BY AMY DRISCOLL AND SANDRA MARQUEZ-GARCIA

 In a vast, flickering cross of humanity, tens of thousands of Cuban Americans
 gathered Wednesday night in the heart of Little Havana, holding candles, flashlights
 and glow sticks to the heavens in a mass prayer vigil for Elian Gonzalez.

 Filling the intersection at Southwest Eighth Street and 19th Avenue, parents with
 baby strollers chanted in thunderous unison with factory workers and grandparents,
 filling the warm night air with their prayer: ``Elian no se va. Lo dijo su mama.'' (Elian
 is not leaving. His mother said so.)

 Their hope: In sheer numbers, Miami's exile community can find the strength to
 keep 6-year-old Elian from returning to Cuba and the repression they believe
 awaits him there.

 ``For God, nothing is impossible,'' said Dayse Gallego, 62, of Miami. ``We are not
 going to permit that the boy be taken.''

 Gallego said she believed that Elian's supporters could be successful without
 resorting to violence.

 ``This is a peaceful protest -- a protest of love,'' Gallego said.

 But some of the signs carried by protesters offered harsher views: ``Janet Reno
 killed innocent children in Waco,'' one said. Another read: ``Shame on you Mr.
 Clinton for sending a child to no future.''

 Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, stood
 in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. ``I think it's all of our responsibility to be united
 and show the world that we are advocating for the rights of the child,'' he said.
 ``Praying in a religious ceremony is the best way to show our support.''

 Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who earlier in the day chided the federal
 government for its tactics with Elian, attended the protest with his wife and
 children.

 ``There is a perception in the national and international media that the only way
 the Cuban exile community knows how to protest is through blocking traffic,''
 Penelas said. ``This peaceful protest shows that we do know how to do things
 correctly.''

 For some marchers, like Neryda Gordillo, 61, of Hialeah, Elian's case has taken
 on a special meaning.

 Gordillo recalled her escape from Cuba on a motor boat 38 years ago. She said
 she and her family nearly drowned during the perilous boat crossing.

 On Wednesday, Gordillo said she came to make a special plea: ``I want to ask
 God to help Elian like he helped me,'' she said.

 Demonstrators started gathering near the intersection long before dark. Elario and
 Migdalia Alvarez, who have been in the United States since 1990, came in the
 late afternoon armed with beach chairs.

 Elario Alvarez, 71, formerly a political prisoner in Cuba, wore a Cuban Political
 Prisoner T-shirt, a baseball cap emblazoned with a Cuban flag and the word
 volveremos -- we will return.

 But he was putting his faith in a charm of Cuba's patron saint, the Virgin of
 Charity, which hung on a chain around his neck: ``She will save the boy,'' he said
 confidently.

 At Southwest 22nd Avenue and Eighth Street, the crowd filled the streets, with
 men in suits, women in fancy silk scarfs and others fresh from their blue-collar
 jobs. Many were monitoring the news with cellular phones, portable televisions
 and radios. Every time a news chopper whizzed by, they raised their flashlights to
 the sky, and blinked them on and off.

 One Miami police officer estimated the crowd at 20,000 as priests led the people
 singing the American and Cuban national anthems.

 ``It's moving when you hear it like that,'' one woman said, wiping a tear.

 Several blocks away, at the home of Elian's Miami relatives, a crowd gathered
 and overwhelmed the barricades. Police ordered them to move away from the
 house, and they complied.

 One man shouted, ``We are law-abiding citizens, unlike Janet Reno, a criminal.''

 Reno wasn't the only politician criticized by the crowd near the house.

 Angela Gonzalez, dressed as Bill Clinton, and her husband, Tony Gonzalez,
 dressed in camouflage with a mask of Fidel Castro, kissed in front of the crowd.
 They held a red sign with a big white heart that said, ``Just married.''

 The protesters yelled, ``Clinton, Fidel -- husband and wife.''

 ``We believe they are truly friends right now,'' said Angela Gonzalez of Hialeah as
 the crowd shouted, ``Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!''

 Herald staff writers Sara Olkon and Elaine de Valle contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald