Speaker 1: Producer Tasha san Novala and I are driving around Greater
Speaker 1: Miami in bumper to bumper traffic, weaving through a maze
Speaker 1: of flashy billboards and Spanish language advertisements, getting lost. I
Speaker 1: don't think this is the right thing. Oh it's hot
Speaker 1: and humid. To make it through the long we put
Speaker 1: in days together in Miami, Pasha and I have a
Speaker 1: go to Patelitoscortellitos.
Speaker 2: Okay, here are the pasilitos and I'm having pastelava.
Speaker 1: Guava and cheese filled puff pastries perfectly golden and warm
Speaker 1: as staple that says here Versailles, Cuban.
Speaker 2: Seeing the world's most famous Cuban restaurant.
Speaker 1: Today, we are stopping at Laventanita at Cafe Versailles on
Speaker 1: La Kayocho. This is a historic gathering point Cubans in Miami.
Speaker 3: Okay, cafe in Mamma.
Speaker 2: Fiver to seem past.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of stuff that makes Miami feel
Speaker 1: so familiar to me. The food, the flora.
Speaker 4: It's flambo.
Speaker 1: Miami, and it's Flamboyan. It's in late spring. Giant trees
Speaker 1: with blooming red flowers, just like the ones that blooming Cuba.
Speaker 1: My mom and dad. Most of my family lives here
Speaker 1: in Miamilora. I get why so many Cubans settled in Miami.
Speaker 1: On paper, it would be the perfect city for me,
Speaker 1: But in reality, there is something I have learned about Miami,
Speaker 1: something my dad recently reminded me of Miami.
Speaker 5: They say the banning consumed.
Speaker 6: I get all the.
Speaker 1: Politic Miami makes you realize that everything is about politics,
Speaker 1: which honestly reminds me of one of the reasons living
Speaker 1: in Cuba can be so hard, because everything there is
Speaker 1: also political. In a way, the Alianzaga tea is out
Speaker 1: something that's true of Cubans as a people on and
Speaker 1: off the island. We are one people with one specific
Speaker 1: fissure Colamic Medius in Crassia. We're very stubborn and hard
Speaker 1: lined and have strongly held opinions about everything. If you
Speaker 1: see two Cubans debating something, you will probably see us
Speaker 1: screaming at each other, and the topic really doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: We are not fighting. We don't even consider it rude.
Speaker 1: It's just how we are. You have probably heard jokes
Speaker 1: about it. Mexican American comedian Gabili Lsias joked about his
Speaker 1: experience at like Aretta one of my favorite human restaurants
Speaker 1: in Miami, and.
Speaker 7: Here comes the waiter, and the waiter's coming over and
Speaker 7: he gets in my face and he's like to care.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 1: All the stereotypes aside. We're just very passionate people. We
Speaker 1: are passionate about dancing, composing, great music, loving and of
Speaker 1: course politics. And when it came to Elian, each side
Speaker 1: of the Florida Straits had its own deeply rooted beliefs
Speaker 1: and there would be no compromising. When I started reporting
Speaker 1: for this podcast, my dad told me I was gonna
Speaker 1: get in trouble. I didn't.
Speaker 3: And Miami because it is a rough topic, he says.
Speaker 1: And after so many years, people still feel really passionately
Speaker 1: about it. And pennileraes and this is chest Peace. Delian
Speaker 1: Gonzalez Story a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with
Speaker 1: Iheart's Michael Tura podcast Network.
Speaker 8: I want what's best for him and what he wants,
Speaker 8: you know, I'm not I don't.
Speaker 5: Want to be gritty and I don't want to be selfish.
Speaker 1: That's Mary Lazy Gonzalez. Remember she's Alan's cousin in Miami.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, she was just twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: and she and Elian became close while he was in
Speaker 1: the US waiting to find out where he would end up.
Speaker 1: Mary Lacy's spoke about caring for Alien, about showing him tenderness.
Speaker 1: He was sitting there, he was about to have soup.
