WEBVTT - The Ultimatum 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.200 When Elian made it to Miami, I was twelve years 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.440 old living in Cuba. My younger brother, Juan Carlos, who 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:13.240 we called Kwankey, was eight, kuanky like me. Remember, Alian's 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.520 face was everywhere, Yeah. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.280 Of course, and they made shirts and posters and all 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:19.079 over the school. 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:20.720 There was the flavor of the month. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:21.040 You know. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.680 Elian's story was more than just the flavor of the month. Actually, 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:37.559 it was a national cause. Before Elian was even rescued, 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.320 his family in Cuba had contacted the Communist party in 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.720 his hometown seeking help. That's how Fidel Castro found out 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:50.080 about Ilian. The Cuban government sent a message to the US. 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.280 The day after Elian was found, Tregress and Mino Superba 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.680 in Cuba returned the boy to his father in Cuba. 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:01.360 In the days that followed, Strum met with Ilian's father 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:13.560 and became increasingly angry. In film and check, he said, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.319 the US has kidnapped Elian Gonzalez. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.440 The opinion shut down where. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:34.760 It sounded a little like a threat, but the ominous 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.440 stone in Castro's boys escaped my kid brother. He was 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.000 more concerned that he could not watch his regular cartoons 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.320 because of the constant news about Eliang. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.040 They were giving a whole spill of bring back Alian 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:48.680 at that time. 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.800 I'm a kid that he really didn't care about it. 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.120 I did not care about cartoons. I was just a 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.600 regular nerdy preteen, dividing my time between poetry and the 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.559 Spice Girls. The year before, my father had fled Cuba 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.920 for Miami. He was trying to escape the poverty and 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.200 instability of our country. I didn't know when I will 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.360 see him again. Much of this time in my life 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:19.480 is blurry, but there is one sharp memory. I'm in 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.760 front of the US headquarters in Cuba at a government 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.200 mandated protest that I was required to attend. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.280 Screaming loudly. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:37.359 Bring back Ilian to Cuba. This memory surprises me now 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.360 because frankly, I don't remember what I actually thought of Elia, 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.800 like I don't remember actually having an opinion, and yet 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.560 here I was at this protest, screaming from the bottom 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:58.400 of my heart. I have come to realize I was 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.560 not screaming for Elian. I was screaming for my dad, 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.160 screaming in frustration that, like Eleane, the same strip of 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.600 ocean separated me from my father. I did not understand 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.120 or really care about the political forces that had caused 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.160 or separation. I only knew that I missed him, that 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.080 I needed him, that I was angry that I could 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.440 not be with him, and so I. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:31.040 Screamed, no family issue had to go through what we went, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.720 just because I'm looking for a better future. 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.440 My brother told me this recently. 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.400 I agree, but we are Cuban, and to be Cuban 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:50.240 is so often to be separated from their family. Unpenny 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.080 later meets and this is chess peace. The Elian Gonzalez 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:59.120 Story a production of Putuda Studios in partnership with Ihearts 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:11.040 Michael Tuda podcast Network. On December sixth, nineteen ninety nine, 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.960 Elian Gonzalez celebrated his sixth birthday in Miami. It was 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.160 just a week and a half after he had been 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.640 rescued from the sea. He had been staying with distant 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:26.200 relatives on his dad's side, his great uncle Lasara Gonzalez, 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.120 and Lazaro's twenty one year old daughter Mary Leasis. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.039 How did he survive by himself when he's only five? 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.440 And the only thing I could probably say that it's 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.080 just a miracle. 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:38.200 People said. 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.520 She became like a mother figure for Elian. She cared 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.360 for him, making him chocolate milk, something that was so 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.920 luxury in Cuba and that Elean had quickly come to love. 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.520 One journalist reported that Mary Leasis would say to Elian, 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.040 mere Alliancito, your grandmothers cannot make you this in Cua. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.000 I just want him to be wherever he wants to 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:01.920 be comfortable. 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:07.080 Marit Less quickly became the family spokesperson. Unlike her father, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.560 she spoke English well because she had been raised in 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.360 the US. She was young, passionate about the lean, and 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:16.680 comfortable in front of the cameras. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.360 I asked him, do you want to go back? You 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.320 mean you know you want to stay here? 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.679 And he said, I don't want to go back. 