10 years after
footprints left Elian in Miami
El Nuevo Herald • 10 years later: the tragedy of Elian Gonzalez
By LUISA YANEZ 
Delfin Gonzalez lyanez@MiamiHerald.com walk through the modest museum that has for years at his home in Little Havana and nostalgia can not avoid looking at the pictures, toys and clothes of his famous nephew, Elian. Ten years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, the little Cuban refugee was found adrift on an inner tube for two fishermen near Fort Lauderdale. 
Gonzalez, 77, has become his mission to preserve the political and emotional tracks that Elian Gonzalez left in Miami. And on Thursday commemorated the tenth anniversary with a modest ceremony at Casa Elián, at 2319 NW 2 St., 10 am to noon. It will bring home a statue of the Virgin of Fatima, the same as that Elian kissing appears in a photo. It invites those who want the child or struggling to stay in U.S..
"So many years later, people are still stopping me in the street and wondering about Elian. I always tell them: 'You will return at any time,'''said Gonzalez, considered the favorite uncle of Elian. " Let us pray for him, that's all we can do.'' a decade ago, Gonzalez said, no Elian had no idea that just a few days shy of 6 years, would become famous throughout the world through a legal battle between the U.S. and Cuba for their custody.
At first everything seemed easy. Elian's mother had died at sea when the boat she was in sank. The child's relatives in Miami said the father, a waiter who had remarried and lived in Cuba, said he was glad his son was safe. After Fidel Castro
intervened and Elian's father rushed to require them to return to or a child.
then broke an extraordinary battle for her custody, while authorities Federal tried to present the case initially as a family court issue.
The fight for Elian eventually causing a major rift between those who wanted to return him to his father in Cuba and most of the exiles, who had hoped he could escape the communist indoctrination. The case became a watershed in the politics of exile.
Elian's stay in the United States five months ended abruptly on Easter Sunday with the house raid by federal agents. The child was returned to the island.
All that happened is still affecting González. "It was a special kid,''Gonzalez said, standing amidst the picturesque museum.
Other relatives have left behind what happened.
Marisleysis Gonzalez said his niece, who became the surrogate mother of the child during the controversy, now is a hairdresser, married and had a child last year. The baby's first birthday on December 7, a day after Elian is 16.
"She does not like to talk about that time, brings sad memories,''Gonzalez said of his niece. Marisleysis 
's father, Lazarus, continues to work painter in the county government moved all the neighborhood.
Gonzalez still lives in the house and left intact the possessions of Elian: the bed in the form of race car, the clothes he wore at age 6 and the Power Rangers toys.
's father, Lazarus, continues to work painter in the county government moved all the neighborhood. Gonzalez still lives in the house and left intact the possessions of Elian: the bed in the form of race car, the clothes he wore at age 6 and the Power Rangers toys.
Near the door of the museum, a scrapbook shows that have come to visit curious from as far away as Oklahoma, Canada and Spain.
"We're sorry you had to return to Cuba,''one person wrote.
González has never charged for passing when he is home and ask you to enter and tells stories of Elian to everyone who asks you .
Remember that the child was a crook. "provoke the press on purpose,'' Gonzalez said. ''When everyone was camped outside the house, sometimes I say, 'Let's go out and provoke them! " ,''Knowing they would jump and start to take pictures, he said.
'He was the most photographed child in the world,''he said.
also recalled the saddest moments of Elian.
"He remembered how his mother had died. He said the boat had sunk and that her mother and her boyfriend put it into the camera and then grabbed her,''Gonzalez said.
" It remembered how his mother collapsed and plunged her boyfriend for her. Said began to expect out of the water, but never emerged. He said he had shark jumping around. We believe that they were dolphins.'' Dolphin
said that his relatives have said that Elian is happy, but shakes his head thinking about what could have happened.
"is living in Cuba, what I can tell you I wish things had been different.''
onshore Naugragio
- Gabriel García Márquez
