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Speaker 1: The water changes from a beautiful shade of teal to

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Speaker 1: sapphire blue. When there's a storm, it looks almost black.

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Speaker 1: It is a narrow strip of water, the space between

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Speaker 1: two landmasks, a place with dolphins and sharks and early

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Speaker 1: seven hundred species of marine life, more than any other

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Speaker 1: place in the Atlantic Ocean. It's a life giving place,

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Speaker 1: but it's also volatile, erratic taking life, and this stretch

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Speaker 1: of sea has often been deadly for people trying to

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Speaker 1: get from one side to the other. From Cuba, where

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Speaker 1: I was born, to Florida, where much my family now leaves.

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Speaker 1: The water in between these two places halts memories of

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Speaker 1: countless storms. I'm going to tell you about one of

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Speaker 1: these storms, a storm from twenty five years ago.

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Speaker 2: That morning, the seas were really rough, eight to twelve

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Speaker 2: foot swells, and the sky, i remember, was black to

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Speaker 2: one side, and daylight was coming up, and there was

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Speaker 2: like a rainbow out there.

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Speaker 3: This is the natal about Rinple.

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Speaker 1: He's been in Florida for years, a storm doesn't face him.

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Speaker 1: So on Thanksgiving nineteen ninety nine, he went to his

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Speaker 1: cousin Sam's house to go fishing.

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Speaker 2: Only for him to tell me that we weren't going

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Speaker 2: to go fishing because the Marine advisory was saying that

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Speaker 2: it was too rough to be out on the ocean

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Speaker 2: that day.

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Speaker 1: But Donato and his cousin braave the aftermath of the

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Speaker 1: storm anyways, and then they see something in the water,

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Speaker 1: and we.

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Speaker 2: Ran across an inner tube and that's where it began

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Speaker 2: for me. We found a little boy floating about three

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Speaker 2: miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.

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Speaker 1: That little boy was five year old Alean Gonzalez. He

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Speaker 1: had been floating in the ocean for at least a day,

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Speaker 1: maybe two. The legend is that he was protected by

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Speaker 1: dolphins in the dark, dangerous storm waters.

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Speaker 2: It looked like a little angel.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it looks so fresh.

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Speaker 1: An angel of a boy saved by dolphins. What an image,

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Speaker 1: what a story. Little did they not to know this

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Speaker 1: strong storm in the ocean will actually bring more, more

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Speaker 1: forceful storms, a political and legal storm.

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Speaker 5: He was cut in the crossfire between two governments, and

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Speaker 5: not just him, All Cubans are caught in that cross fire.

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Speaker 3: The law is very clear.

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Speaker 6: An abandoned child belongs with his father in particle prove.

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Speaker 4: The equat.

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Speaker 7: It was a very close pivotal controversial election year, and

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Speaker 7: we all remember what happened, right George W. Bush defeated

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Speaker 7: Al Gore and what state was the deciding state of Florida?

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Speaker 3: A media storm.

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Speaker 7: Tensions between the United States and Cuba get hotter every

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Speaker 7: day six year old Cuban refugee Ilian Gonzales remains in

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Speaker 7: this country.

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Speaker 8: It was impossible to not be aware that something big

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Speaker 8: was happening in association with Elian Gonzalez.

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Speaker 2: In three minutes, six year old Ellly Young Gunzas, dressed

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Speaker 2: in a T shirt, draped in fear.

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Speaker 4: Was gone.

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Speaker 9: It was before Lean and after Alian. It definitely marked

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Speaker 9: a line in the story in the history of the

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Speaker 9: Cuban exile in the United States, especially in Miami.

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Speaker 3: And a storm within a family. I feel that he

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Speaker 3: deserves to be here.

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Speaker 7: That's what his mom wanted it.

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Speaker 3: His mom is first to me.

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Speaker 4: Family.

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Speaker 10: We want him to be in a free country with

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Speaker 10: his father, not alone. We want his father to be

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Speaker 10: with him. Okay, we want his father to be with him,

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Speaker 10: but free.

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Speaker 6: As we all know, when Alan came and found himself

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Speaker 6: lonely in this country, without no family, without his dad,

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Speaker 6: I was there and so was my family supporting that

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Speaker 6: why are we giving the opportunity at this point? So

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Speaker 6: speak for him.

