La Yuma

Producer Tasha san Novala and I are driving around Greater Miami in bumper to bumper traffic, weaving through a maze of flashy billboards and Spanish language advertisements, getting lost. I don't think this is the right thing. Oh it's hot and humid. To make it through the long we put in days together in Miami, Pasha and I have a go to Patelitoscortellitos.

Okay, here are the pasilitos and I'm having pastelava.

Guava and cheese filled puff pastries perfectly golden and warm as staple that says here Versailles, Cuban.

Seeing the world's most famous Cuban restaurant.

Today, we are stopping at Laventanita at Cafe Versailles on La Kayocho. This is a historic gathering point Cubans in Miami.

Okay, cafe in Mamma.

Fiver to seem past.

This is the kind of stuff that makes Miami feel so familiar to me. The food, the flora.

It's flambo.

Miami, and it's Flamboyan. It's in late spring. Giant trees with blooming red flowers, just like the ones that blooming Cuba. My mom and dad. Most of my family lives here in Miamilora. I get why so many Cubans settled in Miami. On paper, it would be the perfect city for me, But in reality, there is something I have learned about Miami, something my dad recently reminded me of Miami.

They say the banning consumed.

I get all the.

Politic Miami makes you realize that everything is about politics, which honestly reminds me of one of the reasons living in Cuba can be so hard, because everything there is also political. In a way, the Alianzaga tea is out something that's true of Cubans as a people on and off the island. We are one people with one specific fissure Colamic Medius in Crassia. We're very stubborn and hard

Here comes the waiter, and the waiter's coming over and he gets in my face and he's like to care.

It was.

All the stereotypes aside. We're just very passionate people. We are passionate about dancing, composing, great music, loving and of course politics. And when it came to Elian, each side of the Florida Straits had its own deeply rooted beliefs and there would be no compromising. When I started reporting for this podcast, my dad told me I was gonna get in trouble. I didn't.

And Miami because it is a rough topic, he says.

And after so many years, people still feel really passionately about it. And pennileraes and this is chest Peace. Delian Gonzalez Story a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheart's Michael Tura podcast Network.

I want what's best for him and what he wants, you know, I'm not I don't.

Want to be gritty and I don't want to be selfish.

That's Mary Lazy Gonzalez. Remember she's Alan's cousin in Miami. In nineteen ninety nine, she was just twenty one years old, and she and Elian became close while he was in the US waiting to find out where he would end up. Mary Lacy's spoke about caring for Alien, about showing him tenderness. He was sitting there, he was about to have soup. The first thing I said was, don't eat that. This is her in the twenty seventeen CNN documentary Alien. She

And I'm like, yes, don that will get you something better than that.

That moment was our first connection. So she became Alien's go too.

She was like a mother figure to him.

Yellowco Hill, Locot Hill lay for Mamaqi momento and.

I always think of his cousin that fought so hard from she was a young girl. But she was a force to be reckoned with. Some journalists have to said that leaders in the Quban American exiled community in Miami influenced Mary Leesy's behavior, but many years one of the Gonzales family lawyers told us it wasn't about politics. He became mayor of Miami in two thousand and one, about two years after a unt rescue at sea. Before agreeing to represent them money, sat down with the family.

I'm not going to spend the next six months of my life fighting over federal caestra. I'm here to do what is in the best interest of the family and the best interest of the child. No political agenda. And if I ever see a political agenda that were upon for somebody's politics, I'm out. And they agreed.

Whatever was behind it, This constant media attention became Mary Leesy's life, and it took its toll. She was even hospitalized during the al Yan saga.

Went through difficult times. If you remember, you know one time we even ended up at Mercy Hospital with her. And you gotta understand, this is as stressful as an event as you could probably be a part of.

But Mary Lesy's had become a symbol. She was sacrificing herself for a lean to raise him and what she believed was freedom. That was a clear message, let's not make this a political thing.

Let's make it like everybody else that comes to this country for freedom.