Speaker 1: The first thing I said was, don't eat that. This
Speaker 1: is her in the twenty seventeen CNN documentary Alien. She
Speaker 1: seems to remember him lovingly. So he just looked straight
Speaker 1: up at me and he's like, is it bad?
Speaker 9: And I'm like, yes, don that will get you something
Speaker 9: better than that.
Speaker 1: That moment was our first connection. So she became Alien's
Speaker 1: go too.
Speaker 5: She was like a mother figure to him.
Speaker 9: Yellowco Hill, Locot Hill lay for Mamaqi momento and.
Speaker 1: I always think of his cousin that fought so hard
Speaker 1: from she was a young girl. But she was a
Speaker 1: force to be reckoned with. Some journalists have to said
Speaker 1: that leaders in the Quban American exiled community in Miami
Speaker 1: influenced Mary Leesy's behavior, but many years one of the
Speaker 1: Gonzales family lawyers told us it wasn't about politics. He
Speaker 1: became mayor of Miami in two thousand and one, about
Speaker 1: two years after a unt rescue at sea. Before agreeing
Speaker 1: to represent them money, sat down with the family.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to spend the next six months of
Speaker 6: my life fighting over federal caestra. I'm here to do
Speaker 6: what is in the best interest of the family and
Speaker 6: the best interest of the child. No political agenda. And
Speaker 6: if I ever see a political agenda that were upon
Speaker 6: for somebody's politics, I'm out. And they agreed.
Speaker 1: Whatever was behind it, This constant media attention became Mary
Speaker 1: Leesy's life, and it took its toll. She was even
Speaker 1: hospitalized during the al Yan saga.
Speaker 6: Went through difficult times. If you remember, you know one
Speaker 6: time we even ended up at Mercy Hospital with her.
Speaker 6: And you gotta understand, this is as stressful as an
Speaker 6: event as you could probably be a part of.
Speaker 1: But Mary Lesy's had become a symbol. She was sacrificing
Speaker 1: herself for a lean to raise him and what she
Speaker 1: believed was freedom. That was a clear message, let's not
Speaker 1: make this a political thing.
Speaker 2: Let's make it like everybody else that comes to this
Speaker 2: country for freedom.
Speaker 1: We tried reaching out to Mary Lecy's directly and indirectly.
Speaker 1: I even wrote her a handwritten letter.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm now in the past office. Hopefully she will
Speaker 2: receive it and then we will know if she's willing
Speaker 2: to talk to us.
Speaker 1: But we did in her back money confirmed that she
Speaker 1: has stopped speaking to the media.
Speaker 6: And I think she was already you know, sweet and vulnerable,
Speaker 6: and I think all that really just took a toll
Speaker 6: on her. You know, after a while it was just like,
Speaker 6: let's say, I don't want to talk about this anymore.
Speaker 1: And looking back on the footage of her so young
Speaker 1: crying on national television, I can't understand why she must
Speaker 1: have felt enormous pressure. So we respect Mary Lacy's decision
Speaker 1: not to talk about what was likely one of the
Speaker 1: most painful eras of her life. We don't know whether
Speaker 1: Cuban American community leaders coached her or not. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that for the exile community, Lian's custody
Speaker 1: case had higher stakes beyond the boy. This case was
Speaker 1: also a power struggle between two ideological camps, those who
Speaker 1: stood with del Castro and those who stood against him,
Speaker 1: and defending the belief system of the very passionate Cuban
Speaker 1: exiled community seemed to fall on the Gonzales family. On
Speaker 1: Mary Lacy's. On top of that, the whole family was
Speaker 1: also navigated in a complicated legal custody case.
Speaker 10: One of the misconceptions that was surprisingly widespread in saga
Speaker 10: of this case is the idea that they ever had custody.
Speaker 1: That's Bernie Permotter, law professor at the University of Miami.
Speaker 1: He told us that the Gonzales family in Miami, including
Speaker 1: Mary Lacy's, had Alian in their temporary care, not in
Speaker 1: legal custody, to try to keep Elian in the US.