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.400 She and her father, last Settle, believed Elian's mother died 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.520 trying to give him safety and freedom in the US, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.600 and they were not alone. Cuban Americans would show up 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.200 at their house demand in the US government let Elean 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:41.479 stay in the US. 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.680 Yeahmanda. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.800 People would say it would be a shame to send 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:56.080 the boy back to communism and hunger in Cuba. At 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.120 his birthday at a local park, Elien was given many 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.920 gifts and a huge birthday cake, but that was an 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:07.560 Alien's only birthday party in Cuba, his school organized a 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:12.479 celebration in his absence with a special guest, Fidel Gastro 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:18.640 himself stopped by. He wore his typical olive green military uniform. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.520 Alien's father, Juamiel, spoke to his son by phone that 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.920 day to wish him a happy birthday, and they spoke 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.640 as if Alien will be back in Cuba soon. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:39.960 Well, that went to Hedi. Really. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.800 There were protests in Havana marking the week of Alian's birthday. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:59.359 Cubans chanted down with imperialism, socialism, or death. But the 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.200 protest in Cuba did not change Elean status in the US. 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:08.440 His future was still in limbo. His Miami relatives had 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.080 begun the process to file for asylum for Elian. At 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.880 the time, Cubans were guaranteed entry to the US if 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.440 they made it to the US soil. But Alian didn't 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.920 technically meet these requirements. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.480 Because he was rescued at sea and never made it 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.800 to the shoreline. He was a wet foot Cuban national. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.440 This is Bernie Permurter, professor of law at the University 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.600 of Miami. He's referring to an unusual American policy at 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:45.440 the time known as bisco pimojus or wet foot dryfoot. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:50.280 It allowed any Cuban to legally stay in the US 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.160 as long as they made it to the American shore 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.760 after crossing the ocean from Cuba, literally stepping on dry land. 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.920 That's the dry foot. But Cubans who were captured or 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.240 rescued at sea by the cost guard, they were not 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:07.600 permitted entry to. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.320 The United States. That's the wet foot. 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.480 The federal government had taken legal custody of Elianis. I 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.760 said he didn't reach the shore, so he did not 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.560 have the benefit of dry feet landing on the beaches 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:23.440 of Florida. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.880 So Alien's status under immigration law was not certain, and 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.679 another immigration policy in the US at that time said 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.320 that only a parent could apply for asylum for their child. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:40.400 So to immigration officials, Alien's Miami relatives didn't have the 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.760 authority to decide the boy's fate. 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.040 I'm not sure I understand what their rights are. These 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:51.280 were distant relatives. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.640 This is Jim Goldman, former special agent with US Immigration 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:02.000 and Naturalization Services or ions. We shall say in unusual circumstances, 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.440 the law does allow the government to assign a guardian 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:10.080 to one unaccompanied child, even if there are distant relatives 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.880 or not relatives, but in this case, the government was 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.920 insistent that there was no need to since Elian's father 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:19.120 wanted him back. 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:25.440 I think the biological father has more right to make 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.360 decisions for his child at the time was, you know, 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.599 five and six years old, more so than anybody. 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.679 Jim thinks this case should have been open and shot, but. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.080 It became a hot topic because I think the system 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:42.920 allowed for it to become a hot topic. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:44.160 He's right. 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.080 Tensions between the United States and Cuba get hotter every 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.240 day six year old Cuban refugee Ilian Gonzales remains in 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:51.840 this country. 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:55.440 The American media system jumped on Alian's story. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.880 Cuban men, women, and children protested on the streets of 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.000 by the thousands last night. It was the largest turnout 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.199 so far at the third night of protest, orchestrated by 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:08.040 Fidel Castro. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.400 It became the biggest story in the country at a 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.680 time when networks competed for wall to world news covers. 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.320 It happens at the same time that we have the 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.840 modern media machine being created, the twenty four hour news cycle, 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.000 the dying of network news, the expansion of cable news 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:30.600 the need for content. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.760 Go back and look at some of the news archives 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.920 and it does start to fill at times like Elean 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:42.160 was treated like content. There were cameras always stuck in 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.760 Ilian outside the Miami home, reporters trying to catch a 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.240 look of him playing ball, being. 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:49.839 A little boy. