And Still I Rise

Isn’t it just amazing the way a human interest story became this huge international custody battle? The poor child was a pawn in the hands of the relatives, who in their arrogance determined it was better for him to live in America. An added bonus was he was a weapon in the Cuban exiles armoury to prove that people are risking their lives to flee Castro’s hell. Lost in all of this drama was the fact that the boy had a father who wanted him and whose rights were not negotiable. Nobody ever proved that the father was abusive to the boy and yet the story was allowed to grow more and more ridiculous.

Now eleven years old Elian seems to be a confident child but bearing the scars of the loss he suffered. Some parts of the interview appeared a bit contrived but I believe he wanted to be with his father. Naturally, the Miami faction believes that Elian was brainwashed and is merely spouting Castro’s rhetoric. Maybe he is, because after all Castro is taking quite the interest in the young boy.But,it is silly to believe that had Elian stayed in Miami he would not have been anti Castro. We would have been fed a steady diet of Elian proclaiming how great it is to be free whilst recounting the horrors of the 6 years he spent in Cuba. Oh yes, there would have been no saints there either.

Equally disturbing was the house where Elian lived in Miami has been turned into a shrine. I saw a closet filled with his clothes, stuffed toys lying around and the clincher is a huge cross adorning the closet from which he was taken. The whole theme of the room is bent on making a parallel between Elian and Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, in Cuba a bronze statue is erected outside of a museum in Cárdenas. You got to wonder if Elian will really ever be allowed to just be a child.

# posted by Abeni @ 5:25 AM