Chess Piece: The Elián González StoryIn the aftermath of the raid, agents brought Elián to Washington D.C. where father and son would finally reunite. But Elián and his dad were stuck in the United States while the court case played out — and while Miami burned with rage at what many Cuban Americans saw as a deep betrayal by the federal government.
Peniley reflects on the power of reunions. As Elián was reunited with his father, his cousin Marisleysis was in despair. And in April 2000, Peniley had just turned 13 years old, still separated from her own father as a result of US and Cuban policies.
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos.
Thanks to These Archival Sources:
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
Original Material Appeared In:
ABC Evening News
AP Archive
Belly of The Beast
CNN Evening News
CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America"
Cubadebate
C-SPAN
MSNBC
NPR's "All Things Considered"
Jim Goldman, the agent in charge of the rape that removed Ilam from his Miami family home, now sat with a young boy in a leer jet. The two were on the way to reunite Alan with his father. As they flew over two hours to the DC area, the sun rose. Once they landed, Alien's father, Emil Gonzalez, came onto the lear jet.
I handed only into mister Gonzales and both of them. If anybody ever thought that this was staged or artificial, they're so wrong, because I was sitting right there and both of them were in tears, hugging each other, and they embraced what seemed like a long time. There was truly a sincere reunion. My son was exactly the same age as Allien at the time, so I looked at this is how happy would I be if somebody put my child in my arms.
This scene of Elian and his father embrace him for a long time reminded me of something I.
Read about them.
When Elea lived in Cuba, he split his time between his mom and dad, and during their drop offs, his father and him had a special goodbye ritual. Ellen and his dad would give each other a racitos little hugs over and over again. One friend said sometimes their goodbyes would take ten minutes. As an adult, Elean said in an interview with Cuban Press Dad and Memorial Mafelisa Kengo and Momentum Contra Momental Bad he speaks with emotion in his voice, saying that reuniting with his dad was one of the happiest moments of his life. Reunions are powerful, in particular for Cuban families who have been torn apart by theopolitics. Our reunion is the first step in treating the wound. It stops the bleeding. But the Gonzales family had a new woe to tend to Mary LASiS and the Miami relatives wearing despair after Elean was taken from them, and the Gonzalezes of Miami were determined to get him back.
And I demand, and I think I have the rights to see this boy, because I've taken care of this boy for five months when the father wasn't here for him.
Most too want exiles in Miami agreed with Mary Leasis.
The city was a blaze.
This is the last thing I can assure you that the Cuban American leadership in this community wanted to see the streets literally burning now another tire.
Miami was all in mourning for Ilian. They were just I think they were shocked. They had expected the raid to happen, but were shocked when it happened. They were saddened. I think people felt powerless because they hadn't been able to stop it.
Miami. Two ones could not stop the government from taking it Yan, but they could show their anger by protesting.
Dear gas.
Tear gas.
Johnny, come back to us, Chazz right now, Chazz, right now, Chaz, come back to us, right now.
Chet And the future of Illana and his father was a seal in the hands of the US legal system.
Look like soldiers are firing tear gas.
Later, Minus and this is chess Peace. The Elean Gonzalez Story a production of Duda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael.
Durdah podcast Network.
The day after the raid, the Gonzalezes of Miami called a news conference.
What was done in my house.
Was the worst thing that could have happened to a family.
Twenty one year old Mary Lezy Gonzalez spoke alongside her family and Donato Dalrymple, the man who rescued Leannatzea. She reminded the cameras that it had been heard to pick Elean up from the hospital. She spoke and answered the press questions for over thirty minutes.
She was distressed, but determined his.
Father could have done this in a very peaceful way. We've always wanted to see him. My doors have always been opened to everybody.
She stood surrounded by the press holding the iconic photo from the raid, Elianne screaming, crying in Donato's arms, with an agent pointing a gun in their direction. Mary Leacy's accused her cousin, Juan Miuel, for having a role in the violence that breached her home, rieping Elean away from her.
And where is he that he couldn't prevent this and that he hasn't said anything about this? Is this a father that cares for the best entest of a child?
And then there was a moment where she turned to the topic of elian.
All I ask is.
I need to see Elean and the conditions that they took this boy out of my house.
I know he's not okay.
Marie Lesey's tone changed when she spoke about Elean.
She was vulnerable and I know this boy needs to see me too.
