WEBVTT - La Yuma 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:04.880 Producer Tasha san Novala and I are driving around Greater 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:10.160 Miami in bumper to bumper traffic, weaving through a maze 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:15.680 of flashy billboards and Spanish language advertisements, getting lost. I 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:22.040 don't think this is the right thing. Oh it's hot 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.079 and humid. To make it through the long we put 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.200 in days together in Miami, Pasha and I have a 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.159 go to Patelitoscortellitos. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:38.920 Okay, here are the pasilitos and I'm having pastelava. 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:43.360 Guava and cheese filled puff pastries perfectly golden and warm 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.400 as staple that says here Versailles, Cuban. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:51.959 Seeing the world's most famous Cuban restaurant. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:56.440 Today, we are stopping at Laventanita at Cafe Versailles on 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.120 La Kayocho. This is a historic gathering point Cubans in Miami. 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:16.360 Okay, cafe in Mamma. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.600 Fiver to seem past. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.800 This is the kind of stuff that makes Miami feel 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.600 so familiar to me. The food, the flora. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:32.520 It's flambo. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.720 Miami, and it's Flamboyan. It's in late spring. Giant trees 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.920 with blooming red flowers, just like the ones that blooming Cuba. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.480 My mom and dad. Most of my family lives here 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:56.440 in Miamilora. I get why so many Cubans settled in Miami. 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.480 On paper, it would be the perfect city for me, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.000 But in reality, there is something I have learned about Miami, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.760 something my dad recently reminded me of Miami. 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.079 They say the banning consumed. 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:11.720 I get all the. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.160 Politic Miami makes you realize that everything is about politics, 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.000 which honestly reminds me of one of the reasons living 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.919 in Cuba can be so hard, because everything there is 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:29.240 also political. In a way, the Alianzaga tea is out 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.120 something that's true of Cubans as a people on and 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.400 off the island. We are one people with one specific 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:42.000 fissure Colamic Medius in Crassia. We're very stubborn and hard 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:47.440 lined and have strongly held opinions about everything. If you 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.480 see two Cubans debating something, you will probably see us 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.080 screaming at each other, and the topic really doesn't matter. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.800 We are not fighting. We don't even consider it rude. 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:05.280 It's just how we are. You have probably heard jokes 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:10.640 about it. Mexican American comedian Gabili Lsias joked about his 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.640 experience at like Aretta one of my favorite human restaurants 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:15.960 in Miami, and. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.800 Here comes the waiter, and the waiter's coming over and 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:19.480 he gets in my face and he's like to care. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.480 It was. 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.920 All the stereotypes aside. We're just very passionate people. We 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:37.200 are passionate about dancing, composing, great music, loving and of 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:42.680 course politics. And when it came to Elian, each side 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.720 of the Florida Straits had its own deeply rooted beliefs 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:53.480 and there would be no compromising. When I started reporting 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.880 for this podcast, my dad told me I was gonna 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.480 get in trouble. I didn't. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:17.640 And Miami because it is a rough topic, he says. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.280 And after so many years, people still feel really passionately 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:26.039 about it. And pennileraes and this is chest Peace. Delian 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:30.159 Gonzalez Story a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.760 Iheart's Michael Tura podcast Network. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.440 I want what's best for him and what he wants, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:44.640 you know, I'm not I don't. 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:49.320 Want to be gritty and I don't want to be selfish. 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:54.640 That's Mary Lazy Gonzalez. Remember she's Alan's cousin in Miami. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.239 In nineteen ninety nine, she was just twenty one years old, 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.719 and she and Elian became close while he was in 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.480 the US waiting to find out where he would end up. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.360 Mary Lacy's spoke about caring for Alien, about showing him tenderness. 