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My Cultura and iHeartPodcasts

At the turn of the millennium, a five-year-old boy from Cuba found off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving became the most talked about child in America. Elián González had left Cuba with his mom and a dozen other migrants, trying to make it to the U.S. but on the way, the boat capsized. Elián’s mother drowned. Before she did, she tied her child to an inner tube, saving his life.

Relatives in Miami — Cuban exiles — took the boy in. His father in Cuba wanted him back. The ensuing international custody battle over Elián González became its own mini Cold War, pitting Cuban exiles in Miami against supporters of Castro’s regime on an island just 90 miles away. 

The fight over Elián’s future came down to neighbor against neighbor, family against family. Now, 25 years later — we revisit his story through the voices of people who lived it firsthand.

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Chess Piece: The Elián González Story

The 1960s brings social and political change to the world and to New York City, where a young Johnny Pacheco keeps people dancing with his orchestra and charanga music. The Dominican musician is also going through a divorce and his lawyer, Jerry Masucci, happens to be a fan of Johnny’s music. The two form a music partnership that will forever change music. They call their music label Fania Records.
 
Listen to Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York out now wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Our Thing: The Birth of Salsa in Nueva York (hosted by Rosie Perez)

The Futuro Studios podcast, La Brega, returns for its third season. In Season 3, La Brega shares stories of Puerto Rico’s champions. They take us to the ballfields and cultural battlegrounds where carrying the flag takes on even more meaning. You’ll meet fighters who have represented Puerto Rico in courtrooms and in boxing rings, and icons who have worn Puerto Rico on their sashes and their jerseys. La Brega asks: What do we learn about Puerto Ricanness by spending time with our champions? 
 
La Brega: Season 3 is out everywhere on 2/3. New episodes every Tuesday on the La Brega: Campeones feed. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing – La Brega: Season Three

In the final episode this season, Peniley reflects on the throughline of the Elián story: family separation.
 
In an extended interview with Cuban American historian Ada Ferrer, we share her family’s story of separation and reunification. Her mom left Cuba when she was pregnant with Ada in 1963, soon after the revolution. They left behind her 9-year old brother, Poly, or Hipólito, playing in the yard without telling him they wouldn’t be returning. She tells us how years later he would eventually come to the U.S. too, and be reunited, but that the wound of abandonment would prove deep.
 
To read Ada's family story, here is her New Yorker article, My Brother's Keeper.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos.

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Through Each Other’s Eyes

After taking you through the Elián González story, we’re sharing some reporting and interview content that didn’t make it into our narrative series.
 
This week, Peniley and producer, Tasha Sandoval, sit down to reflect on their experiences reporting on this project, particularly through their perspectives as Cubans: Peniley, a Cuban who grew up in Cuba, and Tasha, a second-generation Cuban-American.
 
During the Elian saga, the Cuban American community in Miami gained a negative reputation as “crazy,” something that came up in several interviews. We hear from writer Vanessa Garcia and former Executive Director of the Cuban American National foundation, Joe Garcia, to reflect on how this perception of “Crazy Cubans” and that the community lost the narrative, may have reverberations to this day.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos.

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"Crazy Cubans"

Peniley tells us the story of Elián after he returned to Cuba, where he studied engineering, fell in love and had a daughter. Back in his country, Elián became a favorite of Fidel Castro, much to the chagrin of Miami Cubans. Peniley reflects on Elián's journey and her own relationship with Cuba. She speaks to her children about her and Elián's Cubanismo.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos. 
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
Al Jazeera English
 
AP Archive
 
Belly of The Beast
 
CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America"
 
CNN
 
Fidel Castro Ruz, Soldado de las Ideas
 
La Caja de Pandora

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Being Home

Elián and his dad went back to Cuba in June 2000, just four months before the US Presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Miami Cubans, hurt and angered by President Bill Clinton’s handling of the Elián case, resolved to vote against the Democrats and for the Republicans in what was called el voto castigo — the punishment vote.
 
To understand the political influence of Cuban-Americans, the stakes, and lasting impact of this moment, producer Tasha Sandoval takes the mic. We meet Tasha’s grandmother, an 87-year-old Miami Cuban, and learn how her story as a first wave Cuban exile informs her perspective.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos. 
 