Speaker 1: Elian's great uncle, Lasaro, had filed three asylum applications for
Speaker 1: Elan well, one was technically filed by six year old
Speaker 1: Elian himself under the guidance of his Miami relatives.
Speaker 7: I believe that the people involved in this situation care
Speaker 7: about the little boy and want to do what's right
Speaker 7: by him.
Speaker 1: That's Janet Reno, Attorney General and head of that Department
Speaker 1: of Justice. Renal happened to be a Miami native. She
Speaker 1: understood this was a difficult case for Miami Cubans. She
Speaker 1: oversaw an investigation into the case by the Immigration Naturalization Service.
Speaker 9: The ions Irons met twice with the father in Cuba
Speaker 9: and separately with the great uncle and the lawyers in Miami.
Speaker 1: That's Ions Commissioner Doris Meisner. On January fifth, two thousand.
Speaker 9: After careful evaluation of the relevant facts, IRONS has determined
Speaker 9: that mister Juan Gonzalez of Cuba has the sole legal
Speaker 9: authority to speak on behalf of his son, Elion. Regarding
Speaker 9: Elion's immigration status in the United States. We have determined
Speaker 9: that Elion should be reunited with his father, mister Juan Gonzales.
Speaker 11: Or d me ask you about your reaction.
Speaker 1: They're only letting the dad decide what's best for the kid.
Speaker 1: Without his dad and not having the freedom to get
Speaker 1: an airplane come here to support his show when he
Speaker 1: most really needed him. I was there and so was
Speaker 1: my family. To Miami Cubans, the Ionis decision felt like
Speaker 1: a bit trial because for ones, Washington agreed with Havana
Speaker 1: and if there is one thing you absolutely cannot do
Speaker 1: in Miami, it's side with the er castro.
Speaker 8: Miami is a very insular place as an incubator for ideology.
Speaker 1: This is Guillermo Grenier, sociologists at Florida International University with
Speaker 1: an expertise on Cuba and Cuban Miami. Remember I told
Speaker 1: you at the beginning of the episode that in Miami
Speaker 1: so much revolves around politics. Well, that's because there is
Speaker 1: an ideology that influences the city a lot. Gillermo calls
Speaker 1: it the exile ideology.
Speaker 8: It provades everything, It provades the education in the schools,
Speaker 8: it provades the media, and.
Speaker 1: It informed why Miami Cubans felt so deeply about the lean.
Speaker 8: They came over. The identity was the ideology.
Speaker 1: So what is this traditional of Cuban American exile ideology.
Speaker 1: Giermo talked about a few core ideas. Number one, resisting
Speaker 1: any effort to legitimize the Cuban government. Some Cuban Americans
Speaker 1: believed the Cuban government should be criminalized and treated as
Speaker 1: a villain for its oppressive rule. Number Two, believing in
Speaker 1: the United States.
Speaker 8: We were the backyard of the United States.
Speaker 1: Remember, the Quban elite often had close business ties with
Speaker 1: US companies that operated on the island before the revolution.
Speaker 1: They would send their kids to a school in the US.
Speaker 8: The Cuban American identity in the United States initially was
Speaker 8: established by people who felt very close to the United States.
Speaker 8: They did not have to be taught to be pro American.
Speaker 8: It was in their blood.
Speaker 1: The first wave of exiles truly believed the revolution could
Speaker 1: not last, not under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam.
Speaker 8: They were fueled by the certainty that the United States
Speaker 8: will not allow for Theel Castro to do what he did.
Speaker 1: So typically, early wave exiles really believed that the US
Speaker 1: was fighting for a free Cuba through the embargo. Number three,
Speaker 1: this avowing engagement with Cuba, including travel to the island.
Speaker 8: You're not for travel to Cuba. You're not for opening
Speaker 8: up political lines of communications. You're against people that even
Speaker 8: travel to Cuba.
Speaker 1: And finally number four, rejecting an immigrant identity.
Speaker 8: You don't want to be immigrants. You want to go
Speaker 8: back to the other countries.
