Chess Piece: The Elián González Story

After Elián’s Thanksgiving rescue at sea, he was released to relatives in Miami. Just a day later, the Cuban government sent a note: the boy’s father and Fidel Castro wanted Elián back. Tensions between the U.S. and Cuba had long been high, and relations were about to be tested to the extreme as the Thanksgiving miracle became an international custody battle. Just over a week after his rescue, on Dec. 6, 1999, Elián turned six years old. That same day Fidel Castro sent an ultimatum to the U.S. to return the boy to his father within 72 hours. In Cuba, Peni was a young teen when Elián made it to Miami. Peni remembers seeing Elián everywhere: T-shirts, billboards, daily Fidel Castro briefings. She also remembers attending protests. Peni sits down with her younger brother Juanki to discuss their memories of the case, a national cause really, in Cuba. At the heart of the case is something Peni and Juanki know intimately: family separation.   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 ABC Nightline Action News AP Archive BBC Panorama CBS Early Show CBS Evening News CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America" C-SPAN Good Morning America NPR RTVE Telediario Universal NewsreelSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1999, two Florida fishermen found a cherub of a boy named Elián González in the sea on Thanksgiving. The boy had floated alone for days. His mother managed to save her son’s life by strapping him to an inner tube before she drowned. Elián's father in Cuba desperately tried to get his son back. Our host, investigative journalist Peniley Ramírez, was also separated from her family by the Florida Straits. When Peni was 11 years old her dad told her a dangerous secret before he left on an official trip on behalf of the Cuban government — he would not be returning. Relating to Elián in many ways, Peniley seeks to unearth his story with the clarity of history, nearly a quarter century later. Looking beyond the mythology around Elián saga, from the miracle rescue to dolphins, Peni uncovers a more layered story, even dark at times. This season on Chess Piece, we tell you the Elián story unlike you've heard before.   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: AP Archive Belly of The Beast Cuba CBS Early Show CBS Evening News CNN CNN's "Elián: The Remarkable Story of A Cuban Boy's Journey to America" C-SPAN Cubavisión Good Morning America ITN Archive Univision 7 News At 5pmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thanksgiving 1999, five-year-old Elián González was rescued at sea near the Florida coast after his mother and others drowned on a make-shift boat, fleeing from Cuba. His miraculous survival would make global headlines, but Elián would be put in the middle of a dramatic familial feud and two enemy nations — highlighting the very Cuban experience of family separation. Episodes drop every Wednesday, starting 9/25/24.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.