In a twenty seventeen Ciena documentary, Eleann spoke about Mary Lacy's pain.
One ofka Mary.
Lease Mary Leasy's doesn't deserve my rage, he said, looking towards the camera.
Da Karin.
As a moment, she tried to.
Give me the care I needed at that moment. It is that care that we all witnessed back then, Mary Lacy's and Eleane smiling together, hugging, seemingly happy.
She is Malaysia.
She was just a young girl, a young girl at a news conference after one of the most dramatic days of her life. As she went on, Mary Lecy's began to say things that to some people diminished her credibility.
And the picture that they show with the father.
That is not Alean.
She spoke about a widely published photo of Eleane and Ramiel back together. In the photo, Elean is with his dad, his step mom, and his younger brother. Eleanne is in his dad's arms, the boy's hand around his father's neck, both of them smiling. Mary Lacy's questioned if it was really Alien in the photo, that hair.
Is not Alan's. I'm the one that cuts Alian's hair and three days before I had given him a haircut.
To me, this reveals something deeper about Mary Lacy's her despair at this moment. We only know Mary Lacy's from this face in her life, her as a young twenty one year old. Imagine if you were forever known and judged for how you reacted to one of the most agonizing moments in your life. I don't blame Mary Leasy's for choosing to live a private life after this saga. There is something powerful in being the focal point of one of the first viral stories and then saying this is my boundary and I will never cross it again.
I respect that.
For Eleian, the legal battle was not over yet, even though he was fineinally with his dad, because before the raid, the Miami family had.
Filed a request for an injunction against irons, and the injunction would basically say he cannot be removed from the United States so long as this appeal is pending.
Kendall Coffee, one of the family's lead attorneys. As a Lion's case continued to move through the courts, he was not allowed to leave the country, which meant to Lean and his dad were living in the US for now at least, and outside of the court rooms in Florida, people.
Lit the city on fire. Here in Miami, they were rioting and they were breaking things, and they were destroying things in the Miami police had to come out.
This is abuse, this is abused to the Cuman.
I'm ashamed to be American.
I'm a shame to be an American city. Let me ask you this, what do you think will happen now?
Can will you express your anger?
And nobody can tell.
Nobody can tell what's gonna happen in the future.
Nobody.
At this point, it felt like Miami was all in mourning for Elian.
There was a huge protest march down Kyoto and it was substantial, one of these few times where you actually have thousands of.
People Guillermo Grenier Cuban American sociologist. But the government was not the only one getting criticized. There were also other Americans who spoke out against the Q and exiled community in Miami.
And there was a counter demonstration. If you want to look at it that way, it wasn't so much against Eleon, but it was to support Janet Reno and then to say that Eleon should go.
Back to the Dad over eighty percent of Cuban Americans, though the Elian case left a black mark on the reputation in the country according to a later poll, perhaps because after the raid, they witnessed a new group of people taken to the streets in Miami.
It was a midley crew of people that were trying to express their opinions about Eleon, about immigration, about the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. You had good old boys and pickup trucks with Confederate flags driving down the street with signs saying send them all.
Back, we won't larn it back now.
So you had a kind of a counter demonstration that was against the immigrant agenda of Miami Day Count, which is dominantly Cuban.
As Miami burned, Joe Garcia was called to lead the Cuban American National Foundation.
Sometimes you can be right about something and people don't agree with you, but you still have a responsibility as a leader to protect your people from the loss.
He was tasked with damage control because things were not looking good for the exiled community.
When you say that we lost, you mean you lost the narrative or the legal case, or both.
We were losing both right. At that point, we were losing both.
In the aftermath of the raid, the leader of this powerful Cuban American organization admitted they were losing the narrative. The Cuban community was no longer seeing just as allies of the US pushing for democracy on our homeland. There was also a new perception about US Cubans as troublemaker immigrants, ungrateful to the US and disrespectful to US law. As a legal case continued, Gregory Craig, j Emiel's lawyer, stepped outside the chore room to speak with the press. It was hard to hear him over the protest and outrage from the Cuban American community.
The issue as whether a remote relative over the attractions of a sick and loving father n forced the Irons to accept and process in the fire application of crime, which had read and told, considerably destroyed Ron Miguel's the rental rights and dismantled his family, and.
Then Emiel received some good news.
The court sided with the Irons, saying that only Jamiel had authority to speak for his son. In a press conference after the ruling, Ramiel seemed more relaxed and confident.