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.720 Relatives of Elian Gonzalez say they saw a different side 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.240 of the six year old, a boy simply filled with 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:57.400 joy and happiness. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.439 Reporters tried to capture sure every detail of Alian's introduction 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.120 to American culture, like when he went to Disney World 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.360 for the first time, where he got a personal hug 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:14.240 and a baseball hut autograph for Nana Masi Alamenos came 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.199 Mickey Mouse himself. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.560 But Ellian showed some lingering signs of his Thanksgiving ordeal 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.839 and rescue at sea when he went on the It's 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:23.440 a Small World water rid. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.280 And the interview request kept coming. Diane Sawyer had a 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.240 playdate with Lean on camera. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.600 It was probably the biggest media item in the United States, 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.360 if not the world at the time. 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:41.440 He would go to a party, you would go to 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.720 a restaurant, you would see your family. The talk the 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.720 main subject was Ellian, you know what's going to happen 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:50.040 to that boy. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.880 Alina Mayo Assay is a television news bra a seasoned 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:59.200 news anchor who covered Miami's biggest stories for decades. She 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.680 says nothing at the time could compare to the appeal 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:04.120 of Alien story. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:05.400 It was unprecedented. 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.240 It was our headline story practically every day. It was 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:14.240 before Alian and after Alian. It definitely marked a line 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.240 and the story and the history of the Cuban exile 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.880 in the United States, especially in Miami. 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:21.640 But in Cuba. 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.760 The US media frenzy seemed to make Fidel Castro even 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:30.960 more upset, and soon Castro will send another stern message. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:49.920 We turned the boy in seventy two hours. Fidel's message 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.720 to the US was clear, returned the boy in three. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.360 Days, only not too el Primian. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.560 So that the pains of for an on trauma Dipoe 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.520 and his family does not go a mini longer, he said, 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.120 and his words were in the only ominous move. Castro 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.559 stationed several dozen Cuban soldiers outside of the US Government 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.880 Intersection office in Havana. This is the headquarters where I 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:24.000 remember attending government sponsor protests for Elian. I remember the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.520 tension in the air, the vague sense that there was 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:32.280 something biggest stake here, something with a lot of biggers. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.920 To understand why Land's case became such a big deal, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.360 you had to understand the complicated relationship between Cuba and 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:53.200 the United States. Let's start in the early fifties. At 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.960 this time, Cuba was ruled by Fulhenzioatista, who was once elected, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.040 but whose government had become actually a military dictatorship. 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.239 Six years of surface pastparity and government corruption, of retression 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.080 and police brutality, right explosive discontent. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.839 Mattista was friendly to US interests, allowing American companies like 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.720 Coca Cola and United Fruit to own a giant amount 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:24.560 of Cuban land. Workers struggled to survive on low wages 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:29.760 and oppressive conditions. This inequality ripened the country for the 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.080 ideals of Fidel Castro's revolution. 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.640 Hubert's Fidel Castro emerged triumphant after two years a guerrilla 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.320 warfare against the Batista regime. A revolution that began with 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.520 Castro of fugitive ended with the find of dictator for 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.360 Cenzio Batista and the entry into Havana of rebel forces 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:48.600 to be acclaimed. 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:48.760 By the city. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.560 He and his fighters including a john Argentinian doctor named 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:01.480 Erneto che Evara, eventually overthrew a Vista and his government. 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:06.440 Castro and his men were the underdogs. The uprising had 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.560 begun with just eighteen men in the mountains of La 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.640 Sierra Maestra, and it had spread to the whole island. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.320 At first, the US was not alarmed. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.960 Now, when Fidel Castro's fighting to depose Battista, he's not 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.680 calling himself communist. Many of the people who were in 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.400 his movement, which was called the twenty sixth of July Movement, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.400 were young people who were ardently anti communists. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.320 This is Ala Ferrer, the Cuban American history professor at 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.480 Princeton you heard from in episode one. 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.840 But they believed in deposing Batista. They believed in acting 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:44.160 against government corruption. 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.960 By nineteen sixty, the new government approved laws that banned 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.720 all foreign ownership of Cuban land, banishing American companies from 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:59.200 the island and nationalizing their businesses. His government also confiscated 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.640 the line of Ques, who held more than one thousand acres. 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.720 Even Castro's own mother was apparently outraged that her son 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:13.480 had confiscated their family estate. Castro redistributed this line to 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:15.600 workers or statecomings. 