Elián: the son of the dolphins. By Zoe Valdes

The INS decided that Elián should be with his father. President Clinton declares that he does not wish the politicalization of the case. More politicized of than it is; it cannot be. His mother takes him for political reasons, the mother dies drowned or devoured by the sharks; and the father demands the boy from Cuba.

Doubtful claim the one of a father who has to go under the wing of a dictator so that he makes political fuss under the consent of a person who if he really wanted the best thing for his son he would not enjoy in opportunistic manner houses of protocols, luxurious cars, and splendid suppers; offered all this opulence only because of the only cause of the death of his ex- woman and of the present misfortune of his son. Paquito D'Rivera already said about it, " if my father does that to me I'd kill him ". Wait and see. Someday Juan Miguel González will be questioned by Elián, and father Fidel will not be there to remove him from the hardship, but not from the shame; because it is certain that this gentleman lacks enough shame. To be guilty face to face before a son is the worse of punishments.

Clinton is mistaken or he knows it very well and, then, Cubans, we are the ones who now must know it very well. Castro has been for forty years in permanent genocide because the United States loves the spectacle, ninety miles away, for free, and in addition they, the gringos, say, it does not constitute a threat for the Americans. The case of Elián González is absolutely political, from beginning to end; assume it, Mr. Clinton. If the INS and the catholic and humanitarian organizations are so interested in the luck of the boy, like Fidel Castro screams, accustomed as usual to armoring himself behind the servile and stupid hordes that he calls the people and that they are only the Brigades of Fast Response, the Militia services of Territorial Troops, and the workers in the dollar area terrorized of losing their jobs, that is to say their daily survival; then, why don't they let the father Juan Miguel González with his wife and his other son, his parents, and the parents of Elizabeth Brotons, Elián's mother, move with the boy to the United States? It would not be a treason from the progenitor. It is possible to reside in Miami and to be for Castro, and if you do not believe it look how many spies exist freely. Why does the INS not set the condition that to return Elián his father must go to rescue him with all his family? Because what Clinton nor any politician cannot ignore is that while Juan Miguel González has relatives left in Cuba the threat will be perennial, and there his life and that of his relatives will be in danger. Cases of masked political murders resembling accidents are common in the communist dictatorial regimes.

What strikes me is that Juan Miguel González acts bravely in Cuba, and loudly speaks and acts under the protective wing of the devil; but he does not dare and he refuses to go to personally save his son of the " imperialistic claws " because according to himself they could kill him, his life would run the greatest risk ". Boy, what a mousy father, who fears justice. And why did Elian's mother not fear when she had to rush to the sea to look for so longed for freedom for her son? Because she gave her life to save him from a bloody dictatorship. And now the father wants to recover him so that he grows up in that same dictatorship; but that is not all, he neither wishes the risk of traveling in the comfort of an airplane, accompanied, by the way by a " monk ". Remember the joke of the mulata and rich secretary that the Pope requests that Castro send to him to work more relaxed; if it she continued raising her nun dress to the insistent request of Santo Padre they could uncover before him the private parts (in the New Herald; crotch in another newspaper) of security agent.Pobre Elián, he faces the prospect of being a Castro hero. He faces the prospect of being like the Che, that is to say, a failure: a doctor who never practiced, a husband who left his family and his children to go to make war in places which were unrelated, and which didn't even need war; finally a pile of bones, to be exhibited for the price of dollars to ideological tourists. The prospect the innocent child faces is to repudiate in public the memory of his mother. He faces the prospect to have to support the political opportunism of teachers and classmates. And the worse of the worst thing, he faces the prospect, at some future date, to face a double pain, the proof that his father abandoned his mother for the second time, even after dead. He will have milk, yes, he will get a special diet; the terrible thing is when he discovers that he is a person favored by crime, and that other children do not enjoy the same tricky advantages that will be imposed on him. Elián poor man, and at that time, I am not sure that his father will have "what it takes" that one must have to put a hand on his shoulder and to explain his absurd deed to him. Because if I were Juan Miguel González I would have the courage that hundreds of Cuban parents have had, I would face Castro: "No, I leave Cuba and go with Elián, my son's love and his misfortune need me, and I will be where he is and with my family ". If I were Juan Miguel González I would follow the example of Paquito D'Rivera, who had to hold eight years in American soil until to the dictator condescended to let his adolescent son leave, and did not abandon his fight for a minute, and the INS did not even take part, nor the law, nor did the American president opine, and Paquito sent letters even to Masantín the bullfigther. Or, let's look at the Cohen family's example, Castro's hostages, the father coming to get his wife and children from the island, they have the US visa, but they cannot get the Cuban permit. Or that other fther who is in Sweden, who has written to the TV Sanish correspondents in Cuba, I have not yet seen in the international chanel the report that he has so vehemently requested about his hostage family. If I were Juan Miguel González I would tighten my pants and would put my cards on the table, for the benefit and the full freedom of a son. However 'each person is different'. But I'm sure the entire world would support him. The Cuban cause has this peculiarity, each day there are more people espousing it, however many are still not converted, and those who are fear to be defrauded, because political pressure in the interior of the island is so strong, so terrible, that few could imagine it if they have not suffered it first hand. That's why I say, how can the government of the United States state that Elian's case is not political since that same government has stated that the father is under political pressure?

I agree that Elian should live with his father, but in just conditions and without manipulations of any type from either side. It is an impossible dream. It is true. Then my only recourse is to admit that I was wrong in my previous article when I blamed people and politicians from Miami for manipulating the case, of dressing the child in a CANF T-shirt, (it may have been a pro-Castro coverage, but I saw the T-shirt in a photo in a local newspaper) and foro wrapping him in an American flag and giving him toys.

No, excuse me, they did what they had to do before the Castro coverage, what difference does a T-shirt make, later Castro himself made thousands of T=shirts, in a country where people have no right to buy fabric for clothing, and where there is no toilet paper.

Elián does not deserve to be returned to hell. I don't mean that Miami is paradise (we can see that it isn't according to the latest news); but a child arrived at its shores, wrapped in the tragedy of having lost his mother in the attempt only to live in a less oppressive and less oppressive manner for a human being.

Elián, is mostly a son of the dolphins; they at least had more courage and common sense than many human beings when they returned him to soil without blackmailing.