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:14.720 He was sitting there, he was about to have soup. 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.159 The first thing I said was, don't eat that. This 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:22.279 is her in the twenty seventeen CNN documentary Alien. She 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.320 seems to remember him lovingly. So he just looked straight 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.480 up at me and he's like, is it bad? 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.559 And I'm like, yes, don that will get you something 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:31.680 better than that. 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.200 That moment was our first connection. So she became Alien's 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:36.800 go too. 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:39.400 She was like a mother figure to him. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:46.159 Yellowco Hill, Locot Hill lay for Mamaqi momento and. 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.599 I always think of his cousin that fought so hard 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.680 from she was a young girl. But she was a 0:05:51.800 --> 0:06:00.480 force to be reckoned with. Some journalists have to said 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.280 that leaders in the Quban American exiled community in Miami 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:09.000 influenced Mary Leesy's behavior, but many years one of the 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.320 Gonzales family lawyers told us it wasn't about politics. He 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.880 became mayor of Miami in two thousand and one, about 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.040 two years after a unt rescue at sea. Before agreeing 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.240 to represent them money, sat down with the family. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:26.800 I'm not going to spend the next six months of 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.200 my life fighting over federal caestra. I'm here to do 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:32.600 what is in the best interest of the family and 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.880 the best interest of the child. No political agenda. And 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.679 if I ever see a political agenda that were upon 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.760 for somebody's politics, I'm out. And they agreed. 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.920 Whatever was behind it, This constant media attention became Mary 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:56.520 Leesy's life, and it took its toll. She was even 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.080 hospitalized during the al Yan saga. 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.440 Went through difficult times. If you remember, you know one 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.040 time we even ended up at Mercy Hospital with her. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.800 And you gotta understand, this is as stressful as an 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.040 event as you could probably be a part of. 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.160 But Mary Lesy's had become a symbol. She was sacrificing 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.160 herself for a lean to raise him and what she 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.560 believed was freedom. That was a clear message, let's not 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.640 make this a political thing. 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.280 Let's make it like everybody else that comes to this 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:34.520 country for freedom. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.880 We tried reaching out to Mary Lecy's directly and indirectly. 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.720 I even wrote her a handwritten letter. 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.840 Okay, I'm now in the past office. Hopefully she will 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.480 receive it and then we will know if she's willing 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:51.400 to talk to us. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.880 But we did in her back money confirmed that she 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.800 has stopped speaking to the media. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.600 And I think she was already you know, sweet and vulnerable, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:03.760 and I think all that really just took a toll 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:05.760 on her. You know, after a while it was just like, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.000 let's say, I don't want to talk about this anymore. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.280 And looking back on the footage of her so young 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:17.480 crying on national television, I can't understand why she must 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:22.200 have felt enormous pressure. So we respect Mary Lacy's decision 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.880 not to talk about what was likely one of the 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.640 most painful eras of her life. We don't know whether 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.720 Cuban American community leaders coached her or not. What we 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.960 do know is that for the exile community, Lian's custody 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.360 case had higher stakes beyond the boy. This case was 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.640 also a power struggle between two ideological camps, those who 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.400 stood with del Castro and those who stood against him, 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.040 and defending the belief system of the very passionate Cuban 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.040 exiled community seemed to fall on the Gonzales family. On 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.360 Mary Lacy's. On top of that, the whole family was 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.880 also navigated in a complicated legal custody case. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:11.520 One of the misconceptions that was surprisingly widespread in saga 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.360 of this case is the idea that they ever had custody. 