But there is another instinct as well, felt perhaps a little by most Americans, and passionately by Miami's Cuban exiles: to keep Elián in America and surround him with all the affection (and toys and education and opportunities) that his mother hoped to find for him here. "All we hear about is the father, the father, and no one's talking about what Elián's mother wanted for him," says his cousin Marisleysis González, 21, of Miami. "Here he'll have opportunities, a career,
freedoms.

Elián's case has also been influenced by less noble emotions: desire for political gain, greed, hunger for fame. For Miami's Cuban exiles, Elián has become a poster boy-literally, his giant image now hangs over I-95-for everything that's right about America and wrong with Cuba. In a Time/cnn poll taken last week, 56% of Americans polled agreed with the ins decision to return the boy to Cuba to live with his father, rather than have him live with other relatives in the U.S. But a Miami poll found that 90% of local Cuban Americans felt Elián should remain in the U.S.

In Miami's Little Havana, it is a given that Elián's mother died for her son, who, floating alone and at a time near Christmas, was surely placed in America by God's own hand. It's not just resentment of Castro that girds Miami's protests, but also the image of a mother giving her life-and the certainty that such a sacrifice can't be in vain.
Part of the Clinton Administration's rush to get Elián out of this logistical purgatory-and out of the country-was that he was already being embraced by conservative politicians. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani considered having Elián drop the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve. And presidential candidates, eyeing the Florida vote, rushed to form opinions. McCain and Bush (who kept mispronouncing the boy's name as "Alien" in last week's debate) suggested he should remain in the U.S. Gore and Bradley opted for a more opaque endorsement of whatever the ins decided. Senate Foreign Relations chairman Jesse Helms announced plans to make Elián a U.S. citizen when Congress reconvenes Jan. 24Ða move that could stall repatriation procedures.

Elián's case, while unusually heart wrenching, has much in common with other recent waterborne escapes from Cuba. In 1999 the U.S. Coast Guard picked up more than 1,300 rafters, more than double the 1998 number. As many as 60 others are believed to have drowned. Driving the exodus are Cuba's poverty and political repression, generous U.S. immigration rules for Cubans and the unprecedented rise of paid refugee smugglers.

Questions

1. When and why did Elián González leave Cuba?
2. What are the arguments for and against returning Elián to Cuba? What stance on this issue is expressed in the cartoon above?

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