WEBVTT - Elián, Part Two: The Ultimatum 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:09.200 From Futromidia and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Mariaino hossa. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.520 Last time we were the first episode of the Elian 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.560 Gonzalez Story about a young Cuban boy rescued at sea, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.120 but what followed after he was found was a diplomatic 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:27.800 crisis between the United States and Cuba. In the last episode, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.840 we heard all about how Elian Gonzalez was rescued alone 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.640 from the Florida Straits. His mother died while trying to 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.800 cross from Cuba, and the boy was placed with relatives 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.640 he had in Miami. The Miami relatives believed it was 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.120 his mother's dream for Elian to stay in the United States, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.559 but his father in Cuba wanted his boy back. We 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.200 pick up the story now with episode two of Chess 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:58.040 Peace the Elian Gonzalez Story. Here's host and Latino USA 0:00:58.160 --> 0:00:59.840 co executive producer Benny Later. 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:00.120 I'm it. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.240 When Elian made it to Miami. I was twelve years 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.440 old living in Cuba. My younger brother, Juan Carlos, who 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:14.200 we called Kuankey, was eight. Kuankey, like me, remembers. Alian's 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:15.559 face was everywhere. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.520 Yeah, of course, and they made surets and posters. 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.040 And all over the school. 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:21.680 There was the flavor of the month. 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.640 You know, Elian's story was more than just the flavor 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:37.120 of the month. Actually, it was a national cause. Before 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.120 Elian was even rescued, his family in Cuba had contacted 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:45.200 the Communist party in his hometown seeking help. That's how 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.480 Fidel Castro found out about Ilian. The Cuban government sent 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.800 a message to the US the day after Elian was 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.200 found tregression, and Mino Superba in Cuba returned the boy 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.320 to his father in Cuba. In the days that followed, 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:07.280 Castro met with Ilian's father and became increasingly angry. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.280 In film and check. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.320 He said, the US has kidnapped Elian Gonzalez. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.280 The opinion shut down where. 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:35.720 It sounded a little like a threat, But the ominous 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.440 stone in Castro's voice escaped my key brother. He was 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.960 more concerned that he could not watch his regular cartoons 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.320 because of the constant news about Eliang. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.000 They were giving a whole spill of bring back Alan 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.280 at that time. I'm a kaid that really didn't care 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:51.760 about it. 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.120 I did not care about cartoons. I was just a 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:59.560 regular nerdy preteen, dividing my time between poetry and the 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.520 spice girls. The year before, my father had fled Cuba 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.920 for Miami. He was trying to escape the poverty and 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.160 instability of our country. I didn't know when I will 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.400 see him again. Much of this time in my life 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:20.480 is blurry, but there is one sharp memory. I'm in 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.720 front of the US headquarters in Cuba at a government 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.760 mandated protest that I was required to attend, screaming loudly 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:37.760 and Elian bring back Ilian to Cuba. This memory surprises 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.400 me now because frankly, I don't remember what I actually 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.680 thought of Elia, like I don't remember actually having an opinion, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.040 and yet here I was at this protest, screaming from 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:58.880 the bottom of my heart. I have come to realize 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.920 I was not a screaming for Elian. I was screaming 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:06.360 for my dad, screaming in frustration that, like Elean, the 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.480 same strip of ocean separated me from my father. I 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.240 did not understand or really care about the political forces 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.040 that had caused or separation. I only knew that I 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.400 missed him, that I needed him, that I was angry 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:26.240 that I could not be with him, and so I screamed. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.000 No family issue had to go through what we went, 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.680 just because I'm looking for a better future. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.880 My brother told me this recently. I agree, but we 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.680 are Cuban, and to be Cuban is so often to 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:52.320 be separated from their family. And Penny later meets and 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.960 this is chess peace. The Elian Gonzalez Story a production 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:02.000 of Ututa Studios in partnership with iHeart Michael Turda podcast Network. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:14.440 On December sixth, nineteen ninety nine, Elian Gonzalez celebrated his 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.640 sixth birthday in Miami. It was just a week and 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.320 a half after he had been rescued from the sea. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.640 He had been staying with distant relatives on his dad's side, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.000 his great uncle Lasara Gonzalez, and Lazaro's twenty one year 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.000 old daughter, Mary Leasis. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.000 How did he survive by himself when he's only five? 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.400 And the only thing I could probably say that it's 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:37.599 just a miracle. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.360 People said. She became like a mother figure for Elian. 