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.680 They start enacting social reforms like the urban reform, cutting rents, 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:25.000 and with all these laws that they're passing, they're getting 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.040 enormous amounts of support. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.040 Some of that support came from my own grandparents, who 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.200 got the chance to buy for almost nothing the apartment 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.200 that they were renting before the revolution. It was the 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.440 same apartment where I was raised with my mother thirty 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.400 years after that. Not everyone felt like my grandparents. 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.960 Obviously, the people whose land is being taken away are 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:48.400 not necessarily going to support. 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:52.720 But Castro was well liked in Cuba, not just by 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.760 my grandparents but by many other Cubans. 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.760 So the tor policies in Cuba, doctor Castro, are leading 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.600 to two conditions of great economic difficulty. 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.480 Is this so everybody working? 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:07.000 Everybody happy? 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.720 In this nineteen sixty one BBC interview, Castro is young, smiling, 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.520 easy going. The journalist wrote that Castro charmed and impressed 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:22.439 many reporters. When Castro came to power, he promised democratic 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.160 elections will come as soon as the new government stabilized, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:34.560 but by the early sixties that hadn't happened. The Cubans 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.879 who left for the United States after Castro had taken 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:38.440 their land. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:43.440 So Castro not for a revolutionary but a despot. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.160 Some people say, some of your Cuban enemies, says yes, 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:53.080 people in Miami Americans say that you started a revolution 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.320 to bring in democracy and you have not done so. 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.680 In this part of the video, when the reporter mentions 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.840 ones in Miami, Castro gets a son Ricita his marks 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:05.240 a little. 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:07.520 Do you believe that there is no democracy here? 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.560 I'm ensure there is more your question than that. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.920 In the United States, the most free main man you 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.879 can't find in all America is the Cuban. 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.000 Ada says that in a survey from February of nineteen 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.080 fifty nine, about ninety one percent of the respondents said 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.240 that the new government was doing everything perfectly well, but 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.120 Washington didn't feel this way. 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.640 Here is Ada again, The President and senators and congressmen 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.119 were saying, what is Cuba doing? It's turning communists. 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.400 By nineteen sixty two, the US had cut diplomatic ties 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.800 with Cuba and declared and embargo forbidding American trade with Cuba, 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.920 hoping to create shortages and hunger on the island to 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:01.879 destitlize Castro's new government. This time Castro had been turning 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.359 into the Soviet Union for help and trade. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.000 What the United States and self respect can endure that 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:11.840 lemit has now been reached. 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:17.680 The CIA also secretly trained some fourteen hundred Cubans who 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.760 had led for the US to invade Cuba at the 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:25.600 Way of Peaks Lava Yedecuccinos, believing the attack could kickstart 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:31.520 an uprising against Castro. But the attended invasion failed miserably. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.320 I remember learning in our history classes in Cuba about 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.639 these early days of Castro's rule, how he created new systems, 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.879 free health care and free education, improving the quality of 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:50.600 life for ordinary Cubans. I remember some people in Cuba 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.359 saying that yes, their life improved at the beginning, and 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.679 they supported Castro, pretty convinced that great years were ahead. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.480 But what I didn't learn in school was that from 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:08.080 the very beginning, the censorin and self Censorina started, and 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:12.240 Cuba quickly became a place with almost no freedom of expression. 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:19.560 Under this new regime, dissidents were often imprisoned and then 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:21.080 thanks got warse. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.959 It's a period that follows the fall of the Soviet 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:30.359 Union and state socialism in Eastern Europe and the Cuban 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.560 economy just tanked almost from one day to the next. 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:36.040 There was the joke of you know, Cuba, but it 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.359 wasn't really a joke. You know, Cuba just has three problems. 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.400 You know, there's a union and mercilla, comedia breakfast, lunch 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.680 and dinner. And everywhere I went, the constant refrain was 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.720 noise fasci. Everyone had the reservation meant that, and it 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:54.080 was just this constant struggle to live and to survive. 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.080 Over the decades, waves of Cuban's left the island for 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.639 the US flights and votes. There were the fourteen thousand 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.200 children who were put on planes to Miami in fear 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.040 that they will be taken away from their families and 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:15.080 put in communist inductrination camps. That never happened, by the way. 