Yoga mobim heco.
In the course decision, he said, as his father, I am the one who can speak for my son.
Made.
Minaraila in necessiety, I mean want the profumia.
I love him so much and I really want all of this to be over so that we can return to our home with my son and all my family, and for this not to take any longer. Yet, Jamiel and Elan could still not leave. The injunction petitioned by the Miami family lawyers was still in place parrying Elian and his dad's departure. Attorney General Areno gave her own press conference after the ruling.
I am hopeful that this matter will soon reach a final resolution so that Alian, his father, and the family may resume their lives away from the scrutiny of the media and the uncertainty that the legal battle has caused for his entire family.
And two weeks later, the.
Family tries to get the full court of.
Appeals Bernie Permotter, family law professor who you have heard throughout the series. A week later, the federal appeals courts declined to hear the case.
Furder.
The lower courts had decided that Elean had no independent claim to asylum and only his biological father could speak for him. That's when the Miami family had won last.
Bite at the apple, and that was two petitions the Supreme Court.
The justices had to decide if they would hear the case. Kendall Coffee, one of the Miamis family attorneys, was contacted by a lawyer whose law firm wanted to help probono with the Supreme Court case.
And he had a partner who is also willing to consider helping. Name Brett Kavanaugh.
Yes, that Brett Kavanah, the now Supreme Court justice.
We're here to determine whether Judge Kavanaugh has demonstrated the impartiality, the temperament, the even handedness that's needed to serve on this great high Court of our land.
In the application to the Supreme Court to consider the alien case, Cavanan argued against something called the Chevron doctrine. According to this doctrine, if an agency like the ins had a policy about children like Elean, the course should refer to the agency's reasonable interpretation of that policy. Recently, Cavanaugh, as a member of the Supreme Court, voted to overturn the Chevron doctrine, consistent with what he argued when represents sent to Eliance relatives twenty five years ago. It is a reminder that the Alien case involved many powerful people. Kendall remembers the day of the Supreme Court ruling, waiting for the call from Cavana. When the news came in. Some of them went to a special place a day of the ruling, and.
I can remember to this day because we went to a chapel, Armita de la Caidad to wait for the news.
Leamita de la Garida. What a place.
It is located near downtown Miami along the coast, facing south towards Cuba. It is one of the most important Catholic locations for Cubans in the United States. Inside it is decorated with a mural of Cuban heroes and saints, including lavign de la Garia Elgore, the Cuban patron saint. If someone could make a miracle for the Gonzalezes of Miami, it would be Lavin de la Garida.
And so they waited, and I.
Never forget the call. When I've read Kavanaugh called me, it was the news. Was very, very disappointed.
After just two days, the highest court in the United States returned that decision, declining to hear the case. The lower court's decision stood. Only Alien's father could speak for his son, and that was pretty much the end of the case.
Good evening.
He was here two hundred and seventeen days.
But tonight the legal fight between his father and his Miami relatives is over, and Elian Gonzalez is on his way to Havana.
We are happy to go hunt.
Thank you, Eleana, and his dad would finally be going home to Cuba. Jamiel ended his time in the United States on a hopeful note. During his final press conference here, he talked about the beautiful and brilliant people he met in the.
US Supremento the myth amilia.
Eto a.
E we mos device, and that this actually gave him hope for possible friendship between Cuba and the US in the future.
Amima amdam amita from my.
I remember that they were saying he was coming, and then you know they were very excited saying at what time he was coming, and.
The Honda and George.
My younger brother Juankey was in Calawasar, Cuba in June two thousand, the town outside Havana where he lived with my step mom Biby, where I would still visit every two weeks after my dad left Cuba.
I remember seeing the plane passing over the house going to like the International for Emboyeros.
The plane he saw that June was carrying Elian Gonzalez and his father Jamiel, bringing them back to Cuba for their heroes welcome. Other Cubans also remember this moment.
I remember being in the living room of my grandparents and I remember watching the airplane and the father and the son walking down the airplane.
When we saw jan Miel, a young father and Elian united was really like wow, yeah, we made it.
Now that he was on that plane landing in Cuba. Miami was behind Elian. At the time, Mary Lacy's told the press.
I believe that someday and we return here. Oh I wish I mis luck. This is the way that I wanted it. And we have to accept that.
Adelian has not returned to the US and he and Mary Lacy's have not seen his shouthers. Years later, she said in the Ciena documentary.