Speaker 1: Those who embodied traditional exile ideology believe they were forced
Speaker 1: out of their country and until they can return to Akubaire,
Speaker 1: there are exiles in the United States. Of course, some
Speaker 1: Cuban Americans disagree on this tenant. For example, some may
Speaker 1: have lost hope in the US and the efficacy of
Speaker 1: the embargo, seeing the longevity of the revolution as a betrayal.
Speaker 1: So for the most part, these beliefs have evolved and
Speaker 1: relaxed through the years, especially when it comes to travel
Speaker 1: to the island. Cubans who came to the US later
Speaker 1: in the eighties or nineties are more likely to oppose
Speaker 1: the embargo. They have family on the island and they
Speaker 1: don't want them to suffer. But a major tenant of
Speaker 1: traditional exile identity was to keep some semblance of hope,
Speaker 1: to live with the belief that next year, or next month,
Speaker 1: or even tomorrow you could be living in a free Cuba.
Speaker 1: This was especially true just after the fall of the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 8: There were a lot of apocryphal mentions of for sale
Speaker 8: signs popping up all over Hyaliyah, you know, thinking that
Speaker 8: the next lection on Tito, we're definitely going to be
Speaker 8: in Havana. Right.
Speaker 1: But by nineteen ninety nine, the year Eleana arrived in Florida,
Speaker 1: almost a decade had passed and the Cuban Revolution had
Speaker 1: still not been defeated.
Speaker 8: Elian comes, Fidel hasn't gone down. Everybody is not happy
Speaker 8: about that. And by God, Fidel's not going to get this.
Speaker 1: Trophy Ellan as a trophy. We heard this quite a
Speaker 1: bit in our reporting.
Speaker 8: So anything the Cuban government wants it should not get.
Speaker 8: And in this case, it was Ellian.
Speaker 1: If he went back to Cuba, Elean will be a
Speaker 1: price for Fidel and for his revolution. But if he
Speaker 1: stayed in Miami, he would also be a trophy, a
Speaker 1: beacon of the American dream for Cuban Americans. Gillermo explains
Speaker 1: that exile ideology was essential to how most Miami Cubans
Speaker 1: felt about Elean. He wasn't just a little boy who
Speaker 1: magically survived the Florida Straits. He was the little boy
Speaker 1: who had the potential to deliver a crushing blow to
Speaker 1: Fidel gastro.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Miami Cubans kept banding together outside of the Little Havana Home.
Speaker 5: People began going there period. You know, they wanted to
Speaker 5: express the solidarity with the family.
Speaker 1: This is Ramonzael Sanchez. He is a well known activist
Speaker 1: in the exile community and was one of the most
Speaker 1: visible protestors outside the Little Havana House. He was there
Speaker 1: nearly every night, driving straight from his work to the
Speaker 1: house and back again.
Speaker 5: I wanted always for the young consalate situation to be
Speaker 5: resolved between the families, between the relatives in Cuba and
Speaker 5: the relatives in the United States, not by the government.
Speaker 1: He even helped lead major street protests after the ins
Speaker 1: decision that Elian should go back to his father.
Speaker 5: I already no fortunes.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about Roman's life because I
Speaker 1: think it suggests why faults outside of Elian's house were
Speaker 1: so passionate. Ramon arrived in Miami during one of the
Speaker 1: early waves of Cuban migration on a US sponsored freedom flight.
Speaker 5: I've been in exiled since nineteen sixty seven, since I
Speaker 5: was twenty years old.
Speaker 1: He is an exiled through and through. His life has
Speaker 1: been all about fighting against the revolution.
Speaker 5: I began a struggle for democracy when I was fifteen
Speaker 5: years old. I am now sixty nine.
Speaker 1: Years old, and this fight was not all is peaceful.
Speaker 5: I got involved with Alpha sixty six, a legal organization
Speaker 5: in the United States.
Speaker 1: Under the law, Alpha sixty six is considered a right
Speaker 1: wing paramilitary organization and paramilitary activity is a lawfl in
Speaker 1: all fifty States. Early on it had some support from
Speaker 1: the CIA, but eventually it was on its own, where.
