BY PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS

 Miami, the Dead City, was a place whose inhabitants had plenty to say on Tuesday but
 little to offer in the way of understanding.

 There was scant sympathy either for Cuban Americans protesting the taking of Elian,
 or for non-Cubans scoffing at the attempt at a work stoppage.

 ''To hell with them,'' said Rodolfo Delgado of his employers, after leaving his job at a
 Miami Beach hotel to meet friends near the Orange Bowl to fly the Cuban flag. ''They
 told me I couldn't take the day off to protest this injustice.

 ''It's like we Cuban Americans are the conscience of this country,'' he said. ''We are
 the ones with the guts to protest what they did to Elian. Those Anglos so proud to be
 Americans just don't get it.''

 Many non-Cubans appeared to be more concerned about basics: the right to order
 fast food, the right to make money, the right to not be inconvenienced.

 Their complaints about the protests are part of a ''great disconnect,'' said Robin Stiles,
 a shopper at the Barnes & Noble store in Coral Gables.

 ''It's over,'' she said of the Elian affair. ''Let people get on with their lives, including
 Elian, and Marisleysis.''

 'KIDS TO FEED'

 Albert Corey, a Lebanese American who owns a beeper store in Hialeah Gardens,
 said he opened shop ''because I have three kids to feed.''

 His father, Joseph, said the strike will not help the Cuban cause. ''All it's doing is
 hurting the small businessman,'' he said. ''It didn't affect anything. Nobody cares.
 Nobody paid attention beyond Dade County.''

 In Kendall, Cathenia Brown complained ''We just want lunch. We want to eat,''
 after discovering a McDonald's was closed.

 ''They're throwing a temper tantrum, that's all,'' she said.

 For tens of thousands of Cuban Americans of all ages, however, the day was a
 day to show the flag: the flag of Cuba. If they chose to wave the Stars and Stripes
 it was often upside down to show distress. At Northwest Seventh Street and Willy
 Chirino Way, people lined up at a Mobile station to buy T-shirts with angry
 slogans.

 ''Being here is an honor,'' said Raul Fachet, 36, a mortician's assistant. ''This is
 the day to stand up. It's the day of the dead city, believe me.''

 Robert Fojo, 20, a sophomore at the University of Miami, said he was not going to
 show up at his job at the library's Cuban heritage collection.

 ''Especially where I work, I think they should participate [in the strike],'' Fojo said.
 ''I think I should support the whole cause.''

 Janet Reno's use of force was ''a disgrace,'' Fojo said. ''It broke my heart to see it
 happen, and it made it worse the way they carried it out.''

 MAYOR WALKS OFF

 In Sweetwater, Mayor Jose Diaz walked off the job.

 ''The whole city is closed,'' he said, ''and I'm proud of the business owner who is
 taking it hard and losing money -- in some cases a lot of money -- because of
 something we all believe in very strongly.''

 Several Hispanic patrons who are not Cuban and who found a Pollo Tropical
 restaurant in Kendall closed took a more sympathetic view.

 Wilman Carrasco, a Peruvian, said he believes the stoppage is a legitimate
 expression of discontent.

 ''I agree the kid should be with his father -- that's OK,'' he said. ''But I don't agree
 with the way INS went in there and got him.''

 A driving school instructor, Carrasco said some of his classes booked for
 Tuesday were canceled. But he said he was not unhappy with losing income.

 ''They'll just have to take the classes another day,'' he said.

 In mostly African-American Opa-locka, many residents found the strike
 perplexing.

 ''It's foolish and idiotic,'' said Jose Colon, 69, a retired maintenance man of Puerto
 Rican and Italian extraction. ''I can't see a person closing a business because
 they don't agree with Reno. . . . As far as I'm concerned this whole malarkey is a
 waste of time and effort not only for us but to the Cuban community.''

 U.S. FLAGS

 Albert Tresvant, 72, a former Opa-locka mayor, was incensed by images of U.S.
 flags being burned and flown upside down.

 ''Closing shops for Elian hurts you,'' he said.

 ''But when you take our flag and fly it upside down you can't love America. As
 angry as I've been with this country, I've never flown that flag upside down.

 ''This country gave them jobs and food,'' he said. ''How could you, after that, burn
 this flag or fly it upside down. Is that ungratefulness or what?''

 Generations sometimes found themselves in conflict, especially within the
 Cuban-American community.

 Diana Cartaya-Williams, an assistant principal who arrived from Cuba when she
 was 17, was demonstrating in Little Havana. She was unhappy with her U.S.-born
 daughter, 26, who went to work on Tuesday.

 ''I called her up at 8 a.m. and told her I was ashamed of her,'' she said. ''I didn't
 give her a chance to explain. There is no explanation. She feels I'm too
 passionate. She's almost embarrassed by how I feel.''

 Herald staff writers Hannah Sampson, Andrea Robinson, Dan Grech, Ana
 Veciana-Suarez, Diana Marrero, Karl Ross and Tere Figueras contributed to this
 report.
                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald