But seen from America, the assembled masses had the effect Castro desired. Liberals shunned Cuban-Americans rather than the dictatorship they had fled, while the political right shoveled more fuel into the nativist furnace, rendering the once-golden Cuban immigrant just another lump of coal.
Those untethered to Cuba's history saw only a father who sought to be reunited with his son — Juan Miguel calling for his baby. Why couldn't these Cubans just give the kid back? Mostly, it was about self-actualization. After a boom in the s, for example, the U. That's a lot of child-custody battles. Americans knew what those felt like, and they made a correlation to the familiar. On the island, Cubans were still dealing with levels one and two of Maslow's hierarchy of needs — the basics: water, food, warmth, rest.
Those were difficult to find in general. Safety and security, second on the pyramid, were out of the question; Cubans who desired to speak their minds lived — and still live — in fear of being captured, tortured, and silenced. Outwardly, that view seems reasonable. But today, would we send a child who had made it across the ocean from Syria back to that bombed-out shell of a country simply because the kid had a parent there and an uncle here? Not likely. Thanks to films and photos, we've seen what's happening there.
Cuba's reality was — and still is — harder to access. Reno was sure O'Laughlin would remain neutral, but she did not. O'Laughlin believed the grandmothers were not acting out of their own "free will. April 22, , when, on Reno's orders, federal agents forcibly entered the house where the boy was living. The raid was code-named "Operation Reunion. Diaz, who died in , was freelancing for the Associated Press when he snapped the picture; two months after the raid, the wire service hired him as a staff photographer.
The agents wrapped the boy in a blanket and whisked him away. Interests Section in Havana through the annual lottery. The memo also pointed to suspicions that Juan Miguel was being "coerced by the Castro regime. Juan Miguel told me, in front of his mother and his relatives, that sometime in the future he would come, even if he had to come in a tub.
It's the chronicle of a political chess match, populated with the full complement of power brokers and pawns. And Alan Diaz's photo is precisely the image the victorious Castro would have handpicked to capture the endgame.
This past winter, I visited the Stasi Museum in Berlin, which exhibits the notoriously effective and ruthless Cold War-era methods that the Stasi, the East German secret police, used on its people. Secret police archives, now made public, reveal that the Stasi trained the Cuban government — and that in Cuba, the Cold War has survived into the 21st Century.
Cubans and Cuban-Americans are still fighting a Cold War against a Stasi-trained dictatorship, and its effects are etched inside all of us, alongside the image of a 6-year-old boy's face paralyzed in horror. Fortunately, I am allowed to dig up all of this information. Fortunately, I live in a country where we're allowed to open the vaults of history and shed light — to answer questions we might have been unable to answer before, to speak freely, to share points of view that others might not have grasped in the past.
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One mom's message to other parents after her 8-year-old got Covid vaccine. Trump makes last-ditch effort to stop release of White House records. Camera rolls on an exclusive interview with Elian Gonzalez and his father Juan Miguel. Juan Miguel, Elian's father, serves up Pina Coladas at his job as a bartender - the same job he had before the international custody battle. Elian Gonzalez with members of his family, including his dad, at his birth home.
It was unclear. But the safety of all who were involved was paramount. When law enforcement goes into a situation like that, it must go in prepared for the unexpected. I was going to try to push him up there. Before we blink our eyes there were these soldiers that were inside the house dressed in SWAT gear and gas masks. I just looked at him. Then, boom, he puts it back on me, and then a woman shows up in the room, another agent with no weapons. Prima Mari! Cousin Mari! Shut up! He was afraid for his life.
We got out into the street. They got him into the van. They close that door and they were gone. The whole raid was done under three minutes. Tony Zumbado : The backend of my camera was busted so I had to go outside and pick up a spare part for that camera battery mount and start recording the madness going on.
It was just chaotic. The pro-Cuban, anti-Castro people who had been there just started throwing rocks. It turned into a riot outside and people crying. Everyone was tear-gassed. Plaintiff was blinded completely and had to be led to safety. Tony Zumbado : The family is freaking out and crying and yelling and hysterical and fainting.
It was a sad scene.
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