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.000 She cared for him, making him chocolate milk, something that 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.239 was a luxury in Cuba and that Elean had quickly 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:53.719 come to love. One journalist reported that Mary Leasis would 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.120 say to Elian, mere Allan Sito, your grandmothers cannot make 0:05:58.160 --> 0:05:59.000 you this in Cua. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.920 Just want him to be wherever he wants to be comfortable. 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:08.040 Mari Lesis quickly became the family spokesperson. Unlike her father, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.480 she spoke English well because she had been raised in 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.320 the US. She was young, passionate about the lean, and 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.960 comfortable in front of the cameras. I asked him, if 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:20.160 do you want to go back? 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.480 You mean you know you want to stay here, and 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.640 he said, I don't want to go back. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.400 She and her father, last Settle, believed Elian's mother died 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.479 trying to give him safety and freedom in the US, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.560 and they were not alone. Cuban Americans would show up 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.159 at their house demand in the US government let Elean 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:51.800 stay in the US. Yeamanda. People would say it would 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.400 be a shame to send the boy back to communism 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.719 and hunger in Cuba. At his birthday at a local park, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.240 Elien was given men gifts and a huge birthday cake. 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.760 But that was an Alien's only birthday party in Cuba. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:11.400 His school organized a celebration in his absence with a 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:16.600 special guest, Fidel Gastro himself stopped by. He wore his 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:22.160 typical olive green military uniform. Alien's father, Juamiel spoke to 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.760 his son by phone that day to wish him a 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.040 happy birthday, and they spoke as if Alien will be 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:29.600 back in Cuba soon. 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.200 Well that went to Heidi. 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:45.760 Really there were protests in Havana marking the week of 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:54.400 Alian's birthday. Cubans chanted down with imperialism, socialism, or death 0:07:55.160 --> 0:08:02.320 Oh Wenday. But the protests in Cuba did not change 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.720 eleians status in the US. His future was still in limbo. 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.080 His Miami relatives had begun the process to file for 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.640 asylum for Elian. At the time, Cubans were guaranteed entry 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.520 to the US if they made it to the US soil. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.880 But Elian didn't technically meet these requirements. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.440 Because he was rescued at sea and never made it 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:28.640 to the shoreline. 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.760 He was a wet Cuban national. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.400 This is Bernie Permurder, professor of law at the University 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.560 of Miami. He's referring to an unusual American policy at 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:46.400 the time known as bieseco pimojus or wet foot dryfoot. 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.160 It allowed any Cuban to legally stay in the US 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.120 as long as they made it to the American shore 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.720 after crossing the ocean from Cuba. Literally stepping on dry land, 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.880 that's the dry foot. But Cubans who were captured or 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.199 rescued at sea by the cost Guard, they were not 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.360 permitted entry to the United States. That's the wet foot. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.440 The federal government had taken legal custody of elianis I 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.720 said he didn't reach the shore, so he did not 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.520 have the benefit of dry feet landing on the beaches 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:24.439 of Florida. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.840 So Alien's status under immigration law was not certain, and 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.640 another immigration policy in the US at that time said 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.280 that only a parent could apply for asylum for their child. 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.360 So to immigration officials, Alien's Miami relatives didn't have the 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.720 authority to decide the boy's fate. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.000 I'm not sure I understand what their rights are. These 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:52.280 are distant relatives. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.600 This is Jim Goldman, former special agent with US Immigration 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:02.959 and Naturalization Services or ions. We shall say in unusual circumstances, 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.400 the law does allow the government to assign a guardian 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.960 to one unaccompanied child, even if there are distant relatives 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.880 or not relatives. But in this case, the government was 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.920 insistent that there was no need to since Alien's father 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:20.079 wanted him back. 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:26.400 I think the biological father has more right to make 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.320 decisions for his child at the time was, you know, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.559 five and six years old. More so than anybody. 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.679 Jim thinks this case should have been open and shopped. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.640 But it became a hot topic because I think the 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.880 system allowed for it to become a hot topic. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:45.160 He's right. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.040 Tensions between the United States and Cuba get hotter every 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.200 day six year old Cuban refugee Ilian Gonzales remains in 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:52.800 this country. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.400 The American media system jumped on Alien's story. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.839 Cuban men, women and children pro tested on the streets 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.000 of Havana by the thousands last night. It was the 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.199 largest turnout so far in the third night of protest, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.040 orchestrated by Fidel Castro. 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.400 It became the biggest story in the country at a 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.679 time when networks competed for wall to world news covers. 