By Jim Loney
MIAMI, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Sometimes he looks impish and cheerful, sometimes tired and bewildered. He has lawyers, consultants and an army of others claiming to speak for him -- but no one really knows what Elian Gonzalez is thinking.
Two months ago, the 6-year-old boy was living a peaceful family life in Cuba. Now he exists in a fishbowl, in the harsh glare of international media lights, his every gesture documented, dissected, discussed.
His Miami relatives insist he is happy and wants to stay in the United States. But is he missing his father in Cuba?
Just before Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Elian Gonzalez followed his mother onto a small boat for a perilous journey across the Florida Straits.
Leaving behind his father, grandparents and friends, he embarked on a trip that thousands of Cubans have taken since a communist revolution in the Caribbean island 41 years ago.
A few days later, the boy found himself alone, floating in the open Atlantic on an inner tube, his mother dead.
Rescued by fishermen, he was taken to shore in Florida, where he became an instant poster child for anti-Castro Cuban exiles, the subject of a ferocious and increasingly tangled custody debate, and one of the world's most famous children.
Despite this sad, shocking journey, Elian appears relatively happy, well-fed and well cared for, said Karen Gievers, a longtime Florida child advocate who has, like millions across the United States, followed the Elian saga through media reports.
``I've seen many adults that have not been able to handle being in the centre of a media mob,'' she said.
When he emerged from the hospital in November after treatment for exposure, Elian appeared in shock. He did not smile and reacted feebly when relatives tried to persuade him to wave to the cameras.
Now seven weeks later, he romps in the yard of his new home in Little Havana, playing with his puppy like any 6-year-old, apparently healthy and happy.
Innocent, fresh-faced, doe-eyed, he is paraded on the shoulders of his uncle, sometimes playing the imp, mimicking his elders when they hold up fingers signalling V for victory at successes in their tangled fight for custody of the boy.
If he is ``Another Child Victim of Fidel Castro'' -- as Cuban exile groups have claimed -- he shows little knowledge of it.
Elian has been treated -- some would say plied -- with toys, clothes, a bicycle, a puppy, a trip to Disney World and a meeting with New York Yankees baseball hero Orlando ``El Duque'' Hernandez, also a native of Cuba. Elian has been pictured swinging a baseball bat and in frenetic Silly String
battle with playmates.
In seven weeks in the United States, he has been given more than many American children have.
``I don't think those experiences are typical of most children in his situation. It absolutely would be encouraging him to want to stay here,'' said Maureen Kenny, a psychology professor at Florida International University who specialises in child development.
Local anti-Castro politicians and the boy's Miami relatives, who say Elian should not be sent back to a communist country even though his father has repeatedly called for his return, have come under fire for lavishing gifts on a child who must be torn between his father and his new life.
At a rally in New York this week, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark said: ``What incredible insanity is driving us to hold this child, to glorify the grossness of our materialism as if you can buy the soul of a child?''
But if a child's soul cannot be bought, can his momentary thoughts be manipulated? Experts say yes.
``There's no doubt that a child would be influenced by what is said to him, especially if these are the people who are caring for you,'' Kenny said. ``It's very difficult for children to state something different ... because they want to please.''
Elian is said to speak with his father in Cuba often by telephone. But what is said remains a secret.
What is he thinking?
The curiosity over Elian's thoughts came into sharp focus this week when Miami television station WPLG shot a four-second video clip in which the boy mischievously looked up at a passing airplane and made a comment in Spanish.
But what he said wasn't clear.
He either said: ``Yo quiero que tu me regreses pa' Cuba'' (''I want you to take me back to Cuba'') or ``Yo quiero que no me regresen pa' Cuba,'' (''I don't want them to take me back to Cuba'').
The enigmatic comment set off a storm of controversy. WPLG first reported that the boy said he wanted to go back but later backed down. Protesters gathered at WPLG's studios, hurling insults.
Some experts argue that what a 6-year-old says, while worth consideration, cannot be the deciding factor in what happens to him because in many instances he is simply repeating what he has been told or heard from those around him.
``I think you can't read too much into it,'' Kenny said. ``Does he, at six years old, understand the consequences of his decision? I don't think so.''
10:28 01-16-00
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