The miracle child

By TWILA DECKER, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 14, 2000

As Elian Gonzalez inches closer to returning to Cuba, the faithful in Miami, who believe him to be a sign from God, struggle with their disappointment.

MIAMI -- They call him El Nino Milagro, the Miracle Child, who, like Moses, was cast adrift by his mother for a better life.

Many here in Little Havana believe that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, found clinging to an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day, was protected by dolphins and rescued by a fisherman because God had a divine plan for him.

They believe Elian was put on this earth to bring them a miracle: the end of Fidel Castro's terror and freedom for their homeland.

But as their tiny messiah gets closer to being passed back to the man they believe to be the devil's minion, their predictions have not come true.

What happens to your faith when your miracle turns out to be not quite so miraculous?

On a rainy night last week, as lawyers for Elian's Miami relatives weighed their dwindling legal options and perhaps even an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Cuban exiles gathered one more time outside a church in Little Havana to ask God to reverse their fortunes, to bend the judge's mind and let Elian stay in America.

Between cries of Libertad por Elian! Libertad por Elian!, old women and men squeezed their eyes shut, kissed rosaries and mumbled the Lord's Prayer. They prayed, again, for their Milagro.

Carlos Delgado, a newspaper picture of Elian paper-clipped to his shirt pocket, is overcome with emotion as he prays with about 300 others in Little Havana to show support for Elian.

Miami, predominantly Cuban-American and Catholic, is like other Latin American enclaves where the Roman Catholic Church is as much a governing force in everyday life as the city council or the state capital.

Many of the well-trimmed lawns in Little Havana have at least one ceramic saint spreading its arms to the heavens. Along Calle Ocho, the street that runs through the heart of the community, rosaries bounce from the rear-view mirrors of cars and storefront windows are crowded with icons and other trappings of Catholicism and Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion that fuses Catholic saints with African deities.

It was only natural that God would be summoned here, at a time like this.

For 40 years, these people have prayed that Castro would be toppled from power, and God did not answer those prayers. But on Thanksgiving Day, God sent them a sign of Castro's impending doom.

He sent it, many people believe, in the form of Elian.

The boy had reportedly been adrift alone for two days after a boat sank on a desperate crossing from Cuba, drowning his mother and 10 others. Elian, the weakest of the passengers, survived. And the then-5-year-old wasn't even sunburned, one more sign that he was sent from above.

The mysticism was only heightened by the fact that Elian came by sea. The 90 miles of sea between Cuba and Miami have long held power for Cuban exiles. The water is what separates them from their homeland, what they look out over in a familiar refrain: "Only in Miami is Cuba so far away." It is the sea that can bring death, it is the sea that can bring freedom.

The patron saint of Cuba, Our Lady of Charity, is said to have saved a little Cuban boy lost at sea nearly 400 years ago. In Santeria, one of the seven saints, or Orishas, is Yemalla, the saint of the sea.

It is this saint that Cubans often pray to when their loved ones try to make the dangerous trip across the sea to the United States and freedom.

There also are similarities between Elian's story and the biblical one of Moses, who was set adrift in the river by his mother, who gave him up to save him from an evil king.

"God was the one who saved Elian and sent the dolphins and the fisherman to him," says 81-year-old Caridad Alvarez, a psychic at the Botanica Mistica, where Cuban-Americans buy everything from pictures of their favorite saints to roots and herbs for Santeria practice.

What if Elian is returned to Cuba? Would that shake Alvarez's faith in God?

"I can't even think of that," she says. Then, a few seconds later: "He (God) is still my father."

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, says there is a flip side to the miracle issue. Some in Cuba believe Elian is their miracle child.

"Some Cubans in Cuba believe if he is not returned, it would be bad for the regime and the future of Cuba," he says.

Six-year-old Teresa Martinez wears an Elian button along with her rosary at the gathering of Elian’s supporters in Little Havana last week.

All over Miami are signs that the little boy who was awed by Disney World has been elevated to the status of a religious icon.

At the license tag office in Coral Gables, a poster under the front desk shows Elian cradling a baby Jesus. Other posters show him beside the Virgin Mary. Another poster widely distributed shows a photo of the boy under a Spanish phrase that says: "Elian met Jesus. Others deny him."

Until recently, the home where Elian lived with his Miami relatives looked more like a religious shrine. Today, only a few religious icons remain.

A wooden rosary is draped across the front door, and a picture of Elian, in the water with the dolphins and surrounded by an aura of light, sits next to the front door. A picture of Jesus is nearby.

In March, when an image of what many believed to be the Virgin Mary suddenly appeared on the window of a Miami bank, Totalbank, it stopped traffic. Just blocks from the home where Elian was staying, the apparition was taken as confirmation that Elian was El Nino Milagro. People placed religious icons on the bank's front door.

Shortly after Elian was taken by federal agents, his Miami relatives said an image of the Virgin Mary had appeared in a mirror inside the Little Havana home.

"What has happened in the last few years, after the fall of the Soviet Union, is there was a high expectation that there would be change in Cuba," says Max Castro, senior researcher at the North-South Center at the University of Miami, which specializes in relations between North and South America.

"But there has been no rational sign that that is going to happen any time soon, so they're looking for other signs. Elian was, for many, that sign. For the strong believers, he was an omen, or a little message of hope.

"But for some, that has already begun to deflate. If he goes back to Cuba, the miracle wasn't a miracle, maybe. The apparition of the Virgin Mary and that sort of thing will stop."

Holding hands and praying on June 1, a group awaits word on the radio about the federal court’s decision in Elian’s case. The court ruled that the boy cannot request asylum.

The Rev. Jose Luis Menendez, pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church, says he urges his followers to look at the bigger picture when they come to him for help dealing with the continual letdowns in their fight to keep Elian in the United States:

Maybe Elian's real miracle was to unite the Cuban exile community.

"When I talk to them, I say we have to put in balance what Fidel Castro is winning and what we are winning in this process," he says. "What we have won is a conscience of where we are. We have a unity."

Carlos Delgado stands amid the crowd at the prayer vigil, wearing a newspaper photograph of Elian paper-clipped to his shirt pocket. In the photo, taken by a Miami Herald photographer, Elian is surrounded by light and is reaching toward heaven.

It is the same picture Delgado wore to church on Easter Sunday, the day after Elian was taken from the Little Havana home in a predawn raid.

Delgado's eyes fill with tears as he tells of how much he hurt that day, and how he hurts today because his prayers to keep Elian free have gone unanswered.

He tries not to be bitter. He wants to believe that if Elian is sent back to Cuba, God has to have a good reason.

"Christ died on the cross for us," he says, wiping away tears. "Maybe there is something else in store for Elian in all of this. Maybe there is a bigger miracle."

- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

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