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.320 It happens at the same time that we have the 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.800 modern media machine being created, the twenty four hour news cycle, 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.960 the dying of network news, the expansion of cable news, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:31.600 the need for content. 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.760 Go back and look at some of the news archives, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.920 and it does start to feel at times like Elean 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:43.120 was treated like content. There were cameras always stuck in 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.760 Ilian outside the Miami home, reporters trying to catch a 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.800 look of him playing ball being a little boy. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.720 Relatives of Elian Gonzalez say they saw a different side 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.240 of the six year old, a boy simply filled with 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:58.360 joy and happiness. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.600 Reporters tried to capture every detail of Alian's introduction to 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.280 American culture, like when he went to Disney World for 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.960 the first time, where he got a personal hug and 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:17.240 a baseball hat autograph Bornana Masi Alamnos came Mickey Mouse himself. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.520 But Ellian showed some lingering signs of his Thanksgiving ordeal 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:22.800 and rescue at sea when he went on the It's 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:24.280 a Small World water. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:30.120 Rod and the interview request kept coming. Diane Sawyer had 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.240 a playdate with Lean on camera. 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.560 It was probably the biggest media item in the United States, 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.319 if not the world at the time. 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:42.440 He would go to a party, you would go to 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.719 a restaurant, you would see your family. The talk the 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.680 main subject was Elian. You know what's going to happen 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:50.960 to that boy. 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.840 Alina Mayo Assay is a television news bra a seasoned 0:12:55.920 --> 0:13:00.200 news anchor who covered Miami's biggest stories for decades. She 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.640 says nothing at the time could compare to the appeal 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.400 of the the end story. It was unprecedented. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.240 It was our headline story practically every day. It was 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.600 before a Lean and after a Lian. It definitely marked 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:17.440 a line and the story and the history of the 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.800 Cuban exile in the United States, especially in Miami. 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.160 But in Cuba. The US media frenzy seemed to make 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:30.319 Fidel Castro even more upset. And soon Castro will send 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:39.160 another stern message. Returned the boy in seventy two hours. 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:53.240 Check Fidel's message to the US was clear. Returned the 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:59.440 boy in three days only, not Elo Freman. So that 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.240 the page suffering on trauma Dipoi and his family does 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.680 not go a minut longer, he said, and his words 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:12.480 were in the only ominous move. Castro stationed several dozen 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:17.000 Cuban soldiers outside of the US Government Intersection Office in Havana. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.680 This is the headquarters where I remember attending government sponsor 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.600 protests for Elian. I remember the tension in the air, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.600 the vague sense that there was something biggest stake here, 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:41.840 something with a lot of biggers. To understand why lands 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.800 case became such a big deal, you had to understand 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:49.840 the complicated relationship between Cuba and the United States. Let's 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:55.040 start in the early fifties. At this time, Cuba was 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.560 ruled by Fulhenzioattista, who was once elected, but whose government 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.600 had been become essentially a military dictatorship. 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.760 Six years of surface prosperity and government corruption, of repression 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.840 and police brutality right explosive discontent. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.400 Mattista was friendly to US interests, allowing American companies like 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.280 Coca Cola and United Fruit to warn a giant amount 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:25.120 of Cuban land workers struggled to survive on low wages 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.320 and oppressive conditions. This inequality ripened the country for the 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.000 ideals of Fidel Castro's revolution Urbis. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.640 Fidel Castro emerged triumphant after two years a guerrilla warfare 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.040 against the Batista regime. 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:40.480 A revolution that. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.000 Began with Castro a fugitive, ended with the finding dictator 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.440 for Cencio Battista and the entry into Havana of rebel 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.320 forces to be acclaimed by the city. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.120 He and his fighters, including a John Argentinian doctor named 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:02.080 Ermeto che Evara, eventually over through Battista and his government. 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:07.000 Castro and his men were the underdogs. The uprising had 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.120 begun with just eighteen men in the mountains of La 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:14.200 Sierra Maestra, and it had spread to the whole island. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.880 At first, the US was not alarmed. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.560 Now, when Fidel Castro's fighting to depose Battista, he's not 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.280 calling himself communists. Many of the people who were in 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.000 his movement, which was called the twenty sixth of July Movement, 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.160 were young people who were ardently anti communists. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.920 This is Ala Ferrer, the Cuban American history professor at 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.200 Princeton you heard from in episode one. 