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.439 Then the next wave was nineteen eighty and the Mario 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.240 boat lived in which one hundred and twenty five thousand 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.440 people came in the space of about you know, five months. 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.719 Even less, the president has literally opened the floodgates, placing 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.159 no limitations on the number of Cubans entering the United States. 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.359 A decade after Mariel, with the fall of the Soviet Union, 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.320 Cuba entered the years of severe scarcity that I remember 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.640 from my childhood. The Cuban government named it the Special 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.000 Period or Elperio Pessie. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:50.680 Then there was the Raftro crisis in ninety four, which 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:52.520 I think was about thirty five thousand people in the 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.359 space of a few months. But in all those years 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:57.399 there were people leaving. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.359 Most of the time could not leave Cuba together. They 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.320 would decide who had a better chance to leave, save, 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.480 send money, and work hard to help the rest of 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.639 the family on the island. There are many families like 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.840 mine and Aliens where a parent or a child comes 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:18.320 without the rest of their family. 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.320 Family separation is, you know, was a part of the 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.560 story of the Cuban Revolution from the very beginning. 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.439 Family separation has become souci a part of the Cuban 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.680 cultural DNA that is actually pretty difficult to meet a 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.439 Cuban who has not been touched by it. And who 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:41.200 you blame for that separation depends on what side of 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.960 the small strip of ocean between Cuba and Florida you 0:22:45.080 --> 0:23:04.119 are on. Alien's story flooded every corner of life in Cuba. 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.159 I remember not just attending but watching the protests in 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:13.600 Havana demanding Elian be brought home. So those Harold Cardinas 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:16.840 quean journalist and political analyst. 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:20.280 People in Havanah had to rally all the time, and 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.840 it's impressive when you look at the images of the 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:28.479 Malecon in Havana next to the sea full of probably 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:32.840 millions of Cubans. That is an impressive thing. That showed 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.680 the capacity that the Kivan government had back then to 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.720 rally people and to bring them together for a cause. 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.880 I am sure that many of them were strongly encouraged 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.160 in their jobs to join those rallies, but others were 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:50.840 going because they really believe in it. 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:54.040 I felt this too. 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.560 Sure there were people there because the protests were mandated, 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:01.879 but I also saw people who were truly calling for 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.160 his return, outraged that the boy was being kept from 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:06.720 his father. 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.200 Obviously, at that age, it's hard to distinguish between the 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.000 real fight of a kid that deserves to be with 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:17.040 his father and the propaganda and how the governments also 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:22.640 used people citizens for propaganda purposes. So as a child 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:25.280 it was hard to distinguish the propaganda. 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:25.880 On both sides. 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:33.280 In Cuba, I remember hearing a lot about how Alien's 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.560 father had never agreed that Ilian could be taken to 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.960 the United States. How the US was keeping a boy 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:43.879 away from the rightful parent, another example of the evil 0:24:44.160 --> 0:24:47.960 US Empire. But for Cubans in Florida, this case was 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:50.960 about freedom and saving a boy from oppression. 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:56.080 Many of the people, the Qubit Americans in Miami identified 0:24:56.160 --> 0:24:58.639 with the mother and her motivations for doing what she 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:01.879 did and the fact she lost her life in trying. 0:25:01.640 --> 0:25:02.040 To do this. 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:07.440 This is former Assistant Secretary of State Petromero. But this 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:11.320 idea that Alien's mother had died trying to reach freedom 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:15.320 for her son is not as black and white. There 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:18.680 is some evidence that Alien's mother was going to the 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:22.600 United States not for freedom, but to follow her boyfriend. 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:27.480 They truly were the Cuban Romeo and Juliet Well. 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:28.720 She was reputting the story. 0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:32.440 Journalist and Louis bardak So a five page love letter 0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:36.440 between the couple, and she and others are convinced that 0:25:36.720 --> 0:25:38.200 love was the real motive. 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:42.520 The reason the mother was on the boat was because 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:49.240 of her great love for Rafa Muneerum. If Rafa had 0:25:49.280 --> 0:25:52.640 said we're going to Iceland or we're going to Columbia, 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:55.159 I think she. 0:25:55.200 --> 0:25:58.719 Would have gone with him, regardless of why she got 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:01.240 on the boat. What do you should know is people 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:05.680 either identified with Lilian's mom and the US or Alien's 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:06.840 dad and Cuba. 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:10.600 Everybody can understand, you know, a child who's a Cuban 0:26:10.680 --> 0:26:13.280 child taken away from you know, the bosom of the 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:15.960 motherland and all of that stuff, and you know we 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:18.320 want him back. And yeah, I mean it was it 0:26:18.480 --> 0:26:19.800