Capítulo 220: Storytelling Is Personal with Peniley Ramirez

Piece the Elian Gonzalez Story. This show that recently launched on our network in collaboration with Futuro Studios, launched last month and highlights Elian's journey from Gouba and being found on the Floridian coast with people who lived it first hand.

but now I do other things. I'm the head of News and Investigations at Futuro Media and I'm also the co CEO and executive director.

I'm very happy about it, but also exhausted, and I have been working a lot since the last two years, and I have been working for Futuro, and before that I moved to New York to complete my masters at Cumbia University. So I have been enjoying the life in New York so much. But I also have a lot of roots in Miami because as a good Cuban family. These days, I have more relatives in Miami than in Cuba, which is something that we discuss a lot in the podcast.

And as most of my career has been as an investigative reporter, I'm really not used to talk about myself that much because I'm more used to investigate like corrupt politicians or people hiding their money. I was part of the investigation of the Panama Papers, for example, So I feel way more comfortable interviewing an artcolord than talking about myself.

And this is why also this project has been a huge challenging for me, not just because I'm pretty emotional these days because I'm pregnant, but also because it's a pretty emotional issue to talk about myself, to talk about my Cuban roots, and also talk about something that I never discussed it publicly before, which is family separation impacting my family on my life.

communities and the communities that we report on. So Elean Gonzalez, also known as El Valcerito, is a boy that is a little younger than me, like five years younger than me, but he was big news at the end of the nineties. A lot of people in the US when you mentioned Elian Gonzales, they remember some of the case. They remember a specific picture that was so important in the case,

but we haven't talked about him in a while. But this year, this November, we're turning twenty five years of that case, and that case in that moment, I know that we're all talking these days about the Menandez brothers and Okay Simpson. But added to that combo, the Lean case was one of this headlines news story that was twenty four seven all over the news in the late nineties.

So the case started Thanksgiving of nineteen ninety nine, but for months it was like twenty four seven in the news cycle, and we were coming in the US from these two big other cases that were like moving the media a lot. So what we're doing right now is we're retelling the case. We're doing deep research. We have been investigating a lot. We have been interviewing people who

were like part of the case directly and indirectly. But we're also taking the case beyond the particular story of Elian Gonzalez, and we have been telling it in a way that explains why family separation is social an issue for Cubans, as you know, you know, as being part of an immigrant community is family separation is always an issue, regardless if your Cuban or not Cuban, but we Cube us specifically because there is so much neopolitics into what

happens with our lives. Family separation is a big issue, so it was kind of natural to emvent my story on it because when we started the project, I remember one of the conversations with our executive producers, Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia, and I told them, yeah, actually, I was also separated from my father and we spent eight

years separated. So my father left Cuba in nineteen ninety eight, a year before a Lean case, the Lians case started, and he was living in Miami while this case was happening, and I was living in Cuba. And the funny thing, not that funny, is that while the Cuban government was fighting so hard to reunite Alian Gonzalez with his father in Cuba, the same government, the same Cuban government, was preventing my father to be reunited with me and my brother.

So we thought that, you know, telling my case, interviewing my father for the first time in my life, which was again more difficult than interviewing the old clerks. It's been given the series another toush, another level of proximity with people who well to also relate to this final separation and this Cuban experience, and in this I will

say this immigrant experience in general. So the podcast is a story of aliens, the story of what happened and why it had such a big impact in the US back in the day, but also what happened to me, what happened with my father, my brother, and why family separation is social an issue among Cubans that it was in nineteen ninety nine and that is stilled today, even twenty five years later.

And do you think that that story We're talking a lot more these days about unaccompanied minors, right, and so do you think that Elian Gonzalees story today would have that same effect and reach and focus or was it something of the time period.

about on a company child, et cetera. But something I have been thinking is like, even now the case will be even more viral because one thing that one of the people I interviewed, and I think it's it's kind of key to understand the issue is like, you know, geopolitics are complicated, but it's pretty easy to explain the case. In this case was a child who came to the

United States with her his mother. I don't want to spoiler a lot of it for those who doesn't know the story, but he ends up without his mother in Miami and the father in Cuba is claiming that he wants him back. So it's pretty straightforward. Should the boy remain in the United States with his relatives in Miami, or the boy should go back to Cuba to be with his father. So one of the people we interview said is pretty straightforward and it's pretty easy to have

an opinion. Should the boy stay in the United States in freedom with the relatives, you know, enjoy all the benefits of living in the US, getting asylum, etc. Or the boy should go back to Cuba to be with his father. Even knowing all the problems that Cuba had back in the day and has today, imagine that today in TikTok days, with everybody posting videos having opinions about it.

