Cuban boy castaway Elin Gonzlez from Pulitzer Prize winning photo becomes a lawmaker

[Judi Lynn]

Twenty three years after being at the center of a dramatic custody battle between Cuba and the United States, González is now headed to his country’s congress

By Andrea RodrÍguez • Published June 30, 2023 • Updated on June 30, 2023 at 8:23 pm



Elian González poses for a portrait in front of the Capitolio in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, June 27, 2023.


Elián González has the same big, expressive eyes he did 23 years ago when an international custody battle transformed him into the face of the long-strained relations between Cuba and the United States.

Now 29, González is stepping into Cuban politics. He recently entered his country’s congress with hopes of helping his people at a time of record emigration and heightened tension between the two seaside neighbors.

“From Cuba, we can do a lot so that we have a more solid country, and I owe it to Cubans,” he said during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “That is what I’m going to try to do from my position, from this place in congress — to contribute to making Cuba a better country.”

González has given only a handful of interviews since he was unwittingly thrust into the geopolitical spotlight as a boy. In 1999, at just 5 years old, he and his mother were aboard a boat of Cuban migrants headed toward Florida when the boat capsized in the Florida Straits. His mother and 10 others died while González, tied to an inner tube, drifted in open water until his rescue.

More:
https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/cuban-boy-castaway-elian-gonzalez-from-pulitzer-prize-winning-photo-becomes-a-lawmaker/3006178/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Reminder: During the controversy of to whom Gonzalez should go,

the WH was furiously fighting to keep him here, to make him an American (who would of course learn to hate Cuba).

And Rudy Giuliani (yeah, THAT guy . . . ) desperately wanted EG to be by his side on New Years Eve in 1999 on top of 1 Times Square at 42nd Street just south of the intersection of Broadway and 7th Ave, to drop The Ball. Giuliani was eager to use the boy to attack President Clinton, among other purposes.

BTW, Immigration and Naturalization would have made an exception for EG as a refugee seeking American citizenship, partly because he came from Cuba and partly due to the expected favorable publicity. He wouldn't have been put in a cage, sleeping on cement floors like Mexican children in the same situation. Not that he was looking to live here; it was his family promoting that goal. His father wanted him back in Cuba.

[jimfields33]

2. I will always remember the swat team taking him by automatic weapon.

What a mess! Thankfully he seemed to grow up just fine.

[localroger]

3. One of those strange cases where the end result was the correct one

Call the two countries Oceana and Eastasia instead of whatever, and the basic narrative is that the mother took the child on a dangerous and illegal journey and as a result got herself killed and nearly got Elian killed. The father still in his home country was the closest living relative and wanted him back. It's a straightforward conclusion that the father gets the child, whether you like the country where he's living or not. That it became such a circus before that happened is a stain on everyone who did anything other than try to get Elian to the airport to return him to his family in Cuba.