Today, June 28, 2010, marks the ten-year anniversary of the return to Cuba of Elián González. In November 1999, Elián González survived the sinking vessel that killed his mother, Elizabeth Brotons, and ten others when they tried to reach the coasts of Florida. González was found floating off the coast of Florida in an inner tube. He was rescued from the sea by two U.S. fishermen and delivered in Miami into the temporary custody of distant paternal relatives, who then refused to return him to his father, who had remained in Cuba. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro was an active promoter of the campaign for the return of the shipwrecked child and led many protests and open forums on the island to claim his return. As Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert writes in a previous post [Now 16, Elián González shown at Cuba youth meeting], “U.S. immigration officials ruled the boy should return to Cuba over the objections of his Miami relatives and other Cuban exiles, creating a national furor that caused even presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore to weigh in on the matter.”
Primera Hora reports that Cuban media are commemorating his return to Cuba with several major articles. For example, Juventud Rebelde writes that “the pain of the tragedy was left behind with the affection of his loved ones and of the people,” and that young González is “living happily as any other teenager at age 16, with his brothers and his real family.” The Cuban newspaper goes on to say that, “With his return, the victory of universal justice, justice for all Cubans, international solidarity, and the best of the North American people reached its peak.” The paper underlines that a decade after “having been the toy of the enemies of the revolution, we see him (Elián) wearing the olive-green uniform as a student of the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School, where he prepares to be a future official of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.”
For full article, see http://www.primerahora.com/cubarecuerdacasodelbalseritoeliangonzaleztrasdiezanosdesuregreso-396699.html
See photos of Elián González through the years at http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/photos-elian-gonzalez-years-10289501