It was such a passionate issue for Cubans. Especially if you see the footage from those days, you will see that the front of the house of the family of Lian Gonzalez in Miami was packed with people. Of course a lot of media there from all over the world. We put in about the case every day, but also like random people that were just going there to see the boy. Some of the people we interview said that he was like the pope, you know, he was coming out of the house and everybody was like trying to

see him, try to touch him. So imagine Dad and the craziness of today's viral posts or vital stories. So I think that something that remains after twenty five years is that the geopolitics of relationships between Cuba and the US are still very complicated. You have seen in the news what's been happening in Cuba in recent days. Situation in Cuba's is still pretty bad. It's getting worse these days,

with no electricity, no food, no medicines, people protesting. But at the core of it, there is still a lot of famal separation. There is still a lot a lot of people who are able to leave Cuba, but only part of the family is leave in Cuba, the other parties remaining in Cuba. So I think it's still a pretty controversial issue, and that's partly why we wanted to revisit the case after twenty five years, because we don't

think it's just a story from the past. We think it's a story that is pretty current in terms of what is happening with panel separation, with Cuba US relationships, and also with the amount of kids coming to the United States even today with out their parents.

remain until today. So if you think that today we have a lot of polarizing issues regarding election, regarding this proposal for example, from the Trunk campaign about master deportations, this proposal from the Harrist campaign regarding what are the kinds of things that they should be doing too, as she has been saying, correct this through this bill, et cetera. There is still a lot to be work on regarding

what's happening with immigration. The border is still a big issue, a big source of misinformation and disinformation we have been also reputting in the media. So bringing back to a case that is so sensitive regarding what should be done to fix a system that is not working. It was not working back then and it's not working today. And what is beautiful about this podcast is that we do

from a very personal perspective. So we have data, and we have you know, the narrative of what happened, and we have a lot of explanation about the context, but we also have a very human stories, not just my own story and the story of my separation with my dad from my dad, but other stories of panel separations.

What I think is key about telling these kind of stories today is because beyond the political noise, we need to remind ourselves that every immigrant story is a story about a human being, and we need to remain I think as journalists, I think there is a big responsibility on remaining very human in our covers and I think what the story does. The feedback that we have been

receiving from listeners is listeners is amazing. A lot of the people saying that they cannot stop crying and when they listen to the podcast, or that they can relate to their own lives, their own experiences, their own emotions. Is because we need to keep bringing the human experience at the center of our covers because it is a

polarizing issue. For sure, it is a political issue, but it's an issue immigration that involves real lives or real people, and in this case, a pretty sensitive part of it, which is what happens with a child separating from his father or his mother. What are the consequences of that?

You know. One of the most difficult parts of the podcast for me was when our amazing team of producers and editors asked me what it meant to me when I needed to write, you know, what happened with my life after being separated from my dad for eight years? What changed with How I could have been different if that experience haven't been part of my life. And I

think a lot of us can relate to that. You know, pause for a sec and think, you know, what my immigrant story is telling about myself or about who I am or who I am not how I am different because of this experience. And I think it is a big opportunity and I feel really honored to be able to tush on an issue that is pretty political in a moment that is pretty polarizing, but explaining it from this place that is deeply human and deeply emotional.

So he was in these public events with Phileel Castro. Philel Castro was attending his birthday parties some years so he became like a pretty symbolic figure for the Cuban Revolution. As of course, Miami Cubans were expecting and fearing when

he was in my still in Miami. But through the years he had been giving some interviews and he had been saying saying things that are pretty concerning for Miami Cubans, like, for example, he once said that he believed that he didn't believe in God, but if he had a God, that God would be that God would be filed Castro, or saying that he had a true sign since their friendship with Fiel Castro saying that he felt like he owed the Cuban revolution to stay there and be in

Cuba because the Cuban people fight for his return. So I don't want to overspoil what is in the podcast, but we touched a lot on what happened when Elean started giving interviews and explaining himself and explaining his reasons, his reasons to remain in Cuba even as an adult.

a lot. So we explain a lot that the US politics around Cuba since the beginning of the revolution have been, you know, granting asylum to many Cubans. For US Cubans is relatively easy to get, you know, asylum, a green card, and citizenship in the United States, unlike many other immigrants from many other countries. So that put us in a place,

in a privileged place with regards of other immigrants. But at the same time, the fact that many Cubans came to the United States with the idea that they are just going to be here for a couple of months or maybe just a short period of time, because they are not immigrants to our exiles and they are gonna

go back. We have a beautiful episode that is anchored by our associate producer Tasha Sandoval, and she speaks with her grandmother who came to the United States in the early sixties, and she even says that she thought it was going to be for a couple of months and she hasn't never returned. So the difference between immigration when you're a Cuban versus in another country is that you know you're not going back. If you're Mexican, for example, I have spent many years of my life in Mexico.

