Elian Gonzalez Custody Dispute

Elian Gonzalez should not be returned to his father’s custody in Cuba. His mother wanted him to have a better life in the U.S. and for this she was willing to, and did, give her life. Since Elian reached the U.S. coast, he should be offered asylum. When he is 18 he can decide where he wants to live. His father has probably been coerced by the Cuban government into claiming his son.

Melissa Roll (letter, Dec. 5) lacks knowledge of what life is like in Cuba. When a Cuban immigrant risks his or her life to come to the U.S., it is not out of greed but out of hunger. There are two kinds of markets in Cuba. The one that will accept Cuban currency has shelves that are practically empty. The other market will only take American dollars and, wouldn’t you know, that one’s shelves are stocked. A person cannot shop in one of the stocked markets unless he/she has somebody in the U.S. who is able to send him/her some cash.

CARMEN G. LEMUS

Cerritos

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The Cuban people in America care nothing about the people living in Cuba. They live bitterly, for being outcasts of a country that has endured so much suffering, and they insist on maintaining the embargo to punish Fidel Castro, when in reality they are hurting their own people in Cuba.

They should be ashamed to use a child as a political tool; and the State Department should be embarrassed to let this group of so-called patriots alter the reestablishment of relations between the U.S. and the 11 million real Cubans still living on the island.

Send the kid to his grieving father and lift the embargo.

MIKE QUINONES

Norwalk

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Did anyone else notice that the front-page picture of Elian Gonzalez celebrating his birthday (Dec. 7) looked like a quintessential Norman Rockwell painting? How ironic!

DIXIE MITCHELL

Irvine