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.400 But they believed in deposing Batista. They believed in acting 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:44.760 against government corruption. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.600 By nineteen sixty, the new government approved laws that banned 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:54.320 all foreign ownership of Cuban land, banishing American companies from 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:59.720 the island and nationalizing their businesses. His government also confiscated 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.480 the law of Cubans who held more than one thousand acres. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.280 Even Castro's own mother was apparently outraged that her son 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:14.080 had confiscated their family estate. Castro redistributed this line to 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.240 workers or statecomings. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.320 They start enacting social reforms like the urban reform, cutting rents, 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:25.600 and with all these laws that they're passing, they're getting 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:27.960 enormous amounts of support. 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.640 Some of that support came from my own grandparents, who 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.760 got the chance to buy for almost nothing the apartment 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.800 that they were renting before the revolution. It was the 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.000 same apartment where I was raised with my mother thirty 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:45.000 years after that. Not everyone felt like my grandparents. 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.560 Obviously, the people whose land is being taken away are 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.040 not necessarily going to support. 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.320 But Castro was well liked in Cuba, not just by 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.600 my grandparents but by many other Cubans. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.520 Save with your policies in Cuba, doctor Castro leading to 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.199 conditions of great economic difficulty? 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.600 Is this so everybody working, everybody happy? 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:13.320 In this nineteen sixty one BBC interview, Castro is young, smiling, 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:18.119 easy going. The journalist wrote that Castro charmed and impressed 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:23.000 many reporters. When Castro came to power, he promised democratic 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.760 elections would come as soon as the new government stabilized, 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:35.160 But by the early sixties that hadn't happened. The Cubans 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.439 who let for the United States after Castro had taken 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:44.040 their land. So Castro not for a revolutionary but a despot. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.840 Some people say, some of your Cuban enemies, says yes. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.680 People in Miami Americans say that you started a revolution 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.919 to bring in democracy, and you have not done so. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.320 In this part of the video, when the reporter meants 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:05.840 Cubans in Miami, Castro gives a Sondricita his marks a little. 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.480 Do you believe that there is no democracy here? And 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.439 I'm ensure there is more your question than that. In 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.919 the United States, the most free main man you can't 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.439 find in all America is the Cuban. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.560 Ada says that in a survey from February of nineteen 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.640 fifty nine, about ninety one percent of the respondents said 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.840 that the new government was doing everything perfectly well, but 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.359 Washington didn't feel this way. Here is adaigen. 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.480 The President and senators and congressmen were saying, what is 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.280 Cuba doing? It's turning communists. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:49.000 By nineteen sixty two, the US had cut diplomatic ties 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:53.440 with Cuba and declared and embargo forbidding American trade with Cuba, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.520 hoping to create shortages and hunger on the island to 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:02.080 destiblize Castro's new government. By this time, Castro had been 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.959 turning into the Soviet Union for help and trade. 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.720 To what the United States and self respect can endure. 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:12.439 That level has now been reached. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:18.280 The CIA also secretly trained some fourteen hundred Cubans who 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.320 had led for the US to invade Cuba at the 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:26.159 Way of Peaks Lava Yedecuccinos, believing the attack could kickstart 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:32.119 an uprising against Castro. But the attended invasion failed miserably. 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.919 I remember learning in our history classes in Cuba about 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:42.200 these early days of Castro's rule, how he created news systems, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.480 free health care, and free education, improving the quality of 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:51.159 life for ordinary Cubans. I remember some people in Cuba 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.959 saying that yes, their life improved at the beginning, and 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.240 they supported Castro, pretty convinced that great years were ahead. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.080 But what I didn't learn in school was that from 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.719 the very beginning, the censorin and self censorin started, and 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:12.800 Cuba quickly became a place with almost no freedom of expression. 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:20.160 Under this new regime, dissidents were often imprisoned, and then 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:21.400 thanks got worse. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.520 It's a period that follows the fall of the Soviet 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.959 Union and state socialism in Eastern Europe, and the Cuban 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.240 economy just tanked almost from one day to the next. 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:36.679 There was the joke of you know, Cuba, but it 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.959 wasn't really a joke. You know, Cuba just has three problems, 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.399 you know, Theresa Union and Mercilla Comedia breakfast, lunch and dinner. 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.000 And everywhere I went, the constant refrain was noise fasci 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.719 everyone had the reservation meant that and it was just 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.680 this constant struggle to live and to survive. 