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Speaker 1: All of these storms will tear a family apart, several

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Speaker 1: entire communities. Some say the termine the fate of the

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Speaker 1: two thousand US presidential election. And in the eye of

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Speaker 1: these storms, this little boy, I'm pennilea miss and this

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Speaker 1: is chess peace. The Elian Gonzalez Story. This is a

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Speaker 1: production of Ututa Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network.

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Speaker 1: Before I tell you more about these storms from twenty

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Speaker 1: five years ago, I want to introduce myself. I'm an

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Speaker 1: investigated reporter who built my career in Mexico City. We

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Speaker 1: put in on cartels and political corruption.

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Speaker 11: Ses the Esta Pista and Grasnrado spegan Gala Manires.

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Speaker 1: But now I want to tell you a story closer

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Speaker 1: to home. One that I relate to was a Cuban

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Speaker 1: as someone who, similar to Elian, was separated from my father.

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Speaker 1: I was raised in Cuba, but lived most of my

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Speaker 1: life in Mexico. A few years ago, I moved to

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Speaker 1: New York. You can hear my accent. I haven't been

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Speaker 1: here for long. I want to tell you a Lian's

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Speaker 1: story in a New way. As someone who was raised

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Speaker 1: in Cuba but whose family has been in Miami for decades,

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Speaker 1: I have experienced both of the very divided sides that

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Speaker 1: animated Alian's story, a story that has proven to be

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Speaker 1: one of the most difficult of my career. As the

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Speaker 1: sun rose on Fansgiving Day in nineteen ninety nine, Donato

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Speaker 1: and his cousin Sam were fishing for Mahi mahi seaweed

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Speaker 1: and the bree pepper dark ocean waters. They had fifties

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Speaker 1: music playing on the radio.

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Speaker 2: I remember the stinker round bump, bump, bump, bump, bump,

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Speaker 2: tooty fruity.

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Speaker 1: Sam told Donato the mahi mahi liked to hide in things.

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Speaker 3: Donato was on the lookout.

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Speaker 1: That's when something caught his eyes some twenty five yards away.

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Speaker 2: I said, like over there by that inner tube, and

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Speaker 2: my cousin said, because you had gone over the inner tube.

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Speaker 1: And as they got closer, Donato told Sam, there's.

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Speaker 2: A dead person on this inner tube because he goes, no, no,

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Speaker 2: he goes, it's a sick joke that somebody would tie

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Speaker 2: a doll to this inner tube.

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Speaker 1: His cousin brought it off, thinking someone was messing with them,

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Speaker 1: and then.

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Speaker 2: I looked again, and I seen a hand move, and

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Speaker 2: I told my cousin, You're not gonna believe this. I said, yes,

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Speaker 2: that person I thought was dead must be alive because

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Speaker 2: the hand moved. My cousin knew I wouldn't joke like

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Speaker 2: that with him.

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Speaker 4: He goes, hurry, Herry here.

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Speaker 3: They put the boat in gear and raced to the

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Speaker 3: inner tube.

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Speaker 2: Before I can blink my eye, my cousin was in

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Speaker 2: the water and he's screaming, it's a baby, it's a baby.

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Speaker 2: And I'm thinking myself, a baby.

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Speaker 3: A frozen panic.

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Speaker 1: The next thing he remembers is his cousin Sam pushing

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Speaker 1: up this little body from the ocean.

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Speaker 2: What he said was a baby became a little five.

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Speaker 3: Year old boy, Elian Gonzalez.

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Speaker 12: Elian Gonzalezalez.

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Speaker 2: When I got him into my arms and I asked him,

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Speaker 2: I said, oh, you okay, and he didn't answer me,

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Speaker 2: and I said, pabo suspanol, and he said, see.

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Speaker 1: They gave the little boy some orange juice and a sweatshirt.

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Speaker 1: Donato saw he was scared.

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Speaker 2: He made like a sour face, like he wanted to cry,

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Speaker 2: but he never cried.

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Speaker 1: Donato is a religious man and considers himself a missionary.

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Speaker 3: He was overcome with emotion.

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Speaker 2: I just looked up towards heaven. I didn't realize at

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Speaker 2: that moment that this would become another mission for me.

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Speaker 1: Eleian would become a mission for more than just Donato.

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Speaker 1: Eleian would become a cast on both sides of the

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Speaker 1: Florida Strates. When Donato and s rescued Alien from the boat,

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Speaker 1: they called Sam's then wife, Nola, and she called nine

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Speaker 1: one one. Soon the coast Guard was on its way.

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Speaker 2: And the first thing I said to the coast Guard

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Speaker 2: while we were on there, I said, is this boy

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Speaker 2: going to be able to make it to land?

