By David Gonzalez. New York Times News Service . Chicago Tribune. July 5, 2000
HAVANA -- Now that Elian Gonzalez is home and has begun to reclaim his young life, officials say it will be difficult to sustain the emotional commitment Cubans had to that case as the Castro government presses its latest battle with the United States over its trade embargo and immigration
policy.
The embargo and the Cuban Adjustment Act are emerging as the centerpieces of a post-Elian era, and officials intend to continue the public rallies and televised discussion that were a staple of daily life throughout the seven-month custody battle over Elian.
Marches, rallies, debates and forums will be held "every day of the year" for an indefinite period, the Communist Party daily Granma announced this week.
Every Saturday, a huge rally will be held in a different provincial city, just as they have been held every week in recent months to demand Elian's return to his homeland, Granma said.
The newspaper said that a live televised roundtable will be held every weekday evening, much like the ones that updated Cubans on developments in the Elian case.
But in an acknowledgment that the issues are different, Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the National Assembly and the main adviser to the Gonzalez family, said the events would be scaled down somewhat in time and size.
"Do you ask if there can be the same emotional level? No," he said in a 90-minute interview. "You cannot ask people to have the same emotional level about a boy without a mother, separated from his father, for a discussion of the adjustment law. It is more abstract."
Still, Alarcon, who was the highest-ranking Cuban official to greet Elian when he arrived at Jose Marti International Airport last week, said the public events staged on behalf of Elian had proved useful in mobilizing people and reaching out to Cuban youth. It was an opportunity, he said, born
of the campaign by Cuban-Americans and their congressional supporters to keep Elian in Miami after he was rescued from an inner tube last Thanksgiving.
"They gave it to us on a silver platter," he said. "This is a battle of ideas that we appreciate clearly. This did not begin in November or in the first days of December. The denunciations started with Elian, and at that time we did not think it would go so long. But those seven
months have allowed us to discover new forms, methods and actors, and a lot more youth, above all. Why stop that when there are so many problems to resolve?"
Those problems, officials contend, stem from the economic havoc wreaked by the embargo and exacerbated by policies that allow Cubans who reach U.S. soil to apply for asylum. Others, including ordinary Cuban citizens, feel the real problem is a lack of enthusiasm for the revolution among a people
who have been fed a diet of slogans while adjusting to the daily struggle of inventing ways to resolve their personal economic crises.
Alarcon said it was "simplistic" to believe the rallies were intended to revive the revolution's flagging domestic appeal. But he acknowledged that Elian's case had intense support among the young, who have been featured players in the rallies and other events.
As Cuban officials turn their attention to the new priorities of trade and immigration, the Gonzalez family may find it difficult to attain its own goal of being a normal family. On Tuesday, Elian and his dad made a quiet visit to his hometown, visiting his paternal and maternal grandparents in
Cardenas, about 90 miles east of Havana, state television reported.
Meantime, the Gonzalez's are living in a seaside Havana home, where Elian and some of his classmates are wrapping up their 1st-grade studies.
In recent weeks, government media have praised Juan Miguel and Elian as model citizens, raising the question of whether greater things are in store for Gonzalez. Alarcon, who said he had grown close to Gonzalez, said the government would continue to help the family adjust to life back home.
"Juan Miguel will be able to do whatever he wants," was all Alarcon would say about the future. "He was a normal person who was turned into something else. Returning to what he was before will not be easy." |