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.200 That's Bernie Permotter, law professor at the University of Miami. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.160 He told us that the Gonzales family in Miami, including 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.800 Mary Lacy's, had Alian in their temporary care, not in 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.640 legal custody, to try to keep Elian in the US. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.160 Elian's great uncle, Lasaro, had filed three asylum applications for 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.560 Elan well, one was technically filed by six year old 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.679 Elian himself under the guidance of his Miami relatives. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.719 I believe that the people involved in this situation care 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.280 about the little boy and want to do what's right 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:00.800 by him. 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.640 That's Janet Reno, Attorney General and head of that Department 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.240 of Justice. Renal happened to be a Miami native. She 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.240 understood this was a difficult case for Miami Cubans. She 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:18.480 oversaw an investigation into the case by the Immigration Naturalization Service. 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:24.359 The ions Irons met twice with the father in Cuba 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.840 and separately with the great uncle and the lawyers in Miami. 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.880 That's Ions Commissioner Doris Meisner. On January fifth, two thousand. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:40.959 After careful evaluation of the relevant facts, IRONS has determined 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:47.280 that mister Juan Gonzalez of Cuba has the sole legal 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:53.040 authority to speak on behalf of his son, Elion. Regarding 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:58.600 Elion's immigration status in the United States. We have determined 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:05.680 that Elion should be reunited with his father, mister Juan Gonzales. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.200 Or d me ask you about your reaction. 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.080 They're only letting the dad decide what's best for the kid. 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.439 Without his dad and not having the freedom to get 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.240 an airplane come here to support his show when he 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.240 most really needed him. I was there and so was 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:33.800 my family. To Miami Cubans, the Ionis decision felt like 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.960 a bit trial because for ones, Washington agreed with Havana 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.080 and if there is one thing you absolutely cannot do 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.600 in Miami, it's side with the er castro. 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:22.200 Miami is a very insular place as an incubator for ideology. 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:27.800 This is Guillermo Grenier, sociologists at Florida International University with 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:32.480 an expertise on Cuba and Cuban Miami. Remember I told 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.080 you at the beginning of the episode that in Miami 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.440 so much revolves around politics. Well, that's because there is 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.160 an ideology that influences the city a lot. Gillermo calls 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.240 it the exile ideology. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.600 It provades everything, It provades the education in the schools, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.560 it provades the media, and. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.959 It informed why Miami Cubans felt so deeply about the lean. 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.599 They came over. The identity was the ideology. 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.400 So what is this traditional of Cuban American exile ideology. 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:14.599 Giermo talked about a few core ideas. Number one, resisting 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.280 any effort to legitimize the Cuban government. Some Cuban Americans 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:23.360 believed the Cuban government should be criminalized and treated as 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:29.120 a villain for its oppressive rule. Number Two, believing in 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:30.840 the United States. 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.840 We were the backyard of the United States. 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:37.120 Remember, the Quban elite often had close business ties with 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.040 US companies that operated on the island before the revolution. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.920 They would send their kids to a school in the US. 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.160 The Cuban American identity in the United States initially was 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.400 established by people who felt very close to the United States. 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.920 They did not have to be taught to be pro American. 0:13:58.280 --> 0:13:59.320 It was in their blood. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.600 The first wave of exiles truly believed the revolution could 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.439 not last, not under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam. 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.200 They were fueled by the certainty that the United States 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.960 will not allow for Theel Castro to do what he did. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.880 So typically, early wave exiles really believed that the US 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:25.040 was fighting for a free Cuba through the embargo. Number three, 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:30.280 this avowing engagement with Cuba, including travel to the island. