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The politics of passion

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The majority of protesters have two things in common: the experience of life under communism and the absolute belief that it is wrong to send Elian Gonzalez back to that life. This collective will fuels an intense passion that has electrified the air in Little Havana.

Times photos by John Pendygraft

By BILL DURYEA

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

Those whose voices shout loud to keep Elian here share a powerful history.
MIAMI -- From inside the seething heart of the crowd, the small boy cannot be seen.

Elian Gonzalez is an abstraction in the body of a 6-year-old boy. He's the vessel into which a community pours its emotions about the man who has marked so many lives for the past 41 years.

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Elian Gonzalez
The protesters wrap themselves in chains, clutch crucifixes and wave flags, each symbol complementing their tears, their sweat, their screaming voices.

When these photos were sent to press on Monday, it was impossible to know when Elian's saga would end, only that someday it would. Then the teller would return to the bank, the lawyer to the courtroom, the singer to the stage, and politics to the background of their lives.

But already, the identity of the pueblo is revealed.

photo “The good lord delivered him here safely. The poor dear doesn’t need to suffer more. He needs justice,” says Maria Gomez. She left Cuba 16 years ago, seeking religious freedom in the United States.

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Protester Antonio Albanes will soon wake to a new morning and another day of protests outside Elian’s American home. He and other protesters and community activists have kept the home under constant watch.

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“This represents Cuba,” says Marta Smith, 71, explaining the chains and gag she wore to a demonstration in Little Havana. “It’s enslaved by Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. Elian will not be enslaved. We will defend justice for Elian,” says Smith, who lived half her life in Cuba.

photo“He was passionate about the liberation of Cuba,” says Armand Betancourt of his father. He holds the crucifix that lay on his father’s coffin the day he was buried. “It’s not that they’re returning the child to the father, they’re returning him to that horrible system,” says Betancourt, who was born and raised in Cuba. “I love this country with all my heart, but what they are doing is horrible.”

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Pedro Martinez is held back after reacting to a shout from an onlooker that Elian should go back to Cuba.

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