By John Rice, .c The Associated Press
CARDENAS, Cuba 26 (AP) - Two children set out on the ill-fated boat trip that made 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez the subject of an international struggle. The other child also survived - put off the boat before its final, fatal journey. But she too faces an uncertain future.
Estefani Herrera is a 5-year-old girl with curly hair that flies in the wind as she races into her grandmother's arms in front of their house on Vives Street, roughly a mile from the house where Elian's father lives in Cardenas.
Her mother in Miami and her grandmother and father in Cuba all say they love her and want to be with her. It's the sort of dilemma all-too-common for Cuban families divided by the political wall across the Florida Straits.
Estefani's mother, Arianne Horta, started to take the child on an overloaded boat to the United States in late November. But the boat had problems and had to return to shore. Horta later decided to leave Estefani behind, hoping to send for her later, she told a Miami news conference on Friday.
It was a decision that may have saved Estefani's life.
On the second attempt to reach the United States, the boat sank, killing 11 people, including Elian's mother. Only 6-year-old Elian, Horta, 22, and her boyfriend Nivaldo Fernandez survived. Fernandez left a wife and two children behind in Cuba, according to Cuba's state-run Radio Rebelde.
In her news conference, Horta appealed for help in reuniting with Estefani: ``From the moment she was born, she slept with me every night. Do you know how I feel?''
Horta appealed for a way to bring her daughter to the United States as soon as possible. Once she is a legal resident, she could apply to bring Estefani to the United States. That process might keep the girl in Cuba for more than a year, even if no one objects to her departure.
But back home in Cardenas, the child's grandmother and father, too, insist they love the child and balk at the idea of giving her up, at least right now.
``I would not like it to be so soon,'' said the grandmother, Elsa Alfonso. ``Well, that doesn't mean that in the future I am going to refuse it because she is her mother.''
The father, Victor Herrera, 33, is more certain. ``I'm the father, and she has gone.''
Partly because a housing shortage often forces young married couples to share a home with their parents, grandmothers in Cuba often play a far greater role in child-rearing than they might in the United States
``I raised my granddaughter. My granddaughter never was in anybody else's house,'' she said.
Estefani ``loves her grandmother very much,'' said the father, Herrera. ``And she also loved her mother very much. I imagine she is missing her.''
When he heard that her mother had fled for the United States, ``I went quickly to the house to see if the girl was there. When I saw her, I felt such relief,'' he said.
Alfonso expressed anger at suggestions the case might be similar to that of Elian, whose great-uncle in Miami is trying to prevent the child from being returned to his father and grandparents in Cuba.
``That is criminal,'' she said. ``They are going to deny him a right to a future.''
AP-NY-01-26-00 0812EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |