World

Elian Is Seen, Fidel Is Heard

July 19, 2000 / 1:12 PM EDT / AP

Elian Gonzalez has added another unusual experience to his young life: star of a television documentary.

The 6-year-old's tragic journey to America, during which he lost his mother, and the subsequent international battle over his custody, spurred Cuban television into making a documentary aired Tuesday.

In the program, Elian is seen reading the book that Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave him last week to commemorate his successful completion of first grade.

As the camera panned over the dedication that Castro wrote to Elian in the The Golden Age, a children's book by Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, Castro's voice could be heard in the background reading it aloud in the Tuesday evening broadcast.

"For when you are in the fourth or fifth grade and can enjoy one of the most tender works of Marti," the Cuban leader read off-camera. It was signed, "Affectionately, Fidel Castro."

APTN/CUBA
It's swingset time for
Elian Gonzalez, seen here
in his school uniform, in the
Cuban TV documentary
about his life.

But Castro himself was never shown during the 45-minute program on Elian's life in Cuba since his return on June 28.

After opponents of Elian's return to Cuba predicted that Castro would parade the boy around like a poster boy for communism, the Cuban leader appears to have made a conscious decision not to give his political enemies any ammunition that can be used against him and his government.

Even when Castro met the boy whose international custody battle absorbed the island nation for seven months, no photographs of the historic meeting were published, no videotaped images were shown.

Instead, there have been images of Elian laughing and swimming in a pool, Elian singing Cuba's national anthem, Elian writing his cursive letters on a blackboard and in a composition book, Elian dancing with maracas, Elian placing yellow gladiolas at a bronze statue of Marti.

Cuba state media on Saturday revealed very few details when it reported last week's meeting between the 73-year-old head of state and the 6-year-old boy. It was the first reported reunion between the pair since Elian's repatriation.

Castro had promised that Cuba would avoid a media circus upon Elian's return to Cuba. He was even conspicuously absent at the boy's airport homecoming.

Since that time, Elian has been kept away from the media in a house in west Havana, where the child, his family and a group of classmates and teachers have been living.

State television reported Friday night that Elian had received his first-grade diploma after a special effort by teachers to help him recover the time lost during his tumultuous stay in the United States.

Although the government initially said that Elian and hifamily would take a week's holiday after the boy completed his studies, uniformed police on Tuesday afternoon continued to block all traffic around the house - an indication that they may still be there.

The government initially said that after the weeklong vacation, the Gonzalez family was to return to their home in Cardenas, a small port city a two-hour's drive east of Havana.

Elian survived a boat sinking that killed his mother and 10-other would-be immigrants.

After the child was rescued on Nov. 25, he became the subject of an international custody dispute between his father in Cuba and their relatives in the United States, who fought unsuccessfully all the way to the Supreme Court to block his repatriation.