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Speaker 1: The coast Guard took Elian to land. When they go

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Speaker 1: to the coast, an ambulance and the media were waiting

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Speaker 1: for Elian.

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Speaker 3: See do you know this boy? Yeah, we found.

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Speaker 7: You know, this beautiful little boy and his beautiful you know,

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Speaker 7: big eyes and smooth, smooth skin and a big bright smile.

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Speaker 7: It was like a miracle, right, a Thanksgiving miracle.

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Speaker 1: That's policer prise winning Quean American historian Ada Fere. The

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Speaker 1: fact that he was found on Thanksgiving is one of

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Speaker 1: those details that make Elian's origin story in the US

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Speaker 1: almost sacred. Over and over we spoke with people who

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Speaker 1: tell us something like this, so.

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Speaker 3: Most you know, like a biblical story. It was poetic ramifications.

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Speaker 4: He represented something, he represented a miracle.

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Speaker 3: And this became a symbol to them of the failure.

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Speaker 8: Of the communist system and the hope of the capitalist system,

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Speaker 8: the American system.

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Speaker 13: Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but it is a holiday

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Speaker 13: that people reflect.

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Speaker 3: Eleon plays into that this is Cuban American.

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Speaker 1: Former Congressman Jogarcia, we talked about the symbolism of Ileane

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Speaker 1: arriving in the US on one of the holidays most

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Speaker 1: meaningful to Cubans here.

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Speaker 13: I don't know if you've ever had Cuban Thanksgiving, but

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Speaker 13: it transmograification occurs.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 13: They take a dry piece of turkey meat and they

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Speaker 13: make it taste like pork.

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Speaker 1: And yes, I have had this turkey transmuted into pork

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Speaker 1: many times. My family have lived in Miami for decades

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Speaker 1: and I have celebrated many Thanksgivings there.

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Speaker 13: Somehow, just like you know, a priest turns water into wine,

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Speaker 13: Cubans take a turkey, which is inedible, they fill with

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Speaker 13: pork and meat ground beef inside. Then they cover the

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Speaker 13: turkey in bacon, and then they cook it with moho

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Speaker 13: and what comes out is a pork. It may be

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Speaker 13: a turkey, but it tastes like pork, right, and.

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Speaker 3: It's delicious, And it's delicious.

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Speaker 1: I could see the congressman getting emotional about Qan Thanksgiving,

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Speaker 1: and I get it. For Cubans in the US, this

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Speaker 1: holiday holds a greater significance. It's a profound celebration for us,

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Speaker 1: right with meaning, and.

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Speaker 13: So many times when you are celebrating Thanksgiving, you are

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Speaker 13: thinking of those that can.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to get lost in the symbolism of Elian's rescue,

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Speaker 1: the image of an angel faced voy surrounded by dolphins in.

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Speaker 3: The dark seas, rescued.

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Speaker 1: On Thanksgiving of all days. But behind these idealistic symbols

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Speaker 1: there was a heroine journey. Cuban journalist Harold Calinas.

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Speaker 5: I think it's easy to forget that these childhood events

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Speaker 5: are a trauma for Alien, and people often talk to

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Speaker 5: him in Cuba like this is just a political event,

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Speaker 5: But for him, this is the death of his mother.

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Speaker 1: Elean, like me, grew up in Cuba between the worst parents.

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Speaker 1: His name is actually a combination of his parents' first

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Speaker 1: names Elizabeth and Jamiel. It had been Elean's mother who

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Speaker 1: decided to raise that narrow strip.

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Speaker 3: Of see to get to it in States.

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Speaker 1: On the Sunday before Thanksgiving of nineteen ninety nine, she

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Speaker 1: took Elean, with her boyfriend, Rafa, and much of his

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Speaker 1: family to flee Cuba on Afflotia across the Florida Straits

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Speaker 1: to the United States. Elizabeth surely knew the risks. She

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Speaker 1: had dressed Elian in old orange, a colored fisherman had

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Speaker 1: told her would protect him against charts.

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Speaker 7: They hit bad weather the boat had started taking on water.

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Speaker 1: A giant wave flipped the boat over and left a

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Speaker 1: group of fourteen with only two inner tubes. One of

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Speaker 1: Raffa's brothers said he.

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Speaker 2: Could see the shore, maybe we can swim there, but

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Speaker 2: they were nowhere near the shore.

