Ask a Cuban-American

Dear Cuban-American,

[Regarding] Elian – you [Miami Cuban-Americans] turn a human a drama into a political statement. What’s up with that? Why couldn’t you see that the little boy belong with his father?

Ah, my friend, that's a complicated question with many answers. First of all if there's a country in the world that constantly uses the human drama of immigration to make political statements, it's Castro's Cuba. Here's a few examples:

Hilda Molina, Cuban neurosurgeon is not permitted to leave the island because she abandoned and denounced the Revolution. She has family (including a son) in Argentina but she is not allowed to leave Cuba, only because Mr. Castro holds legendary grudges and he felt personally insulted when she gave back her commendations.


How about the case of Yuliet Rodriguez Jimenez? She is a Cuban cyclist that fell in love with and married American cyclist Joe Papp. Problem is that Castro's government doesn't want her to live in America with her husband. She defected from the Cuban cycling team and was trying to make it to Mexico when she was detained in Spain and sent to Venezuela. Now she has been detained in Venezuela and will be extradited to Cuba. Her crime was also wanting to get out of the worker's paradise.

You may be familiar with José Contreras, the major league pitcher. When he defected, his wife and children were not allowed to leave the country. Told that they'd have to wait for 5 years until the country forgot about Contreras, they were forced to leave on a boat (probably a smuggling vessel).

Now what's the common thread here? Restrictions on movement of the Cuban people, which by the way is violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Cuba is a signatory (yet carrying a copy of the document will land you in a Cuban jail).

But you asked about Elian Gonzalez and I'm obligated to share my thoughts with you. There's a lot of misconceptions and little-known details of the case, so I'll enlighten you.

1. The Miami relatives were Juan Miguel's (Elian's Father's) relatives, not relatives of the deceased mother. It was Juan Miguel's uncle and his cousin that were taking care of the boy. This was not a custody battle between two families.

2. Juan Miguel spoke to his Miami relatives on the phone during the days immediately after the boy was rescued at sea but before the Castro regime got wind of the story and decided to make it into an international spectacle. His words to his Miami family were to take care of the boy, not to request that he be sent back to Cuba.

3. We have no way of knowing what Juan Miguel's true feelings were because he was never allowed to meet with his Miami relatives and discuss the matter freely. Juan Miguel was surrounded by Cuban state security agents every minute that he was on U.S. soil. A meeting between Juan Miguel and his uncle seems to be the minimum that President Clinton should have insisted on. Instead he opted for an armed home invasion to enforce a bogus warrant. Simply put, Clinton did not want any kind of agreement between Juan Miguel and his uncle that would allow the boy to stay in the U.S.


4. It's hard for us to imagine a separation from our children under any circumstances. But that's because we live in a free country. If you were in prison, for example, would you want your child to "be with his father" or free in the outside world? The choice of separation for the better of the child is exactly the choice many Cubans made when they sent their unaccompanied children out of Cuba in the early 60's during operation Pedro Pan. Again we don't know what Juan Miguel's true feelings were because he was under extreme duress during the entire episode. He may have had a desire (as most Cubans do today) to come to the U.S. himself. He was never informed of his rights to political asylum. Even when he was on U.S. soil however he had close relatives (his mother, for example) in Cuba that would have had to stay behind an face the wrath of the unforgiving Castro (as outlined above).

Simply put, to most of us Cuban-Americans, the Elian affair was an insult to us because the Clinton administration simply refused to recognize this for what it was: a political stunt by Fidel Castro. And what's worse, our own government resorted to tactics that would not be uncommon in Cuba.

Since the boy has been in Cuba he has appeared with Fidel at countless communist rallies and Fidel Castro himself says that Elian is a "close friend." So who is using the boy for political statements?


Another thing, according to the State Department:

As of May 31, 2003, the Office of Children's Issues was aware of 904 open abduction cases and 156 access cases initiated by U.S.-based parents seeking a child''s return or access to a child currently located in a foreign country.

I wish our government did as much to get those kids back home to their parents as it did to send a boy (who was not abducted) back to a totalitarian dictatorship.

And finally, Cuba is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. So for a country that claims it prioritizes the welfare of children, it sure has a funny way of showing it.

Note: This feature is complete rip-off of the wildly successful and much more funny "Ask a Mexican" column by Gustavo Arellano.

If you have a question for this Cubiche send it in via email.