Speaker 5: Every Cuban that came from Cuba I wanted to do
Speaker 5: something for Cuba used to go to Alpha sixty six
Speaker 5: the register be a member.
Speaker 1: This is how Ramons is it. We weren't able to
Speaker 1: verify how Alpha sixty six recruited its members. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that Alpha sixty six carried out attacks
Speaker 1: against the Cuban government or those who seemed to support it.
Speaker 5: And there I trained on the struggle, on the guerrilla
Speaker 5: warfare and the struggle to free Cube.
Speaker 4: Just at Aver from which just rushed. Not a may
Speaker 4: allow her charge now our training the pipe, but our
Speaker 4: pastros armies in Cube, in.
Speaker 5: The event that someday we could go back and free Cube.
Speaker 1: In fact, unlike most given Americans, Ramon never went through
Speaker 1: the asylum process and never became a US citizen because.
Speaker 5: When we came here at the beginning, in our minds,
Speaker 5: we were going to go back.
Speaker 1: Then in the early nineteen eighties, he refused to testify
Speaker 1: before a grand jury for a case involving an assassination
Speaker 1: attempt against Castro, and.
Speaker 5: I refused to talk because of principles, a matter of conscience.
Speaker 1: So he went to prison. It was Ramon's time in
Speaker 1: prison that would change him.
Speaker 5: And I decided that we had to go to other methods,
Speaker 5: and that's where I embraced non violence.
Speaker 1: However, those first decades of exile life in Miami were
Speaker 1: tense and sometimes bloody, not just for Ramon but for
Speaker 1: much of the exile community. Exiles would police each other
Speaker 1: for not being anti Castro enough. In nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: one exile was killed by other exiles simply for saying
Speaker 1: he would go back to Cuba to vote if Fidel
Speaker 1: Castro opened democratic elections. With this history, it would be
Speaker 1: easy to conclude that exile ideology was the only reason
Speaker 1: why Cuban Americans wanted Elean to stay in the US.
Speaker 1: But I think it's more layered than that. The ideology
Speaker 1: is informed by very real experiences and trauma, and Cuban
Speaker 1: Americans genuinely believed Elean would be safer and have a
Speaker 1: better life in Layoma.
Speaker 2: Could you describe what is Layoma?
Speaker 5: So Juma refers to the United.
Speaker 1: States Juma, It's a very common Cuban term. No one
Speaker 1: is quite sure where the term came from, but most
Speaker 1: people think it comes from the nineteen fifty seven Cowboy
Speaker 1: classic three ten to Yuma, as in Yuma Arizona. The
Speaker 1: film is screened extensively throughout Cuba. In the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 11: Sula Man scared but brave, would run an out locked
Speaker 11: gruntlet to put a prisoner around the gallows bound train
Speaker 11: to Yuma.
Speaker 1: Another theory is that Juma is simply an abbreviated Cubanism
Speaker 1: for US man Juma.
Speaker 2: So in Cuba, if you said mekehery Palayoma, what does that.
Speaker 5: Mean, You're saying you want to come to the United States.
Speaker 1: Mikero i Palayoma. It's what all Cuban Americans had done.
Speaker 1: They had left Cuba to come and stay in Layoma. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why they assumed Elian also wanted to stay in
Speaker 1: the US. But soon Elian himself would say something very controversial,
Speaker 1: and his words would deepen the ideological divide. We are
Speaker 1: in a neighborhood called Little Havana. While reporting in Miami,
Speaker 1: Tasha and I stopped at the house where Alien stayed
Speaker 1: with his relatives. It's utly quiet.
Speaker 2: Imagine the same place that now looks so peaceful and quiet,
Speaker 2: surrounded by people all the time. LeAnn will come to
Speaker 2: the front yard to play around when everybody is screaming
Speaker 2: and happy and try to touch him. So it's a
Speaker 2: big contrast to see this house in a regular day,
Speaker 2: twenty five years after everything happened with a lean.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's now a career going the circus that people
Speaker 9: have described.