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Speaker 1: That's again Donato the rescue. From the beginning of the episode,

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Speaker 1: Alien's mother's boyfriend, Rafa, attempted to rescue his brother, who

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Speaker 1: had tried to swim.

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Speaker 3: To sure but nobody returned.

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Speaker 1: When Rafa's mother realized her sons had drowned, she let

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Speaker 1: go of her inner te Soon there were only four

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Speaker 1: people left, Elian and his mother Elizabeth and a young

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Speaker 1: couple Nevaldo Fernandez and Arian Orta. This couple was much

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Speaker 1: less in the media spotlight than Allan, but they also survived. Later,

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Speaker 1: Nvaldo would tell reporters Elizabeth's last words to.

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Speaker 6: Him and would tell me, take care of you, take

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Speaker 6: care of.

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Speaker 12: The board, trying to make it to land of free make.

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Speaker 2: Sure that the child touches land in the United States.

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Speaker 1: That night on the ocean, the inner tubes somehow were separated.

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Speaker 1: Years later, Eleann will say he was in and out

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Speaker 1: of sleep on the inner tube and at some point

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Speaker 1: he raised his head and he didn't see his mom

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Speaker 1: and daldoes abamay she lost her life to save mine.

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth drowned protecting Elian. Her body was never found, lost

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Speaker 1: forever in this stretch of sea. The last thing Elian

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Speaker 1: remembered was looking up and being alone in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the sea. From there, Eleian traveled some thirty five

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Speaker 1: miles north alone toward Donato, and his cousin found him

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Speaker 1: that Thanksgiving Day. Elean later told journalist Diane Sawyer that

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Speaker 1: he awoke at night on this journey alone in the

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Speaker 1: sea and saw dolphins protecting him.

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Speaker 3: Wept some time drawing some waves a dolphin.

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Speaker 4: Himself in an inner tube me.

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Speaker 3: He said, I was sinking.

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Speaker 1: After the rescue, the cost guard took Elan, Donato and

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Speaker 1: his cousin Sam to land and from there Elian was

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Speaker 1: wrapped up in a thick blanket by medics, where news

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Speaker 1: footage captured his dazed, scared look on his face.

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Speaker 2: Where's he going out?

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Speaker 1: As they loaded Alan on the stretcher into the ambulance,

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Speaker 1: Sam and Donato both patted him with care on his head.

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Speaker 1: They then follow Elian to the hospital.

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Speaker 2: That's today that I met Lazaro's uncle Delphine, which was

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Speaker 2: the great uncle, and Mary Lacy's.

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Speaker 1: This is the Gonzales family of Miami. Elian's paternal great

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Speaker 1: uncles Lasaro and the Finn, and his second cousin Mary Less.

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Speaker 3: It's just a miracle.

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Speaker 7: God wanted him here for freedom.

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Speaker 3: Thanks here, and he's here.

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Speaker 4: And he will get it.

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Speaker 1: They knew Elian was coming because his father's family in

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Speaker 1: Cuba had called a few days before. Once they realized

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Speaker 1: Elean was taken by his mom, it would be the

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Speaker 1: first collect call of many during this saga. Puamillel eventually

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Speaker 1: sold his nineteen fifty six Nash ramble.

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Speaker 3: To afford all these calls.

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Speaker 1: The day after Thanksgiving, Elian was released from the hospital.

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Speaker 1: The former Immigration and Naturalization Service or I ins placed

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Speaker 1: Elian in temporary care with his relatives in Miami.

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Speaker 4: Policies and protocols were executed, and at the time it

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Speaker 4: required that he be placed into the care and custody

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Speaker 4: of the closest and media r relatives, which he was.

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Speaker 1: This is Jim Goldman, a former Ironist special agent who

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Speaker 1: worked the case.

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Speaker 4: And that's sort of when it all began.

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Speaker 1: The storm in the ocean had subsided, but the tempest

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Speaker 1: was just beginning. When Eleane was rescued at sea. I

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Speaker 1: was a pre teen in Lawanna. I was born there

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven, just a few years before the

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Speaker 1: fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Speaker 4: The Iron curtain between East Germany and West Berlin has

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Speaker 4: come tumbling down.

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Speaker 1: East Germany and and that meant a lot of changes

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Speaker 1: for my little island.

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Speaker 9: The embargo is finally having the effect on cashrew that

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Speaker 9: has been intended all along.

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Speaker 13: It's time to tighten the screws, not loose on the screws.