We tried reaching out to Mary Lecy's directly and indirectly. I even wrote her a handwritten letter.

Okay, I'm now in the past office. Hopefully she will receive it and then we will know if she's willing to talk to us.

But we did in her back money confirmed that she has stopped speaking to the media.

And I think she was already you know, sweet and vulnerable, and I think all that really just took a toll on her. You know, after a while it was just like, let's say, I don't want to talk about this anymore.

And looking back on the footage of her so young crying on national television, I can't understand why she must have felt enormous pressure. So we respect Mary Lacy's decision not to talk about what was likely one of the most painful eras of her life. We don't know whether Cuban American community leaders coached her or not. What we do know is that for the exile community, Lian's custody

One of the misconceptions that was surprisingly widespread in saga of this case is the idea that they ever had custody.

That's Bernie Permotter, law professor at the University of Miami. He told us that the Gonzales family in Miami, including Mary Lacy's, had Alian in their temporary care, not in legal custody, to try to keep Elian in the US. Elian's great uncle, Lasaro, had filed three asylum applications for Elan well, one was technically filed by six year old Elian himself under the guidance of his Miami relatives.

I believe that the people involved in this situation care about the little boy and want to do what's right by him.

That's Janet Reno, Attorney General and head of that Department of Justice. Renal happened to be a Miami native. She understood this was a difficult case for Miami Cubans. She oversaw an investigation into the case by the Immigration Naturalization Service.

The ions Irons met twice with the father in Cuba and separately with the great uncle and the lawyers in Miami.

That's Ions Commissioner Doris Meisner. On January fifth, two thousand.

After careful evaluation of the relevant facts, IRONS has determined that mister Juan Gonzalez of Cuba has the sole legal authority to speak on behalf of his son, Elion. Regarding Elion's immigration status in the United States. We have determined that Elion should be reunited with his father, mister Juan Gonzales.

Or d me ask you about your reaction.

They're only letting the dad decide what's best for the kid. Without his dad and not having the freedom to get an airplane come here to support his show when he most really needed him. I was there and so was my family. To Miami Cubans, the Ionis decision felt like a bit trial because for ones, Washington agreed with Havana and if there is one thing you absolutely cannot do in Miami, it's side with the er castro.

Miami is a very insular place as an incubator for ideology.

This is Guillermo Grenier, sociologists at Florida International University with an expertise on Cuba and Cuban Miami. Remember I told you at the beginning of the episode that in Miami so much revolves around politics. Well, that's because there is an ideology that influences the city a lot. Gillermo calls it the exile ideology.

It provades everything, It provades the education in the schools, it provades the media, and.

It informed why Miami Cubans felt so deeply about the lean.

They came over. The identity was the ideology.

So what is this traditional of Cuban American exile ideology. Giermo talked about a few core ideas. Number one, resisting any effort to legitimize the Cuban government. Some Cuban Americans believed the Cuban government should be criminalized and treated as a villain for its oppressive rule. Number Two, believing in the United States.

We were the backyard of the United States.

Remember, the Quban elite often had close business ties with US companies that operated on the island before the revolution. They would send their kids to a school in the US.

The Cuban American identity in the United States initially was established by people who felt very close to the United States. They did not have to be taught to be pro American. It was in their blood.

The first wave of exiles truly believed the revolution could not last, not under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam.

They were fueled by the certainty that the United States will not allow for Theel Castro to do what he did.

So typically, early wave exiles really believed that the US was fighting for a free Cuba through the embargo. Number three, this avowing engagement with Cuba, including travel to the island.

You're not for travel to Cuba. You're not for opening up political lines of communications. You're against people that even travel to Cuba.

And finally number four, rejecting an immigrant identity.

You don't want to be immigrants. You want to go back to the other countries.

