The Elian Gonzalez saga: 25 years after the Thanksgiving Day that reshaped Miami
MIAMI — He was the cutest little kid and he was a story: a big story that lingered on for months dividing the Miami community, with implications that spread from the streets of Little Havana to Washington, D.C. But nearly 25 years later, does anyone in South Florida still remember Elian Gonzalez? It depends who you ask.
"No," former University of Miami professor Andy Gomez told CBS News Miami. "Every once in a while in our conversations when some of us get together we talk about Elian and the failures of how the whole episode was handled."
Coral Gables City Commissioner Kirk Menendez, then a young lawyer working for the Cuban American National Foundation, has a different take.
"I think in the hearts of the Cuban American Community Elian is still present but it's something that, it's a sadness," he said. "A frustration that people carry inside of them."
How Elian Gonzalez arrived to Miami
On Thanksgiving 1999, Elian Gonzalez was found on an inner tube floating in the Atlantic Ocean off Dania Beach. His mother, lost at sea, died during an escape from Fidel Castro's Cuba.
"Elian became a symbol for the Cuban American Community, a fight against Fidel Castro," Gomez said.
Elian Gonzalez had relatives in Miami and they took him in. His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who resided in Cuba, wanted Elian returned to his custody — and so did Fidel Castro. Many in the exile community did not want to see the little boy sent to his father, saying he would be Castro's "trophy child" and a propaganda victory for his regime.
"We became a chess piece in a geopolitical chess match," Menendez said at the time.
Elian's future became "a fight against Fidel Castro"
What ensued was a legal, political and emotional battle that split families, the community and ranged from state court, federal court, the justice department and the White House. In the street in front of the Miami family home, there were daily spirited demonstrations mostly Cuban exiles and leaders of exile organizations standing vigil in support of Elian.
Attorney General Janet Reno, a Miami native, advocated for returning Elian Gonzalez to his Cuban father. Her stance was opposed by leaders of the exile community and family members in South Florida, who wanted him to stay with what was referred to as "The Miami Family."
For Gomez, the standoff war pure and simple: "Elian became a symbol for the Cuban American community's fight against Fidel Castro."
From the very beginning, Gomez said the exiles would lose the struggle.
"We were going lose that battle if you will, that this should not become a political hot potato, which it did," he said.
Negotiations with the family failed, court actions failed and with Elian's father Gonzalez in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department headed by Reno made their move.
In the early morning of April 22, 2000, U.S. federal agents raided the "Miami Family Home." Elian was spirited away and eventually reunited with his father in Washington, D.C.
Protests erupted in Miami after Elian was returned to his father
The streets of Miami erupted with intense demonstrations, tear gas, arrests and frustration. One part of a divided community on full display, disappointment in the U.S. government and bitterness about little or no support from the non-Cuban community.
"You got to see the people's real true colors of what they really thought," Menendez reflected on that day and weeks that followed referring to the non-Cuban community. "You got to see the people's real true colors of what they really thought...you know openly criticize the Cuban American community."
With Elian in the embrace of Fidel Castro, returned by the U.S. government, what was the legacy left behind?
"I think that was the last hurrah for a certain generation," Menendez told CBS News Miami. "I think they realized inside that hope was gone, that represented, 'this is our last great stand.'"
For Elian, now a 30-year-old man, he did become that trophy child early on, appearing with Castro. He got a college degree and became an engineer, living in Cardenas, Cuba, a city he represents as a member of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power.