Exiles Flood Miami Streets to Mark Aristide’s 2nd Coming : Florida: Haitian immigrants celebrate return of democracy. One says the president’s arrival ‘felt like Jesus was back on Earth.’

The aroma of fried pork and plantains, the rhythmic pulse of Creole music and splashes of red and blue--those of the Haitian flag and the sash worn by Jean-Bertrand Aristide--floated over the streets of Little Haiti on Saturday, a rich sensory backdrop for thousands of Haitians celebrating their president’s return home.

“How do I feel? My gosh, is there a word for it?” asked a beaming Maria Simon, who danced down the middle of Northwest 54th Street here about an hour after Aristide ended three years of exile and returned to his embattled Caribbean homeland.

“When I saw him on television actually touch the ground, it felt like Jesus was back on Earth,” said Simon, a 28-year-old nurse who left Haiti when she was 14. “Haitians, Americans--we are all happy. Just look around.”

Indeed, there was no mistaking the mood that powered this party. Through a 10-block area in the heart of South Florida’s Haitian community, just north of downtown, people hugged and danced, waved Haitian flags and exchanged exclamations of joy.

“Democraci pou tou tan!” cried one Creole-speaker with a can of Budweiser in his hand. Democracy forever!

Almost every other person, it seemed, wore one of several commemorative T-shirts bearing the image of Aristide, the diminutive Roman Catholic priest on whose shoulders so many dreams ride.

Perhaps 10,000 people--about a tenth of South Florida’s Haitian population--were in the streets at any one time for the celebration that began Friday, when Miami police barricaded the area from traffic, and was expected to continue through Saturday night.

“We had hope for so long. Now it’s here,” said Chesly Cherizol, 24, a mechanic, referring to Aristide’s return to the Presidential Palace from which he was driven by a military coup in September, 1991. “Now I can’t wait to go to Haiti for a visit. You know, with the money people make here, you can live like a king there.”

If Aristide’s return is followed by a smooth transition to democracy, many Haitians in Miami will face a tough choice of whether to stay in the United States or go back.

“I know it would be better if people like me went back,” said Simon, who has three children, all born here. “I know my husband wants to go.”

With the street party in full swing, however, those decisions would wait until another day.

All along Little Haiti’s main street, music boomed from banks of speakers set up outside storefronts, and strollers stopped to sway and shuffle in the bright sunshine. Vendors hawked fried chicken and cold sodas, Aristide hats and vanity license plates.

Not everyone was prospering. Paul Phanor, manager of Ziggy Furniture, said he had marked down a four-piece black-and-gold living room set (couch, love seat, easy chair and coffee table) from $850 to $600 as a “Father Aristide special.” But home furnishings were not on many minds here Saturday.

“Next week,” said Phanor. “When the (U.N.-imposed economic) embargo is lifted, and once again people will be buying furniture to resell in Haiti, this special will sell. Eventually, what is happening today will be good for business. But today, no.”