Those who embodied traditional exile ideology believe they were forced out of their country and until they can return to Akubaire, there are exiles in the United States. Of course, some Cuban Americans disagree on this tenant. For example, some may have lost hope in the US and the efficacy of the embargo, seeing the longevity of the revolution as a betrayal. So for the most part, these beliefs have evolved and relaxed through the years, especially when it comes to travel

There were a lot of apocryphal mentions of for sale signs popping up all over Hyaliyah, you know, thinking that the next lection on Tito, we're definitely going to be in Havana. Right.

But by nineteen ninety nine, the year Eleana arrived in Florida, almost a decade had passed and the Cuban Revolution had still not been defeated.

Elian comes, Fidel hasn't gone down. Everybody is not happy about that. And by God, Fidel's not going to get this.

Trophy Ellan as a trophy. We heard this quite a bit in our reporting.

So anything the Cuban government wants it should not get. And in this case, it was Ellian.

If he went back to Cuba, Elean will be a price for Fidel and for his revolution. But if he stayed in Miami, he would also be a trophy, a beacon of the American dream for Cuban Americans. Gillermo explains that exile ideology was essential to how most Miami Cubans felt about Elean. He wasn't just a little boy who magically survived the Florida Straits. He was the little boy who had the potential to deliver a crushing blow to Fidel gastro.

So.

Miami Cubans kept banding together outside of the Little Havana Home.

People began going there period. You know, they wanted to express the solidarity with the family.

This is Ramonzael Sanchez. He is a well known activist in the exile community and was one of the most visible protestors outside the Little Havana House. He was there nearly every night, driving straight from his work to the house and back again.

I wanted always for the young consalate situation to be resolved between the families, between the relatives in Cuba and the relatives in the United States, not by the government.

He even helped lead major street protests after the ins decision that Elian should go back to his father.

I already no fortunes.

I want to tell you about Roman's life because I think it suggests why faults outside of Elian's house were so passionate. Ramon arrived in Miami during one of the early waves of Cuban migration on a US sponsored freedom flight.

I've been in exiled since nineteen sixty seven, since I was twenty years old.

He is an exiled through and through. His life has been all about fighting against the revolution.

I began a struggle for democracy when I was fifteen years old. I am now sixty nine.

Years old, and this fight was not all is peaceful.

I got involved with Alpha sixty six, a legal organization in the United States.

Under the law, Alpha sixty six is considered a right wing paramilitary organization and paramilitary activity is a lawfl in all fifty States. Early on it had some support from the CIA, but eventually it was on its own, where.

Every Cuban that came from Cuba I wanted to do something for Cuba used to go to Alpha sixty six the register be a member.

This is how Ramons is it. We weren't able to verify how Alpha sixty six recruited its members. What we do know is that Alpha sixty six carried out attacks against the Cuban government or those who seemed to support it.

And there I trained on the struggle, on the guerrilla warfare and the struggle to free Cube.

Just at Aver from which just rushed. Not a may allow her charge now our training the pipe, but our pastros armies in Cube, in.

The event that someday we could go back and free Cube.

In fact, unlike most given Americans, Ramon never went through the asylum process and never became a US citizen because.

When we came here at the beginning, in our minds, we were going to go back.

Then in the early nineteen eighties, he refused to testify before a grand jury for a case involving an assassination attempt against Castro, and.

I refused to talk because of principles, a matter of conscience.

So he went to prison. It was Ramon's time in prison that would change him.

And I decided that we had to go to other methods, and that's where I embraced non violence.

However, those first decades of exile life in Miami were tense and sometimes bloody, not just for Ramon but for much of the exile community. Exiles would police each other for not being anti Castro enough. In nineteen seventy five, one exile was killed by other exiles simply for saying he would go back to Cuba to vote if Fidel

Could you describe what is Layoma?

So Juma refers to the United.

States Juma, It's a very common Cuban term. No one is quite sure where the term came from, but most people think it comes from the nineteen fifty seven Cowboy classic three ten to Yuma, as in Yuma Arizona. The film is screened extensively throughout Cuba. In the nineteen seventies.