Speaker 2: If you see the pictures of those days and the videos,
Speaker 2: this seems like a really tiny street, and it's not tiny.
Speaker 1: It's actually pretty big. Now.
Speaker 2: I realized it looked tiny because it was so packed.
Speaker 1: With people, people who wanted the liand to stay in
Speaker 1: the US. After initial anger over the ions decision, on
Speaker 1: January fifth, the Miami relatives regrouped they were going to
Speaker 1: fight the decision.
Speaker 10: A bunch of lawyers rose up and agreed to represent
Speaker 10: the family in filing a petition for temporary legal custody
Speaker 10: of Elian in a state court.
Speaker 1: Law professor Berni Permoter. Again, the Miami family wanted to
Speaker 1: resolve things through family court and not through immigration and
Speaker 1: the federal government. On January tenth, a judge in Florida
Speaker 1: Family Court granted lazarro Anzalez, Elian's great uncle, temporary legal
Speaker 1: custody of Elian, pending a full hearing in marsh.
Speaker 10: And that he, as I understand it, and as I recalled,
Speaker 10: never occurred.
Speaker 1: Shortly after the ruling, the judge was reported to have
Speaker 1: a major conflict of interest just turning the legal case
Speaker 1: got big headlines, but something overshadowed it. The very next day,
Speaker 1: while we stood outside the house during our reporting trip,
Speaker 1: Kasha and I remembered what happened.
Speaker 2: This place is not that far from the Miami Airport,
Speaker 2: so you have a lot of planes here, and one day,
Speaker 2: in the middle of this saga, one of those planes
Speaker 2: were crossing in front of the house. And this is
Speaker 2: the moment when Alan says one of the most controversial.
Speaker 1: Things, yokyoke, I want to be returned to Cuba. Well,
Speaker 1: at least that's what the media initially reported Elean said,
Speaker 1: but many Miami Cubans say they heard the opposite Pakua,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be returned to Cuba. It sounds
Speaker 1: the same, right, depending on who you were on, what
Speaker 1: side you were on, you hear something different, But it
Speaker 1: was the exact same recording, the exact same words spoken
Speaker 1: by a little boy. This is what it's like to
Speaker 1: be Cuban, to be of the same people, divided by ideology.
Speaker 1: You can hear the same thing, but here two completely
Speaker 1: different messages. The play video, as it was known, really
Speaker 1: hit an nerve within the exile community. In the audio,
Speaker 1: you can even hear onlookers responding to Alien's words was
Speaker 1: it possible that Elian actually wanted to go back to Cuba?
Speaker 1: After all, he was being showered with many gifts in Miami.
Speaker 1: He seemed to have everything he could ever need. He
Speaker 1: even had a new puppy named Dolphin.
Speaker 11: Can you give us a sense of timing and in
Speaker 11: terms of when you would like to see this result,
Speaker 11: particularly because the boy's going to school, he's making friends,
Speaker 11: get the dogs, puppies, got relatives.
Speaker 7: Whatever happens with respect to the little boy, it should
Speaker 7: be done soon so that he can get on with
Speaker 7: his life with the puppy.
Speaker 1: This is our Department of Justice briefing just after the
Speaker 1: playing controversy. Attorney General Reno also made an important annount.
Speaker 7: I think the process that was used by Ions is
Speaker 7: a fair good process.
Speaker 1: She agreed with the Ions decision to reunite Alien with
Speaker 1: his father.
Speaker 7: We are just trying to make sure that people understand
Speaker 7: that what is an issue is a father who wants
Speaker 7: his son home.