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.639 Over the decades, waves of Kuwan's left the island for 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.800 the US in flights and votes. There were the fourteen 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:07.399 thousand children who were put on planes to Miami in 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.240 fear that they will be taken away from their families 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:15.359 and put in Communist inductrination camps. That never happened, by 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:15.720 the way. 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.000 Then the next wave was nineteen eighty and the Maria 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.800 boat lived in which one hundred and twenty five thousand 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.080 people came in the space of about you know, five months. 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.320 Even less, the president has literally opened the floodgates, placing 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.080 no limitations on the number of Cubans entering the United States. 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.960 A decade after Mariel, with the fall of the Soviet Union, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.920 Cuba entered the years of severest scarcity that I remember 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.240 from my childhood. The Cuban government named it the Special 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.600 Period or Elperio pessiet Then there. 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:51.440 Was the Raftro crisis in ninety four, which I think 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:53.440 was about thirty five thousand people in the space of 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.600 a few months. But in all those years there were 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.000 people leaving. 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.119 Most of the time, families could not leave Cuba together. 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:05.880 They would decide who had a better chance to leave, save, 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:09.080 send money, and work hard to help the rest of 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:13.199 the family on the island. There are many families like 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:17.439 mine and Aliens where a parent or a child comes 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:18.880 without the rest of their family. 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.919 Family separation is, you know, was a part of the 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.160 story of the Cuban Revolution from the very beginning. 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:30.000 Family separation has become such a part of the Cuban 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:34.280 cultural DNA that is actually pretty difficult to meet a 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:38.080 Cuban who has not been touched by it. And who 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.800 you blame for that separation depends on what side of 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.520 the small strip of ocean between Cuba and Florida you 0:23:45.640 --> 0:24:05.440 are on. Alien's story flooded every corner of life in Cuba. 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.320 I remember not just attending but watching the protests in 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:14.719 Havana demanding Elian be brought home. So those Harold Cardinas, 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.920 Quban journalist and political analyst. 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.479 People in Havana had to rally all the time, and 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:25.000 it's impressive when you look at the images of the 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:29.640 Malecon in Havana next to the sea full of probably 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:34.000 millions of Cubans. That is an impressive thing that showed 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:37.840 the capacity that the Kivan government had back then to 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:40.919 rally people and to bring them together for a cause. 0:24:41.800 --> 0:24:46.040 I am sure that many of them were strongly encouraged 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:50.320 in their jobs to join those rallies, but others were 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:52.080 going because they really believe in it. 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:57.960 I felt this too. Sure there were people there because 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:01.680 the protests were mandated, but I also saw people who 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:06.000 were truly calling for his return, outraged that the boy 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:07.879 was being kept from his father. 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:11.480 Obviously, at that age, it's hard to distinguish between the 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:14.159 real fight of a kid that deserves to be with 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.160 his father and the propaganda and how the governments also 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:23.760 used people citizens for propaganda purposes, So as a child 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:26.479 it was hard to distinguish a propaganda. 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:27.119 On both sides. 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:34.400 In Cuba, I remember hearing a lot about how Alien's 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:37.720 father had never agreed that Ilan could be taken to 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:41.120 the United States, how the US was keeping a boy 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:45.040 away from the rightful parent, another example of the evil 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:49.080 US Empire. But for Cubans in Florida. This case was 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.119 about freedom and saving a boy from oppression. 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:57.240 Many of the people, the Quban Americans in Miami identified 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:00.000 with the mother and her motivations for doing what she did, 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:02.760 and the fact that she lost her life in trying 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:04.040 to do this. 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:08.560 This is former Assistant Secretary of State Petrometro. But this 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:12.480 idea that Alien's mother had died trying to reach freedom 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:16.480 for her son is not as black and white. There 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:19.840 is some evidence that Alien's mother was going to the 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:23.760 United States not for freedom, but to follow her boyfriend. 0:26:24.440 --> 0:26:28.600 They truly were the Cuban Romeo and Juliet Well. 0:26:28.640 --> 0:26:31.919 She was reputting the story. Journalist and Louis bardak So 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:35.439 a five page love letter between the couple, and she 0:26:35.720 --> 0:26:39.359 and others are convinced that love was the real motive. 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:43.760 The reason the mother was on the boat was because 0:26:44.480 --> 0:26:50.360 of her great love for Rafa Muneerum. If Rafa had 0:26:50.400 --> 0:26:53.760 said we're going to Iceland or we're going to Columbia, 0:26:55.840 --> 0:26:56.720 I think she would have. 0:26:56.680 --> 0:27:00.399 Gone with him, regardless of why she got an boat. 0:27:00.760 --> 0:27:04.400 What you should know is people either identified with Lilian's 0:27:04.400 --> 0:27:08.000 mom and the US or Alien's dad and Cuba. 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:11.720 Everybody can understand. You know, a child who's a Cuban 0:27:11.800 --> 0:27:14.479