By Luisa Yanez Sun-Sentinel. Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 11:51 p.m. Feb. 16, 2000
MIAMI -- The glossy, 30-page keepsake magazine has all the essentials: pin-up portraits, bright smiles and vital statistics about 6-year-old Elián Gonzalez.
Inside, are highlights of everything from the day the boy's parents married, to the day he was born, to the day he arrived here.
With a touching snapshot of Elián and his dead mother, Elisabeth Brotons, on the cover, the magazine's goal is to sell the idea that the boy should remain in the United States, where his mother wanted him to live. The cover headline reads: "Elián Already Lost his Mother,
Don't Let Him Lose His Freedom." About 6,000 copies have been printed.
The magazine, published and distributed for free by the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, is about to hit South Florida, just as a crucial hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday in Miami federal court.
An initial printing of 1,000 copies of Fighting for Freedom: Facts, Findings and Opinions on the Elián Gonzalez Case, was circulated late last week in Washington, handed out to hundreds of congressional who are considering whether to grant the boy citizenship or U.S.
residency.
This week, an additional 5,000 copies will be printed and made available in Miami to the general public and the media. It's one of the anti-Fidel Castro lobbying group's most ambitious public relations efforts.
The foundation said it wants to set the record straight about what compelled 14 people, including Elián's mother, to leave Cuba on the fateful voyage that claimed her life and that of 10 others.
"We wanted the other side to be heard," said Ninoska Perez, spokeswoman for the foundation. "The father and the relatives in Cuba have said certain things about what they knew about the trip that is not true and we try to show that."
To get a copy of the magazine, call 305-592-7768.
Luisa Yanez can be reached at [email protected] or 305-810-5007.
Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc. |