Favorite Son’s Departure Leaves Miami Sad but Torn

It’s over.

Even as the plane carrying Elian Gonzalez passed overhead unseen on its flight to Cuba, those exiles who fought for more than seven months to keep the child in the U.S. acknowledged defeat with a mix of frustration and anger. But they knew: It’s over.

“At the beginning, I thought Elian should stay in this country because his mother struggled so much to get him here,” said Hilda Vallejo, 24, a Cuban-born secretary. “Now, I feel it’s so political. Let him go . . . and we’ll see what Fidel does with him.”

The story of Elian--who came to mean so much to so many here who oppose the communist regime of Fidel Castro--stands as a milestone in the emotional 40-year history of Cubans in exile. The 6-year-old became an icon, a symbol of the disaffection that has driven thousands to risk their lives crossing from Cuba to America in flimsy boats and rafts.

But Miami also saw the dark-eyed boy as just that, a child. Playful and impish, he won the hearts of many--including the Miami relatives who went all the way to the Supreme Court in attempting to prevent Wednesday’s departure.

“During his short stay with us, he had a profound and lasting impact on so many people,” said Manny Diaz, one of the Miami relatives’ attorneys.

Even non-Cubans were torn. “This is a Catch-22 situation,” said Craig Dorne, 36, a lawyer who was lunching in the same Miami coffee shop where Vallejo was taking a break. “Elian should be with his father but shouldn’t be subjected to living in a communist country.”

The mood was somber among those few who gathered outside the Little Havana house where Elian lived for almost five months with his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. One woman began removing from the fence in front of the house some of the many signs: depictions of Castro as the devil, diatribes against U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and prayers that Elian might remain in the U.S.

Later in the afternoon, a man showed up carrying a cross. Affixed to it was an Elian-sized doll and a sign in Spanish: “Clinton, Reno crucified Elian.”

At a news conference Wednesday, family spokesman Armando Gutierrez reminded the public that after Elian was found adrift at sea on Thanksgiving Day, Juan Miguel Gonzalez called from Cardenas, Cuba, to ask his Uncle Lazaro to care for his son temporarily. “They were delighted,” said Gutierrez, who runs a Miami public relations business. “Now he is going back to live in a country where he will never be free.”

Many of the lawyers who represented the family in their legal fight spoke, praising Lazaro and his daughter, Marisleysis, for their perseverance. “I have never seen a family go through so much in so short a time and come away with their dignity intact,” Roger Bernstein said.

Added attorney Kendall Coffey: “We are truly heartbroken at this moment, with a sense of sadness that an injustice has occurred.”

Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, another lawyer, said neither Lazaro or Marisleysis Gonzalez attended the news conference because “they feel pain at this moment, even more than we do.”

The family’s bitterness over the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up their appeal was evident earlier in the day, when Lazaro lashed out at a news photographer who found him and Marisleysis praying outside a Roman Catholic chapel beside Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. With tears in her eyes, Marisleysis pulled her father away as Lazaro continued to berate the photographer.

Two Cuban-born legislators from Miami also expressed their anger over the outcome of the case. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) accused President Clinton of committing a “cowardly crime” by allowing Elian to go back to the island. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also lamented the boy’s leaving while echoing the community’s resignation. “It was a foregone conclusion for many weeks now. It was a done deal,” she said.

In Tallahassee, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he was “saddened by how this has turned out.”

Back in the Cafe Bistro, the coffee shop on Biscayne Boulevard, the conversation over Elian was less angry, but no less heartfelt. “It’s not fair,” said Puerto Rican cook Lovette F. Hernandez, 43. “Elian should stay in the U.S. because this is a free country.”

But, countered restaurant owner Cecilia Flaurial, 48, from Chile: “Elian has to be with his father, wherever that might be. Ideally, it should be here.”

And Alan Dorne, 62 and retired, said he saw both sides. “As a father myself, I understand that a father wants his child,” he said. “I also understand the family here. It’s a family situation which got out of hand. Nobody wins.”

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Virtue reported from Miami and Clary from Tallahassee.