`It's all free, but nothing is easy'

 Herald Staff Report

 HAVANA -- On their third birthdays, Cuban children no longer receive a ration of
 canned fruit at highly subsidized prices. At the age of 7, children are no longer
 guaranteed a ration of cheap milk.

 ``They say children lack for nothing,'' said Marielena Garcia, a mother of three.
 ``But you see them begging tourists in the streets. Why are they begging?
 Because they have nothing.''

 Elian Gonzalez, who was found off the beaches of Broward County on
 Thanksgiving Day, was among a group of ill-fated Cuban rafters whose rickety
 vessel sank before reaching America.

 His mother drowned, but his father, who did not take part in the doomed voyage,
 wants the child sent back to his hometown. This has touched off a custody battle
 that has incensed Cubans on both sides of the Straits of Florida.

 Cuban Americans believe the boy should not return to the Communist-ruled island
 because his life could be full of difficulties.

 But the question remains: What would Elian's life be like in Cuba?

 Garcia, 31, lives with her husband and three children in a tiny, two-story
 apartment that lacks what many in the United States would consider basic
 amenities: a kitchen sink, refrigerator and stove, among other things. She and her
 husband, Miguel, installed the toilet themselves.

 DARK IN DAYTIME

 The old Havana home is akin to a windowless, turn-of-the-century tenement
 where, even in the daytime, it's still dark.

 ``This is how children grow up in Cuba,'' she says.

 ``You get a bag of milk one day, and the next you get none. You have to put a
 liter of water in it so that it lasts longer. If I buy the children shoes, then they don't
 eat.''

 Garcia's neighbor, Teresa Gonzalez, says her children's toys are sticks and
 rocks they find in the street.

 ``I suppose the truth is that my children don't have any real toys,'' Gonzalez said.
 ``For toys, you need dollars, and dollars are something I don't have.''

 Garcia and Gonzalez are willing to say what few in Cuba will utter publicly -- that
 Elian should stay in Miami.

 ``That boy's father is a disgrace,'' Garcia said. ``You think if I had the chance to
 let my children live in the United States, I wouldn't take it?''

 KEEPING TRACK

 All Cubans are educated in government-run schools where officials keep track of
 their political activities and school supplies. Texts are highly politicized and
 students are forced to memorize rather than explore and investigate.

 ``In Cuba there's access to instruction, but no access to information,'' said Maida
 Donate, a psychologist who left Cuba in 1993.

 Each student received an allotment of 10 pencils, nine notebooks and one uniform
 for the entire 1998-99 school year. An extra uniform on the black market costs
 about 60 pesos -- almost one-third the monthly salary of the average Cuban.

 Middle school students must spend at least one month a year away from home
 working the fields and most high school students go to boarding schools that,
 parents complain, weaken their control over their children and promote sexual
 experimentation.

 The Cuban government also boasts about the quality of its health care system,
 which has more doctors per people than even the United States. But complaints
 are heard as well.

 ``It's all free, but nothing is easy,'' said Niurka Keror, whose 10-year-old has
 needed eye surgery since birth. ``One day the clinic is closed, another day
 they're out of anesthesia; next time it'll be something else.''

 Government supporters have used Elian's case as an opportunity to argue the
 merits of growing up on the island.

 CHILDHOOD TALK

 Orchestrated rallies held last week, like most Cuban media over the past 40
 years, were filled with talk about how Cuban childhood is free from kidnappings,
 school shootings, drug addiction and other ``capitalist'' problems.

 ``In the United States, the Cuban American National Foundation would have to
 give Elian a gun,'' a girl of about 8 proclaimed at a rally in Matanzas last week.
 ``They would say, `Here, Elian, for school.' ''

 The girl, like thousands of others around the country, took to town plazas last
 week to demand Elian's return. Protests in Havana, Matanzas and Elian's
 hometown of Cardenas were filled with little girls in yellow miniskirts and little
 boys in blue scarves.

 ``You think all those kids want Elian returned?'' asked Garcia's husband, Miguel.
 ``They say that because they don't have a choice. Can you imagine attending
 schools where at 12 o'clock they round you up to attend the political rally and
 then mark it down in your file if they don't see you there?''

 Not everyone sees it that way.

 ``The whole world knows we are not a rich country, but everyone also knows
 children here are privileged,'' said Regla Garcia, principal of Marcelo Salado
 Primary School, where Elian was in the first grade. ``They get vaccines. Every
 school has a doctor and nurse! Every child is seen by a dentist.''