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Speaker 1: What I remember most was how poor the country was

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Speaker 1: with the Soviet Union falling apart and the US embargo

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Speaker 1: in place, cub Us foreign trade suffered drastically. We lived

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Speaker 1: in a scarcity, with no public transportation, no access to gasoline,

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Speaker 1: and almost no food. Havana was full of people biking everywhere,

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Speaker 1: and to me, everyone looked tired and thin. We had

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Speaker 1: four hours of electricity and then four hours without when

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Speaker 1: the electricity came back guandol Via la Loose, I remember

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Speaker 1: the collective celebration.

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Speaker 3: Bin Nola lu Forola lous.

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Speaker 1: I remember the happiness, the screens and everyone turning on

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Speaker 1: their televisions to watch the Delenoela. I lived mostly with

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Speaker 1: my mother stepfather brother ann Auela Delia, in an apartment

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Speaker 1: in Lositios, a Barrio Ravo, a dangerous neighborhood, but I

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Speaker 1: never felt unsafe. My mom was all about education and rules.

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Speaker 1: She was loving and straight. Some of my biggest life

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Speaker 1: lessons that I carry with me are from her. Every

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Speaker 1: two weeks I would visit my dad, my step mom,

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Speaker 1: and my little brother Juankey in the outstairs of Havana.

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Speaker 1: My dad would buy some seven miles or take an

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Speaker 1: old train to pick me up and drop me off

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Speaker 1: at my dad's. I felt more free He lived in

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Speaker 1: a tiny apartment inside a solar, the Cuban name for

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Speaker 1: places with rooms around apatio, sometimes with restrooms the whole

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Speaker 1: building shared.

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Speaker 4: That's what he also Papa.

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Speaker 1: This is my dad who always calls me money short

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Speaker 1: for Mineka.

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Speaker 3: Do you guys look alike.

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Speaker 4: See me Money.

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Speaker 1: We're super close and trust each other with anything.

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Speaker 12: The time you need a secretis.

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Speaker 1: A year before Elean was rescued. My father told me

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Speaker 1: a secret one, but I couldn't tell a soul. My

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Speaker 1: dad was a coach for Cuba's national diving team. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, he was headed to South Florida for

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Speaker 1: an international diving competition.

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Speaker 3: Before he left, he told me, he.

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Speaker 1: Said, money in Noway Reserve. He wouldn't be coming back

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Speaker 1: to Cuba, and I will be staying in Cuba.

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Speaker 3: It was a dangerous secret.

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Speaker 1: If I told my father could get in trouble with

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Speaker 1: the government. He could be prevented from traveling or even

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Speaker 1: go to jail. And it's something nearly three decades later

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Speaker 1: that my dad and I have never really talked about

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Speaker 1: until now, until I started digging into my memories of

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Speaker 1: Cuba during my reporting for this podcast.

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Speaker 12: Rago Avenia a Dando migaison.

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Speaker 1: Leaving Cuba was something that had been weighing on him.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to find a life with more food and

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Speaker 1: more freedom.

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Speaker 12: In Josavaka Dimpo and padan moment when he decided to leave,

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Speaker 12: he had no idea when we will be able to

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Speaker 12: see each other again. I go the ako to talk again.

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Speaker 1: But my father wanted me to know the truth. So

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Speaker 1: my father went to Florida and never came back. He

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Speaker 1: found a job at a public pool, teaching kids how

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Speaker 1: to swim. Most of them were second generation immigrants from

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Speaker 1: Latin America. Recently I spoke with some of the swimmers

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Speaker 1: he coaches.

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Speaker 6: He was my coach, a father figure, a grandpa, someone

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Speaker 6: you can ask advice for.

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Speaker 3: His everything, He's my everything.

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Speaker 1: It makes me emotional hearing his students calling him family.

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00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: They got to be with my dad for so many years.

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Speaker 3: Something that was taken from me.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, when my dad didn't return to Cuba,

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Speaker 1: he was marked as a traitor by the Cuban government

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Speaker 1: and my family paid the consequences.

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Speaker 12: Okay, can you parad kua no so in the sector

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Speaker 12: Yoso jun trailer.

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Speaker 1: We were forbidden from leaving Cuba or seeing my dad

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Speaker 1: for at least three years. He lost all parents, our rights.

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Speaker 12: Oh say you feel direction.

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Speaker 4: And superdo.

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Speaker 1: To be Cuban like Elyan and me means that governments

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00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 1: and their policies dictate if you can grow up with

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00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:56,879
Speaker 1: your parents. More often than not, the policies separate us

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Speaker 1: as short now eighty mile stretch of ocean apart.

