Mexico City, Oct 11 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Congressman Elián González highlighted the importance of solidarity movements with the island and the importance of recruiting young people to them, during a meeting in support of his country held today in Mexico.
“If we’ve won many of our battles, it’s precisely thanks to solidarity, and when I talk about solidarity, I’m not referring to donations or anything material, but rather to not feeling alone, to knowing that you have support anywhere in the world,” he said in an interview with Prensa Latina.
González, who was held in the United States without his father’s consent at just six years old and returned to Cuba in 2000 after an intense political and public opinion battle, emphasized how people from many nations approach him here and talk to him about that process.
“How they also helped me return to Cuba. So, first of all, that’s a boost, because it makes me see that Cuba isn’t alone and has never been alone, and second, it makes us understand that they’ve also been part of our victories,” he asserted.
The young man commented that his father, Juan Miguel González, always speaks to him a lot “about what the American people did when they really knew what was happening, how they supported us and stood by us, by our people, and by my family.”
“That’s why it’s important to maintain these movements, set new goals, rethink strategies, and bring young people together. And that’s precisely what this event is for: to bring ideas to life and continue the work they’re doing,” he said, referring to the IX Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba.
At the event, which began last Thursday and will conclude tomorrow at the Los Pinos Cultural Complex in the capital, the representative presented yesterday, along with the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Fernando González, the conference “Cuban Youth, Continuity and Guarantee of the Revolution.”
He pointed out that the central focus of his presentation was on youth as a generational replacement for the process of social change that began in his country in 1959.
“We also want to bring it a little bit closer to solidarity, which is what we also want to achieve with solidarity and with solidarity movements with Cuba, bringing young people increasingly closer to these movements, which are the ones that will be able to continue their legacy in the future,” he noted.
Elián’s mother, Elizabeth Brotons, smuggled him off the island to the United States in November 1999, aboard a rustic boat that sank in the ocean, along with several others, leaving only the boy to survive.
When fishermen discovered him off the coast of Florida, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service placed him in the custody of Lázaro González, a great-uncle who lived in Miami and had only met him once.
Elián remained kidnapped for seven months, during which legal and political disputes erupted, as his father, Juan Miguel, demanded his legitimate right to parental authority and return to his country.
The boy’s return became a popular demand, bringing citizens to the streets of the Caribbean nation, led by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.
jcm/las