Thanks to These Archival Sources: 
 
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
ABC News
 
AP Archive
 
CBS News
 
CNN Evening News
 
C-SPAN
 
Democracy Now!
 
HBO's "537 Votes"
 
Museum of the Moving Image
 
National Archives
 
NBC Evening News
 
NBC News
 
PBS NewsHour
 
Retro Report
 
The New York Times
 
Voice of America
 
YouTube/Plopsmom

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Punishment Vote

In the aftermath of the raid, agents brought Elián to Washington D.C. where father and son would finally reunite. But Elián and his dad were stuck in the United States while the court case played out — and while Miami burned with rage at what many Cuban Americans saw as a deep betrayal by the federal government.
 
Peniley reflects on the power of reunions. As Elián was reunited with his father, his cousin Marisleysis was in despair. And in April 2000, Peniley had just turned 13 years old, still separated from her own father as a result of US and Cuban policies.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos. 
 
Thanks to These Archival Sources: 
 
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
ABC Evening News
 
AP Archive
 
Belly of The Beast
 
CNN Evening News
 
CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America"
 
Cubadebate
 
C-SPAN
 
MSNBC
 
NPR's "All Things Considered"

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The Reunion

As negotiations failed, the U.S. government had been carefully planning for the possibility of taking Elián by force. Then on Easter Weekend, the order came. Armed agents stormed the house in a pre-dawn raid, armed with tear gas and semi-automatic rifles. They smashed down the door of the Miami home where Elián's relatives were keeping him.
 
Donato Dalrymple, the man who had rescued Elián at sea, grabbed the boy and hid with him in a closet, but there was nowhere else to go. A news photographer caught the moment on camera, creating an image that would reverberate around the world — including in Cuba.
 
In this episode, we hear first hand accounts of the night of the raid, from the INS commander of the operation, a family lawyer who was inside the house that evening, and a Cuban exile activist who was outside the Little Havana home.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos. 
 
Thanks to These Archival Sources: 
 
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
CBS Evening News
 
C-SPAN
 
NBC 6 South Florida

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Raid

Throughout the ordeal, Elián's father always insisted he wanted the boy to return to Cuba. But many Cuban Americans speculated that Juan Miguel wasn't operating under free will — but rather under threat, and in the shadow of Fidel Castro.
 
As the Miami family refused to hand Elián over to his father, tensions boiled over and negotiations began. The Attorney General, lawyers and other negotiators tried to bring the two sides together. As Elián started to disappear from the public eye, authorities became increasingly worried about the boy's safety and well-being.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos.
 
 
 
Thanks to These Archival Sources: 
 
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
7 News at 5pm
 
ABC Evening News
 
ABC Nightline
 
AP Archive
 
CBS Evening News
 
CNN
 
C-SPAN
 
Martí Noticias
 
NBC Evening News
 
Periódico Escambray
 
The Guardian
 
Univison

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Sombra

While authorities decided how to proceed, Elián stayed in Little Havana with his Miami relatives, including with his older cousin turned mother figure, Marisleysis. The Cuban American community in Miami rallied around the family, arguing that Elián would only be free in the U.S., and that sending him back to Cuba was sentencing him to a life under the Communist regime.
 
This idea was fueled by traditional exile ideology, a set of beliefs informed by the Cuban American experience. Peniley explores how the staunch ideology, often informed by trauma, animated Elián' s story. While in Cuba, the ideology of the revolution also colored Elián's journey. Peniley reflects on what it has been like for her to experience Cuba and Miami — two places with very strong belief systems. And she revisits how the INS finally decided who Elián should stay with.
 
 
 
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos. 
 
Thanks to These Archival Sources: 
 
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
 
Original Material Appeared In: 
 
CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America"
 
C-SPAN
 
Gabriel Iglesias' "How To Tell Latinos Apart"
 
Martí Noticias
 
Sony Pictures' "3:10 To Yuma"
 
YouTube/dvjmindsnare
 
 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Punishment Vote

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