Speaker 1: This is what was an issue for the United States
Speaker 1: government and for the law. But within the framework of
Speaker 1: exile ideology, the issue was not just about a father
Speaker 1: and a son. The issue, every issue in Miami was
Speaker 1: about opposing Castro and reaffirming life in Alexilion. That was
Speaker 1: the through line, the tension underlying everything. The alien case
Speaker 1: would only magnify that, bringing it to the foreground and
Speaker 1: leaving zero room for nuance. If you didn't agree that
Speaker 1: Elient shal stay in La Yuma full stop, you were
Speaker 1: on the wrong side. As a journalist, I see nuance
Speaker 1: in every story. I have a natural knack for asking
Speaker 1: difficult questions, for making room for healthy skepticism. That got
Speaker 1: me into travel in Cuba in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: when I first started journalism school there. One time in
Speaker 1: class I mentioned that cooking oil was very expensive in
Speaker 1: the stores and that we should find out why. From
Speaker 1: then on, I was prevented from doing any kind of
Speaker 1: political reporting. Instead, I was assigned to cover only cultural
Speaker 1: stuff like Varoque music concerts and in Miami. Well, I
Speaker 1: know there are also certain things I shouldn't say, like
Speaker 1: that the Cuban Revolution gave the masses a good education
Speaker 1: and created reforms to l beta for Cuban rights. Don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I'm not comparing the true censorship of
Speaker 1: a dictatorship with the social self policing that happens in
Speaker 1: the United States. I know there is a big difference.
Speaker 1: I have experienced that myself. I'm saying that there is
Speaker 1: a kind of censorship on both sides of the Florida Straits,
Speaker 1: for not supporting Catrimo on one side, and for not
Speaker 1: denouncing it enough on the other, for not going to
Speaker 1: live it in Alian protest in Cuba and for not
Speaker 1: showing up to Alian's house in Miami. For speaking my
Speaker 1: mind in Cuba and for speaking my mind in Miami.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be told what I can and
Speaker 1: cannot say, no matter where I am, And neither did
Speaker 1: little Elan, a boy with a mind of his own,
Speaker 1: his own thoughts, ideas, desires. He was not stuck on
Speaker 1: an ideology or a belief system. He saw a plane
Speaker 1: and said what he felt in that moment of childhood.
Speaker 1: Did this fleeting moment represent his true complete feelings. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe no one really knew, because even an
Speaker 1: innocent moment was interpreted through deeply health beliefs. Maybe each
Speaker 1: side just heard what they wanted to hear, what fit
Speaker 1: with their ideology, for better or worse. In the next
Speaker 1: episode of Chess, Peace, Ellen's father is said to come
Speaker 1: to the United States to take his son back to Cuba,
Speaker 1: but to his frustration, some Americans questioned his free will.
Speaker 12: If you are living in Cuba, you're living in a
Speaker 12: totalitarian regime, or your movements are watched, your actions are controlled,
Speaker 12: and you simply are not at liberty to advocate for
Speaker 12: your child's life and a democratic society where life would
Speaker 12: have been very.
Speaker 1: Different jess Peace. The Lan Gonzalez Story is a production
Speaker 1: of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: This show is written and reported by me Pennileea Medz
Speaker 1: with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell, and Tasha Sandowail. Our editor
Speaker 1: is Maria Garcia, Additional editing by Marlon bishop Or. Senior
Speaker 1: producer is Nicole Rothwell. Our associate producers are Tasha Sandoval
Speaker 1: and Elisabeth Loental Talks sound designed by Jacob Rossetti with
Speaker 1: help from Stephanie Lebon and Or intern is Evelin Fajardo Albarez.
Speaker 1: Our senior production manager is Jessica Elis, with production support
Speaker 1: from Nancy Trujillo and Francis Poon. Mixing by Stephanie Levo,
Speaker 1: Julia Caruso and j J. Carubin. Fat checking by Media Bautista.
Speaker 1: Scoring and musical creation by Jaco Rosati and Stephanie Levo
Speaker 1: and credits music from Los Aceros or Executive producers are
Speaker 1: Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia. Legal review by Neil Rossini.
Speaker 1: Huturo Media was founded by Mariainojosa. For more podcasts, listen
Speaker 1: to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows a Penileira Mirez see you in
Speaker 1: the next episode, Novemo Henesci and episode
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