Whoever's right or wrong, we're family and we love each other.
Elemiel carried his son Elian off the flight and they were greeted by cheering, elated crowds waving Cuban flags. Elian remembers his father hugging him as the plane landed. That's when Alan saw the rest of his family in Cuba.
Gitar guitar miss When he saw.
His family, he felt peace to be in Cuba, having found his center again, but there was one key figure missing. Fiel Castro reportedly did not want to create the media frenzy like he has seen in the United States, and he was worried about what the Lean had been told about him. So Castro did not show up to greet the Lean, postponing their introduction. Eventually, Elean would get to go home to his house in Carolinas. He would no longer be away from his father again. In two thousand and seven, when my mom was no longer working for the Quban government as an executive for the Quban Flag Airline, I was finally able to travel to Miami and reunite with my dad. I remember the excitement, the curiosity will my dad and I reconnect after many years? Will we be strangers? I recently asked my dad if he remembered when we finally reunited.
As a premier partamento.
Miami, bib medihoto miconti and to come up. I spent the night. I te in my dad's apartment and slept in his bath like I did when I was a child.
We held hands the whole night too.
This is the first time I have asked my dad how he remembers our reunion. He broke down in tears.
Me.
But if we only do it was so beautiful, he told me. Unlike me, my dad had no fears about a reunion.
Physical.
Our reunion just brought us back together physically, he says.
Okay, see present, yes, yes, a lessons here, a little.
We were always present in each other's mind. And that's the essence of everything.
Which it was assumed a care able million hour.
Our look for.
All that stood between us was earth and water, nothing else, my dad told me. But I also know that my dad was gone for some of the most difficult and happy moments of my life. When I celebrated my King Senira, when I started college, when I fell in love for the first time, That irreplaceable absence marked me. It made me more anxious about change, but braver to confront life's challenges. Eleianne spent six months separated from his dad. I spent eight years apart from mine.
Kaku on the suada ITHINTI it told tinto.
My stepmom baby told me every Cuban has a book of pain. Everyone is different, but we are all the same. To exile and separation is a scar that never fully heals. Yes, I carry that scar with me. I imagine Elean also does. But I also carry so much more in me. I see the deep roots of my dad within me. His inheritance is in my devotion to my work, in my love for the water that brings me calm and focus, in my passionate character, and how small things fulfill me, like people hugging in airports, the love of a baby, or the sunlight filtering between the trees leaves. My dad is still the first person I call when I'm having a bad day, and every time, like magic, he takes me out of the stress, makes me laugh, pushes me forward. Come on, MOONI you can do it, he always says. And of course, if my dad thinks I can do something, I know I can do it. And sometimes I wonder what Jamiel says to Elian to help him find his center. As Eleane was settling back home in Cuba, the US was about to face another political battle in the aftermath of the case.
They blamed Clinton, they blamed Jenne Reno, and Gore was Clinton's vice president.
As the US holds the twenty twenty four presidential election next week, we will take you back to the two thousand election when the fate of this country was in the hands.
Of Miami voters. And to tell you what happened.
In the next episode of the story, I will be turning the mic over to my producer, you know her, Tasha san Noli.
What can da Mastashi Rui Sashi rely come on Manatacha Shikita.
Tasha and Harauelita.
That is, Tasha reflects on the Liang case with her grandma and Miami Cuban about how the exile.
Experience shaped her work Jess Peace.
The Lean Gonzales Story is a production of Tuo Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Gura podcast Network. This show is written and reported by me Penni Lei Ramidez with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell, and Tasha Sandoval. Our editor is Maria Garcia. Additional editing by Marlon Bishop. Our senior producer is Nicole Rodwell. Our associate producers are Tasha Sandoval and Elisabeth Loental Torres. Sound designed by Jacob Rosati with help from Stephanie Lebon and our intern is Evelin Fajardo Alvarez. Our senior production manager is Jessica Elis, with production supports from Nancy Trujillo, Francis Poon and Lolimar Marquez. Mixing by Stephanie Levo, Julia Caruso and j J Caruvin. Fat checking by Media Bautista. Scoring and musical creation by Jacob Rossati and Stephanie Levo and credits music from Los Aceros Or. Executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia. Legal review by Neil Rossini. Huturo Media was founded by Maria Noofosa. For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A Penileira Mirez see you in the next episode, Novemo Hennessey and Episodia
