Los Tadeo were very well known Cuban radio comedians in the 1960s. One night they said on
their show: "What is the greatest oxymoron of a dictatorship? To starve its people
and then to provide funeral services free!"
That same week, Castro’s government had announced that free funeral services would
be henceforth provided by the government. That was the last show the Tadeos ever
performed.
Elián González’s case reminds me very much of the Tadeos. For 40 years,
Castro’s government policy has been forcing thousands of Cubans to emigrate, legally
and illegally, in rafts, makeshift boats and the like. As a result, many hundreds have
drowned or have fed the sharks in the Florida straits. Elián’s mother happens to be
one of the most recent cases.
Before I examine that reality, let me make one point clear. My position is that little
Elián should be returned to Cuba, with his father and grandparents. Family always comes
first. I strong believe that. And Elián’s father and grandparents, with whom he has
always lived, are closer than his Miami cousins, with whom he lives now.
That said, let’s take a second look at Elián’s case, which has been so
widely but only anecdotally discussed in the media. Let’s also analyze the players,
with their special agendas and motivations.
First, the motives. Cárdenas, Elián’s hometown in northern Cuba, is only 10
miles away from Varadero, the famous resort beach that attracts thousands of foreign
tourists. Many Cardenenses commute daily to work there in hotels and tourist attractions,
quite forbidden for those who do not have foreign currency.
Such close contact with foreigners, in a country well known for its political
oppression and material scarcity, may have triggered Elián’s mother to take a chance
in a boat and sail to the United States in search of a better life for her family.
Elián’s parents are no different than any others. His mother, divorced, decided
to leave Cuba clandestinely with her new family. Given that Cuba is a police state, she
most likely took that decision on her own. If she confided it to her relatives, they will
never admit it, for obvious reasons. At the point of drowning, she fastened her son to the
inner tube she had placed him in, to increase his chances for survival. She was a caring
mother.
The "monolithic" Cuban exile community of Miami that has been portrayed by
the media in the past weeks does not exist. If we are exiled, it’s because of our
pluralistic beliefs. There are 600,000 Cubans in Miami. Just a few hundred picketed or
rallied in protest against returning Elián to Cuba. Most Cubans would just have
Elián’s father come and freely claim his son. Cubans know well how Castro
systematically uses the extended family as hostages; they fear that Elián’s father
may be under government pressure.
Other Cubans see in Elián’s incredible rescue a miracle akin to that of
Cuba’s Virgin of La Caridad del Cobre. She was saved by some fishermen in the middle
of a sea storm — as was Elián on Thanksgiving Day. The Cuban American National
Foundation, in turn, sees in Elián’s plight a chance to denounce communism and
Cubans’ need to defy the seas to emigrate.
Most others I have spoken with, whether wanting Elián to stay or to return to Cuba,
would like this to occur quietly and swiftly, to avoid the child further pain.
The World Council of Churches, which sponsored Elián’s grandparents’ trip to
the United States, may also have an agenda. They did not raise their voice when, in the
early 1960s, hundreds of university students and thousands of schoolteachers were expelled
from their classrooms because of their religious beliefs. The council never contested the
UMAP-forced labor camps in the late ’60s, or intervened on behalf of the thousands of
Cubans sent there, many of them pastors and priests. They never lobbied to support the
thousands of Cubans who, in the ’70s, were prevented from enrolling in colleges and
technical schools because of their religious beliefs.
This writer, like tens of thousands of others, expelled from the University of Havana
in 1965, was then sent to the UMAP labor camps for over two years and had to hide his
religion to re-enroll in the university in the ’70s. On the other hand, the council
is well known for its support of Castro’s government and for denouncing and breaking
the embargo.
Finally, Castro himself has no shame. He should have crawled under the rug when all
this started. For, if Cubans are braving the Florida straits on rafts or are defecting
during trips abroad, often leaving behind their loved ones, it is mostly due to
Castro’s restrictive emigration policies. Family separation, the price we all have
had to pay, is the greatest of all of Castro’s sins.
This writer, for example, was not allowed to emigrate in 1979, even when having visas
from the United States, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. I could finally leave Cuba only
after my sister came for me and my family on a shrimp trawler during the Mariel boatlift.
There are numerous such cases among Cuban exiles.
On the other hand, Castro was very unhappy with the Cuban exile community. He blames
them for his not being able to attend the Seattle World Conference on Trade. The Pinochet
arrest and extradition, in Britain, created a bad legal precedent, and Castro was afraid
that he might face a similar situation if he came to the United States.
In addition, the success of the "music diplomacy" (the Buenavista Social Club
group) is again bringing together Cubans on the island and abroad. This is the worst of
Castro’s nightmares.
Elián’s case has provided Castro with a golden opportunity both to punish the
Cuban exile community for the Seattle fiasco and to reopen old divisions among island and
exiled Cubans, to split them around a nationalist ‘cause.‘
Yes, Elián should go back to his family. But Castro should reciprocate by allowing
those inside Cuba who have relatives outside the country to emigrate peacefully and be
reunited with theirs, too.
Selective reunification — like selective support — is both unfair and
immoral.
Copyright © 2000 Hispanic Link News Service. All
rights reserved.
Jorge Luis Romeu, Ph.D., is a visiting researcher at CASE Center, Syracuse
University, Syracuse, N.Y.
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