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.200 You're not for travel to Cuba. You're not for opening 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:37.920 up political lines of communications. You're against people that even 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:38.920 travel to Cuba. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.560 And finally number four, rejecting an immigrant identity. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:45.680 You don't want to be immigrants. You want to go 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:46.720 back to the other countries. 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.360 Those who embodied traditional exile ideology believe they were forced 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:55.240 out of their country and until they can return to Akubaire, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:03.080 there are exiles in the United States. Of course, some 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.280 Cuban Americans disagree on this tenant. For example, some may 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.480 have lost hope in the US and the efficacy of 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.600 the embargo, seeing the longevity of the revolution as a betrayal. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.640 So for the most part, these beliefs have evolved and 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.080 relaxed through the years, especially when it comes to travel 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:27.000 to the island. Cubans who came to the US later 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.040 in the eighties or nineties are more likely to oppose 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.320 the embargo. They have family on the island and they 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.760 don't want them to suffer. But a major tenant of 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.560 traditional exile identity was to keep some semblance of hope, 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.480 to live with the belief that next year, or next month, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.120 or even tomorrow you could be living in a free Cuba. 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.080 This was especially true just after the fall of the 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.160 Soviet Union in nineteen ninety one. 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.960 There were a lot of apocryphal mentions of for sale 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.000 signs popping up all over Hyaliyah, you know, thinking that 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.200 the next lection on Tito, we're definitely going to be 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:07.120 in Havana. Right. 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:12.239 But by nineteen ninety nine, the year Eleana arrived in Florida, 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.680 almost a decade had passed and the Cuban Revolution had 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.240 still not been defeated. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:23.280 Elian comes, Fidel hasn't gone down. Everybody is not happy 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.400 about that. And by God, Fidel's not going to get this. 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.720 Trophy Ellan as a trophy. We heard this quite a 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:31.760 bit in our reporting. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.880 So anything the Cuban government wants it should not get. 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:37.560 And in this case, it was Ellian. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.120 If he went back to Cuba, Elean will be a 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.440 price for Fidel and for his revolution. But if he 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.160 stayed in Miami, he would also be a trophy, a 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:53.920 beacon of the American dream for Cuban Americans. Gillermo explains 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.360 that exile ideology was essential to how most Miami Cubans 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.920 felt about Elean. He wasn't just a little boy who 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.520 magically survived the Florida Straits. He was the little boy 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.000 who had the potential to deliver a crushing blow to 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:11.320 Fidel gastro. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:14.720 So. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.600 Miami Cubans kept banding together outside of the Little Havana Home. 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.919 People began going there period. You know, they wanted to 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:30.920 express the solidarity with the family. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.480 This is Ramonzael Sanchez. He is a well known activist 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.920 in the exile community and was one of the most 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.600 visible protestors outside the Little Havana House. He was there 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.840 nearly every night, driving straight from his work to the 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:49.120 house and back again. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.800 I wanted always for the young consalate situation to be 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.359 resolved between the families, between the relatives in Cuba and 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.240 the relatives in the United States, not by the government. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.600 He even helped lead major street protests after the ins 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.600 decision that Elian should go back to his father. 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.320 I already no fortunes. 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.920 I want to tell you about Roman's life because I 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:25.040 think it suggests why faults outside of Elian's house were 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.000 so passionate. Ramon arrived in Miami during one of the 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:33.879 early waves of Cuban migration on a US sponsored freedom flight. 