If you're a Mexican immigrant going to the United States, you have this hope of sending money, then your casitaing back in your town, retiring back in your town, going back for the holidays. So you think that you have a rut back. Sometimes you don't do it, but you have this feeling of belonging and I can go back to my land, I can live in my homeland, I can build my house there. But in Cuba it's a pretty definitive decision. So if you leave Cuba, you leave

and there is no coming back. And on the other hand, but the Cubans that remain in Cuba, there's been so much propaganda against the Cuban exiles. So the fact that even today the Cuban government calls guzanos to those Cubans in Miami. So worms so use these terms to relate and to define other people who are your same nationalities.

Sometimes there are even your relatives. So we get a really good sense in the podcast about what are the difference of the Cuban experience in both size of the Florida Straits and what are the things that are really affecting you know, regular people. Sometimes a member of the of the same family, like the gonzalez of Miami and the Gonzalezes of Cuba. So the fact that this family was torn apart by the case of Ilian explains a lot of what's happening with other Cuban families separated by

this strait of ocean. That is pretty it is only ninety miles, but it's like an entire different universe if you are in one place or in the other place. And one good thing about you know, my experience as the as a host of the podcast is I was living in Cuba when everything happened, so I had this Cuban experience of the case. But then I moved to the US. My entire most of my family lives in Miami. Therefore I have this good sense of the Miami Cuban experience as well.

are informing themselves in Spanish. That doesn't mean, of course, that any person voting for Republicans is because they're they're they're reading misinformation, but it is true that a lot of the things that we have been hearing on the ground are informed on. For example, a narrative that is really prevalent these days that Kamala is Kamala Harris is is a communist or is a Marxist or wants to

to turn the US into Venezuela. So a lot of what's happening today in US politics, really related to Cubans in particular, is really infused with the fear of the past of you know, the fear of communism, the fear of Marxism, the fear of the things that many of US Cubans dealt with in Cuba. And it's most of the same of the reasons why we left the country. So a lot of the boat right now is informed by the fears. A lot of the vote it's informed by the kind of things that they will wanted to see.

And that doesn't mean that all Cubans are voting Republican, but that's what we have been hearing from all reputting for those who have said that they are voting Republican, but the ones that are voting or saying that they're going to vote Democrat, I think they expect to see something that we kind of saw during the Obama administration that was like getting another approach to the Cuban US relations with trying to relate to the Cuban government, or

approach the Uran Cuban government government, or try to alleviate the big economical struggles that Cubans in Cuba are dealing with these days, and specifically about something that's been in place for decades now, which is the US sanctions in Cuba that have been a key part to explain, you know, the you know, what's been happening with the economy of

Cuba for all these decades. So I think it is important to talk about Ilian today because Elian happened in nineteen ninety nine and two thousand, and a lot of people that we have interviewed with this podcast think that the Liang case defined the US election in two thousand because, as you might remember, that election was defined by the vote of Florida, and there was something that happened that it was called Elboto Castillo, So the punishment vote for

those Cubans, some of them tend to be republic tend to be Democrats before the Elian case, but then they moved republican. We found even some people saying that they remembered people saying, remember Elian vote Republican. So in some parts of the Cuban American community you still can hear that Elian represented a switch for those who were Democrats and started voting Republican, that that's a switch that is maintained even today, and also that as far as twenty

five years have passed. Elian also explains partly that part of the Cuban population that is willing to vote for Trump again this election year.

everything is black and white. That you know that even if you thought that the Elian should remain in the US or should go back to Cuba, I think that you, as a listener will get a good sense of why people were thinking one way or the other way, where why people were so passionate about this case, why people like as I said, like why random people will go and pray outside of the Miami House of Alien's Relatives, why people in Cuba were going to be we're out protesting,

like thousands of people protest insane bringing lean back, But also why this case is not unique. So I hope that you can relate to your own experience, if you have an experience of immigration in your own family, and if you don't, that you can understand better the overall experience of how difficult family separation it is, how difficult it was back in the day, and how difficult it is still today, and you get a sense of what's happening

right now. I think it is one of those cases that you really understand the present by looking at the past.

And I hope that they feel some of my emotions as well, because it's been quite a challenge to explain how something that was, you know, a high political case impacted that life of someone like me that now I'm a journalist, but back then I was just a girl, you know, missing my dad, and how you can get a sense that journalism also works in that sense, also helps you to understand that behind every political, big story there is the lives of someone and the experiences and

emotions of a family that could be your family one day. So I hope that the listeners get the sense of how much we put our heart into this story, but also how much you can learn about what happened and what's happening today.

I would love to hear from listeners. You know how you relate to this story, what kind of emotions the story is bringing to you, And I hope you'll listen, and I hope you followed along with us in on this journey because the intention is that we are going to be ending the season with the anniversary, the actual anniversary of the moment when Elian was found at See and Thanksgiving of nineteen eighty nine.