Sula Man scared but brave, would run an out locked gruntlet to put a prisoner around the gallows bound train to Yuma.

Another theory is that Juma is simply an abbreviated Cubanism for US man Juma.

So in Cuba, if you said mekehery Palayoma, what does that.

Mean, You're saying you want to come to the United States.

Mikero i Palayoma. It's what all Cuban Americans had done. They had left Cuba to come and stay in Layoma. Yeah, that's why they assumed Elian also wanted to stay in the US. But soon Elian himself would say something very controversial, and his words would deepen the ideological divide. We are in a neighborhood called Little Havana. While reporting in Miami, Tasha and I stopped at the house where Alien stayed with his relatives. It's utly quiet.

Imagine the same place that now looks so peaceful and quiet, surrounded by people all the time. LeAnn will come to the front yard to play around when everybody is screaming and happy and try to touch him. So it's a big contrast to see this house in a regular day, twenty five years after everything happened with a lean.

Yeah, it's now a career going the circus that people have described.

If you see the pictures of those days and the videos, this seems like a really tiny street, and it's not tiny.

It's actually pretty big. Now.

I realized it looked tiny because it was so packed.

With people, people who wanted the liand to stay in the US. After initial anger over the ions decision, on January fifth, the Miami relatives regrouped they were going to fight the decision.

A bunch of lawyers rose up and agreed to represent the family in filing a petition for temporary legal custody of Elian in a state court.

Law professor Berni Permoter. Again, the Miami family wanted to resolve things through family court and not through immigration and the federal government. On January tenth, a judge in Florida Family Court granted lazarro Anzalez, Elian's great uncle, temporary legal custody of Elian, pending a full hearing in marsh.

And that he, as I understand it, and as I recalled, never occurred.

Shortly after the ruling, the judge was reported to have a major conflict of interest just turning the legal case got big headlines, but something overshadowed it. The very next day, while we stood outside the house during our reporting trip, Kasha and I remembered what happened.

This place is not that far from the Miami Airport, so you have a lot of planes here, and one day, in the middle of this saga, one of those planes were crossing in front of the house. And this is the moment when Alan says one of the most controversial.

Things, yokyoke, I want to be returned to Cuba. Well, at least that's what the media initially reported Elean said, but many Miami Cubans say they heard the opposite Pakua, I don't want to be returned to Cuba. It sounds the same, right, depending on who you were on, what side you were on, you hear something different, But it was the exact same recording, the exact same words spoken by a little boy. This is what it's like to be Cuban, to be of the same people, divided by ideology.

Can you give us a sense of timing and in terms of when you would like to see this result, particularly because the boy's going to school, he's making friends, get the dogs, puppies, got relatives.

Whatever happens with respect to the little boy, it should be done soon so that he can get on with his life with the puppy.

This is our Department of Justice briefing just after the playing controversy. Attorney General Reno also made an important annount.

I think the process that was used by Ions is a fair good process.

She agreed with the Ions decision to reunite Alien with his father.

We are just trying to make sure that people understand that what is an issue is a father who wants his son home.

This is what was an issue for the United States government and for the law. But within the framework of exile ideology, the issue was not just about a father and a son. The issue, every issue in Miami was about opposing Castro and reaffirming life in Alexilion. That was the through line, the tension underlying everything. The alien case would only magnify that, bringing it to the foreground and leaving zero room for nuance. If you didn't agree that Elient shal stay in La Yuma full stop, you were

If you are living in Cuba, you're living in a totalitarian regime, or your movements are watched, your actions are controlled, and you simply are not at liberty to advocate for your child's life and a democratic society where life would have been very.

Different jess Peace. The Lan Gonzalez Story is a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura Podcast Network. This show is written and reported by me Pennileea Medz with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell, and Tasha Sandowail. Our editor is Maria Garcia, Additional editing by Marlon bishop Or. Senior

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