a resident of North Miami, worried that ``the Elian case it has shown just how segregated our community really is.''
``In some ways,'' said Mack, who believes Elian should be with his father, ``it feels like Miami against the world. Blacks, whites, Haitians, and everyone else say send him home, but most of the Cubans say he needs to stay.''
A WIDE DIVIDE
A January poll by WLTV-Univision 23 showed how wide the divide is. Nearly 90 percent of surveyed Hispanics thought Elian should stay in Miami. But nearly 80 percent of blacks and 70 percent of white non-Hispanics thought he should go.
Elena Freyre, executive director of the anti-embargo Cuban Committee for Democracy, said Elian may be driving a wedge between those Cubans who support isolating the island nation and those who seek reconciliation.
``It's the cold war,'' Freyre said. ``It's going to take a while before people start talking again.''
She likened the divided Cuban community to the Gonzalez family itself.
``The worst thing of all is this Gonzalez family,'' Freyre said. ``How is this family going to heal? It's going to be extremely hard. . . . There's no room for any kind of accommodation or negotiation.''
MIXED EMOTIONS
Yet there are many wrenched both ways -- including Uva de Aragon, assistant director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
``The day that the child arrived my grandchildren had just left my house. It was Thanksgiving, and he [Elian] even looks like one of my grandsons,'' she said. ``I wanted to embrace the child. I wanted him to stay. But then you learn he has a father and four grandparents. As a grandmother and
someone who was never able to see my own grandmother again after leaving Cuba, I thought the child should be returned.''
She is afraid there will be no happy ending.
``It's been more than four months and he's grown attached to his family here and to this way of life. Also, he's been turned into an icon in Cuba and he's going to be used politically there. My heart aches for this child.''
She likened the situation to the one faced by King Solomon when two women claimed a child, and he tested their love by threatening to cut the baby in two.
``I pray for Elian and I pray for the Cuban people,'' she said. ``As years pass, instead of finding more things that unite us, more things polarize us. That is certainly not what I hope for the future of Cuba.''
Copyright 1999 Miami Herald |