By Nelson Acosta
CARDENAS, Cuba, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The dusty Cuban city of Cardenas, best-known as the hometown of 6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez, is preparing to welcome him back in style following a U.S. ruling the boy should be with his father.
``I've never been a drinker all my life, but if I have to get drunk once, I'll do it the day Elian comes back!'' said beaming resident Maria Estevez, 65, surrounded by other neighbours on a street near Elian's father's house.
She, like most of the 90,000 residents of this normally quiet coastal city, have been hoping and praying for Elian's return since he was rescued at sea on Nov. 25 after a smugglers' boat bringing illegal migrants to Florida capsized. His mother was one of 11 people who died in the disaster.
``Elian's lawyer is the Cuban people,'' reads one enormous banner across a main street in Cardenas. Elsewhere, Cuban flags and pictures of the boy flutter in the coastal breeze, while other banners proclaim ``Free Elian!'' and ``Save Elian!''
Cardenas inhabitants are preparing to receive their him after Wednesday's decision by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) that he belongs with father Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
``We are going to demonstrate that here there are 11 million Cubans who will celebrate the boy's arrival,'' added Estevez, referring to the Caribbean island's total population.
After a six-week wait, Cardenas residents and other Cubans are still nervous there may be further delays as the Cuban-American community in Florida and Elian's other relatives there put up a legal fight to keep him.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez' modest house and Elian's school in Cardenas have been a focus in recent weeks for visits by journalists, diplomats, churchmen, tourists and others, shattering the town's usual tranquillity.
The case has in fact aroused the entire nation, with massive protests organised by the ruling Communist Party in all major population centres from one end of the island to another.
The biggest mobilisations, drawing more than a quarter of a million people, were held opposite the U.S. diplomatic mission on Havana's sea-front Malecon boulevard.
President Fidel Castro has directly encouraged the mobilisations. But he insisted Elian's presumed eventual homecoming should be treated with discretion and minimum publicity to avoid further trauma for the boy after his sea nightmare and tug-of-love custody battle.
``This has been a tough battle, perhaps one of the toughest we have carried out against (U.S.) imperialism in the last 40 years,'' said Juana Hurtado, 60, who heads the state-affiliated neighbourhood group, or Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), in the street where Elian's father
lives.
``We are preparing a big event for Friday in the afternoon, but until we have the boy here, we are going to continue this battle ... We can't sing victory yet,'' she said.
A two-hour drive east from Havana along Cuba's northern coast, Cardenas is barely noticed by foreign visitors who would normally only pass through it on their way to the Varadero beach-resort from the centre of the island.
It looks like many typical Cuban provincial cities: peeling homes, potholed streets, a languid, friendly atmosphere, and roads transited mainly by horse-drawn carts, bicycles and old 1950s American cars.
Residents say Elian's mother, who was divorced from his father, was by no means the first Cardenas resident to attempt the dangerous crossing to Florida from the city. It is one of a string of northern coastal towns popular with ``balseros,'' or ``rafters,'' as those wishing to flee illegally
are called here.
In the past, people simply hopped on rafts or flimsy boats to try and leave Cardenas, but now most of the illegal immigration is done on speedboats that come from Miami.
While many Cardenas inhabitants have relatives and friends across the water in Florida, they feel bitter toward those campaigning to keep Elian in Miami. ``Those uncles who say Elian should be in Miami grew up here, played in the mud, and now they view us as no better than fleas,'' said Miraida
Diaz, 70.
Elian's schoolmates in Cardenas have left his desk empty, and promise to help him catch up on classes. When Elian turned six in Miami, they held a party in his honour.
13:02 01-06-00
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