By Alex Veiga
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Elian Gonzalez was
reunited with his grandmothers yesterday at a "neutral
site" that had to be arranged by the U.S. government
because of the personal and political passions
swirling around the 6-year-old Cuban boy.
Elian was driven to a nun's house in Miami Beach
to see his grandmothers, who had flown in from
Washington. The visit lasted about an hour and a
half.
The grandmothers picked the boy up and were
shaking as they hugged him and kissed him, said
Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, who monitored the reunion
while relatives waited in the next room. The
grandmothers broke down crying after Elian walked
out of the room, the nun said.
"It took him a little while to warm up, but after a
little bit he became very animated," said Sister Peggy
Albert, who also watched the reunion.
Elian has been in the middle of an international
dispute and a power struggle among his relatives
since he was found clinging to an inner tube off the
Florida coast Nov. 25. He had left Cuba with his
mother, who died along with 10 other persons when
their boat capsized.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has
ordered him returned to his father in Cuba, but the
boy's relatives in Miami are fighting the order in
federal court so he can remain with them.
Mariela Quintana and Raquel Rodriguez had not
seen their grandson since before he left Cuba. The
grandmothers came to the United States last week to
appeal to the American people and Congress to send
the boy back to his father in Cuba.
In their time together yesterday, Elian and his
grandmothers played with an Etch-a-Sketch and
stuffed animals, and the women showed him a photo
album and letters from his classmates in Cuba, Sister
Albert said.
"They just came to him and they hugged him and
they sat down at a table and they were seeing an
album of pictures," said Elian's cousin Marisleysis
Gonzalez, who brought Elian to the room.
The grandmothers did not comment as they left
the house and were driven away to a helicopter.
They later got on plane to Washington.
The grandmothers had also come to Miami on
Monday, but they left without seeing Elian. The
Miami relatives insisted that any reunion take place at
their home in the Little Havana neighborhood, but the
grandmothers said they were uncomfortable going
there. Anti-Castro Cuban immigrants have been
holding protests around the home.
After long negotiations, the Justice Department
ordered Elian's relatives to bring him to the home of
Sister O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, who
has long been involved with helping immigrants. The
Justice Department said it had the authority to do so
under the arrangement letting the boy stay in this
country pending further immigration proceedings.
As the grandmothers drove up to the house, a
few people tossed flowers at their car. About 200
demonstrators were waiting outside the house; some
cheered and others booed as the grandmothers
passed.
Sister O'Laughlin said both sides were so nervous
and mistrustful about the meeting that she had to
show them there was no chance Elian could be taken
away.
Sister O'Laughlin said she was "showing that
windows couldn't be opened, that doors couldn't be
opened, that there were no disappearing trap doors."
When the grandmothers arrived, they trembled
with fear, the nun said.
"There was pain on both sides, there was hurt on
both sides," Sister O'Laughlin said. "The greatest
element, however, was that of fear."
Elian's father, in a letter printed in the Communist
Party newspaper Granma, asked to be included in
the reunion by telephone. Sister O'Laughlin said a
nun took a cell phone from Mrs. Quintana, the
paternal grandmother, after it rang.
As Elian returned to his relatives' home in Miami,
a crowd waiting outside roared with approval. Elian's
great-uncle Delfin Gonzalez faced the crowd while
holding a crucifix above his head.
"Tomorrow they're going to make me an
American citizen," Elian said in an interview
broadcast over the Spanish-language Radio Mambi
while driving back to his relatives' home.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott indicated he has no solid plans for handling
legislation to give Elian U.S. citizenship. That would
remove the boy from the jurisdiction of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, the agency
that ordered him back to Cuba.
"There are a lot of extenuating circumstances," the
Mississippi Republican said. "Obviously it could
come up next week. But there are a lot of people
looking at this issue and there may be developments
between now and then."
President Clinton supported the grandmothers'
cause, hinting he might veto the citizenship legislation
if it passes.