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:39.560 I've been in exiled since nineteen sixty seven, since I 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:40.879 was twenty years old. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.480 He is an exiled through and through. His life has 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.879 been all about fighting against the revolution. 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:53.320 I began a struggle for democracy when I was fifteen 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.920 years old. I am now sixty nine. 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.760 Years old, and this fight was not all is peaceful. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:08.520 I got involved with Alpha sixty six, a legal organization 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:09.920 in the United States. 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.000 Under the law, Alpha sixty six is considered a right 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:20.560 wing paramilitary organization and paramilitary activity is a lawfl in 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:25.200 all fifty States. Early on it had some support from 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.720 the CIA, but eventually it was on its own, where. 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.760 Every Cuban that came from Cuba I wanted to do 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:33.960 something for Cuba used to go to Alpha sixty six 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:35.320 the register be a member. 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.760 This is how Ramons is it. We weren't able to 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.480 verify how Alpha sixty six recruited its members. What we 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.400 do know is that Alpha sixty six carried out attacks 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.199 against the Cuban government or those who seemed to support it. 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.840 And there I trained on the struggle, on the guerrilla 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.520 warfare and the struggle to free Cube. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.560 Just at Aver from which just rushed. Not a may 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.879 allow her charge now our training the pipe, but our 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.760 pastros armies in Cube, in. 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.560 The event that someday we could go back and free Cube. 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.960 In fact, unlike most given Americans, Ramon never went through 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:22.040 the asylum process and never became a US citizen because. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.600 When we came here at the beginning, in our minds, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:26.440 we were going to go back. 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.840 Then in the early nineteen eighties, he refused to testify 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.680 before a grand jury for a case involving an assassination 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.119 attempt against Castro, and. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.880 I refused to talk because of principles, a matter of conscience. 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.359 So he went to prison. It was Ramon's time in 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.480 prison that would change him. 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:51.840 And I decided that we had to go to other methods, 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.480 and that's where I embraced non violence. 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.480 However, those first decades of exile life in Miami were 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.159 tense and sometimes bloody, not just for Ramon but for 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:09.080 much of the exile community. Exiles would police each other 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.840 for not being anti Castro enough. In nineteen seventy five, 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:18.919 one exile was killed by other exiles simply for saying 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.240 he would go back to Cuba to vote if Fidel 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:32.520 Castro opened democratic elections. With this history, it would be 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.480 easy to conclude that exile ideology was the only reason 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.320 why Cuban Americans wanted Elean to stay in the US. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.880 But I think it's more layered than that. The ideology 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:49.720 is informed by very real experiences and trauma, and Cuban 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:54.199 Americans genuinely believed Elean would be safer and have a 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:55.600 better life in Layoma. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:03.200 Could you describe what is Layoma? 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.160 So Juma refers to the United. 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:12.680 States Juma, It's a very common Cuban term. No one 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.359 is quite sure where the term came from, but most 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.960 people think it comes from the nineteen fifty seven Cowboy 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:24.760 classic three ten to Yuma, as in Yuma Arizona. The 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:29.399 film is screened extensively throughout Cuba. In the nineteen seventies. 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.320 Sula Man scared but brave, would run an out locked 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.160 gruntlet to put a prisoner around the gallows bound train 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:37.760 to Yuma. 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.680 Another theory is that Juma is simply an abbreviated Cubanism 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:45.760 for US man Juma. 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.119 So in Cuba, if you said mekehery Palayoma, what does that. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.840 Mean, You're saying you want to come to the United States. 