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Speaker 10: Taking our shoes off to get onto the sand in

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Speaker 10: the hot no, I feel I'm burning. Oh Jesus, Oh

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00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 10: I can't do it. Oh my Okay, we're putting our

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00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 10: shoes back.

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00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: While reputting in Florida producer Tashas and Dovala and I

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00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 1: tried to take a peaceful break at the beach, but

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Speaker 1: the sun is too hot even in May.

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Speaker 11: So right now we're standing in a beautiful white sand

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00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 11: beach and next to four dollars though, And we're just

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Speaker 11: a few steps from the station of the US Coast

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Speaker 11: Guard here in this place, and this is a station

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Speaker 11: where Elean Gonzalez was taken after he was found three

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Speaker 11: miles from here in the middle of the ocean.

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Speaker 1: It's a bit disorienting because the trees and land here

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00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: resemble the beaches.

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Speaker 3: I remember as a kid in.

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00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 11: Cuba, you can hear the airplanes from here because the

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00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 11: airport it's so close. So it's this paradox of it

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00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 11: could be so easy to get here, but it's so

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Speaker 11: dangerous and so difficult.

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Speaker 1: I look at the water today, is pristine, crystalline, calm.

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00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: It makes me think of the beauty so many people

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Speaker 1: describing Alian's rescue, the dolphins protecting this angelic boy on

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day. It's a poetic visual, but the Lian's story,

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Speaker 1: just like the ocean, is darker than its glowing surface.

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Speaker 1: We cannot know for certain that there were dolphins that

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00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: protected a lan and maybe his face looked like an

401
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: angel to his rescures, but really Eleian was terrified and

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00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: to Miami Cubans, the fact that Elean was found on

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00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,919
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving was a sign of hope, of the possibility of freedom.

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00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: But Thanksgiving meant nothing to Alian. That day was not

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00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: a holiday for him. That was the day when he

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00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: was alone at sea after losing his mother. So for

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00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: this podcast, I'm not interested in the myth. I want

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00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: the real story because underneath all the yeleg and lore,

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00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 1: there is something messier.

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00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 4: Every day things got worse and worse and worseh it

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00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 4: got darker and deeper.

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Speaker 3: What work comes to your mind when I say the

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00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 3: word alien elia, convasive pain.

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Speaker 7: No matter what the outcome would have been, it's just pain.

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00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 9: Was a triumph, I guess for his father, but for

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00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 9: hundreds of thousands of Cubans in Miami was a tragedy.

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00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 4: I would have to say some misgivings. The word circus

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00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 4: comes to mind.

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00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 7: I think puppet, I think dictatorship. I think the need

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Speaker 7: for truth to surface myth.

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00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: It was hard to know what actually was true eventually

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Speaker 1: in the end.

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Speaker 8: And ely On he was kind of the passive voice

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Speaker 8: in this. You know, nobody could ask him what it

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00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 8: means to be free?

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Speaker 1: And ngo and momentum contra momental my bad.

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Speaker 3: This is Chess Piece, the real Elian Gonzalez story. Chess Piece.

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Speaker 1: The Story is a production of Tudo Studios in partnership

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00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: with Iheartsmichael Tura Podcast Network. This show is written and

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00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: reported by me Pennileea Medz with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rodwell,

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00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:17,640
Speaker 1: and Tasha Sandoval. Our editor is Maria Garcia, Additional editing

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00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 1: by Marlon Bishop. Our senior producer is Nicole Rodwell. Our

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00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 1: associate producers are Tasha Sandovali and Elisabeth Loental Torres. Sound

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00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: besigned by Jacob Rossatti and our intern is Evelyn Fajardo Alvarez.

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00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 1: Our senior production manager is Jessica Elis, with production supports

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00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: from Nancy Trujillo and Francis pun.

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00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 3: Mixing by Stephanie.

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00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: Levo, Julia Caruso and j J Carubin, fat checking by

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00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: Media Bautista, Scoring and musical creation by Jacob Rossati and

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00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebo and credits music from Los Aceos Or. Executive

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00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: producers are Marlon Bishop and my Ya Garcia. Legal review

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00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 1: by Neil Rossini. This episode was recorded in part at

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00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: Dynamica Studio in Mexico City. Utura Media was founded by

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00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: Maria Novosa. For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

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Speaker 1: A penileeter MITEZ see you in the next episode.

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Speaker 3: Novemo Henes and episode