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.120 Mikero i Palayoma. It's what all Cuban Americans had done. 0:22:56.520 --> 0:23:00.240 They had left Cuba to come and stay in Layoma. Yeah, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.159 that's why they assumed Elian also wanted to stay in 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:10.120 the US. But soon Elian himself would say something very controversial, 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:38.959 and his words would deepen the ideological divide. We are 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:46.120 in a neighborhood called Little Havana. While reporting in Miami, 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.680 Tasha and I stopped at the house where Alien stayed 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:53.040 with his relatives. It's utly quiet. 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:59.880 Imagine the same place that now looks so peaceful and quiet, 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:05.239 surrounded by people all the time. LeAnn will come to 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:10.480 the front yard to play around when everybody is screaming 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:23.639 and happy and try to touch him. So it's a 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:28.879 big contrast to see this house in a regular day, 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:33.240 twenty five years after everything happened with a lean. 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.720 Yeah, it's now a career going the circus that people 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:38.440 have described. 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:47.840 If you see the pictures of those days and the videos, 0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:52.760 this seems like a really tiny street, and it's not tiny. 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:55.760 It's actually pretty big. Now. 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.680 I realized it looked tiny because it was so packed. 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:03.720 With people, people who wanted the liand to stay in 0:25:03.760 --> 0:25:13.119 the US. After initial anger over the ions decision, on 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:18.159 January fifth, the Miami relatives regrouped they were going to 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:19.160 fight the decision. 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:24.840 A bunch of lawyers rose up and agreed to represent 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.960 the family in filing a petition for temporary legal custody 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:33.320 of Elian in a state court. 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:39.320 Law professor Berni Permoter. Again, the Miami family wanted to 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:44.040 resolve things through family court and not through immigration and 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:48.640 the federal government. On January tenth, a judge in Florida 0:25:48.760 --> 0:25:54.439 Family Court granted lazarro Anzalez, Elian's great uncle, temporary legal 0:25:54.480 --> 0:25:58.159 custody of Elian, pending a full hearing in marsh. 0:25:58.840 --> 0:26:02.760 And that he, as I understand it, and as I recalled, 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:04.640 never occurred. 0:26:07.040 --> 0:26:10.720 Shortly after the ruling, the judge was reported to have 0:26:10.760 --> 0:26:15.000 a major conflict of interest just turning the legal case 0:26:15.119 --> 0:26:20.440 got big headlines, but something overshadowed it. The very next day, 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:24.480 while we stood outside the house during our reporting trip, 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:27.040 Kasha and I remembered what happened. 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:31.240 This place is not that far from the Miami Airport, 0:26:31.640 --> 0:26:34.280 so you have a lot of planes here, and one day, 0:26:34.480 --> 0:26:37.320 in the middle of this saga, one of those planes 0:26:37.359 --> 0:26:40.480 were crossing in front of the house. And this is 0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:45.240 the moment when Alan says one of the most controversial. 0:26:44.520 --> 0:26:57.200 Things, yokyoke, I want to be returned to Cuba. Well, 0:26:57.440 --> 0:27:00.800 at least that's what the media initially reported Elean said, 0:27:04.160 --> 0:27:10.120 but many Miami Cubans say they heard the opposite Pakua, 0:27:10.760 --> 0:27:18.919 I don't want to be returned to Cuba. It sounds 0:27:18.960 --> 0:27:23.199 the same, right, depending on who you were on, what 0:27:23.400 --> 0:27:27.800 side you were on, you hear something different, But it 0:27:28.080 --> 0:27:33.280 was the exact same recording, the exact same words spoken 0:27:33.320 --> 0:27:40.879 by a little boy. This is what it's like to 0:27:40.880 --> 0:27:45.320 be Cuban, to be of the same people, divided by ideology. 0:27:46.200 --> 0:27:50.120 You can hear the same thing, but here two completely 0:27:50.320 --> 0:27:59.560 different messages. The play video, as it was known, really 0:27:59.640 --> 0:28:03.560 hit an nerve within the exile community. In the audio, 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:11.639 you can even hear onlookers responding to Alien's words was 0:28:11.680 --> 0:28:15.240 it possible that Elian actually wanted to go back to Cuba? 0:28:15.840 --> 0:28:19.640 After all, he was being showered with many gifts in Miami. 0:28:20.240 --> 0:28:26.679 He seemed to have everything he could ever need. He 0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:29.040 even had a new puppy named Dolphin. 0:28:29.760 --> 0:28:31.920 Can you give us a sense of timing and in 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:33.800 terms of when you would like to see this result, 0:28:33.880 --> 0:28:37.080 particularly because the boy's going to school, he's making friends, 0:28:37.800 --> 0:28:40.960 get the dogs, puppies, got relatives. 0:28:41.440 --> 0:28:44.840 Whatever happens with respect to the little boy, it should 0:28:44.880 --> 0:28:48.680 be done soon so that he can get on with 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:51.240 his life with the puppy. 0:28:52.400 --> 0:28:55.240 This is our Department of Justice briefing just after the 0:28:55.280 --> 0:29:00.880 playing controversy. Attorney General Reno also made an important annount. 0:29:01.480 --> 0:29:06.480 I think the process that was used by Ions is 0:29:06.520 --> 0:29:08.160 a fair good process. 0:29:08.680 --> 0:29:12.880 She agreed with the Ions decision to reunite Alien with 0:29:13.040 --> 0:29:13.560 his father. 0:29:14.560 --> 0:29:18.080 We are just trying to make sure that people understand 0:29:18.160 --> 0:29:21.720 that what is an issue is a father who wants 0:29:21.760 --> 0:29:22.480 his son home. 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:26.560