Hand Me the Boy
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History November 25 - December 1.
Elian Gonzalez was born in Cardenas, Cuba, in 1993. In 1991, his parents divorced, and in 1996, they separated for good. They shared custody of the boy, who spent most of his time with his father and grandparents.
But his mother, Elizabeth, sought to flee Cuba and take her son with him. On November 21, 1999, Elian, his mother, and a dozen other migrants climbed into an aluminum boat to sail to the United States and presumed freedom.
But the engine was broken.
As they crossed the Floria Straits, bad weather ensued, filling the boat with water. Their efforts to bail it out were unsuccessful, and the boat capsized.
Fortunately, Elizabeth had attached the intertubes from the boat to her son. However, Elizabeth and ten others would be lost at sea while Elian floated in open water. He would be rescued off the coast of Florida by two fishermen on November 25, 1999.
Gonzalez was handed over to the US Coast Guard and eventually placed with his paternal great-uncle in Miami.
That uncle happened to be very anti-Fidel Castro, Cuba’s communist dictator. However, Elian’s father happened to like Cuba, and he liked having his son with him in Cuba, so of course, it turned into a fight between Cuba and the United States over a boy.
Gonzalez was denied asylum, and every Spanish-speaking country in the world told the US to give the boy back to his father.
Local Miami officials, also anti-Castro, said they would not help give the boy back.
So, the US did the very American thing and brought guns to the house where relatives kept Elian, which led to this Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.
Elian went back to Cuba and became an anti-anti-Castro, who used to visit him on his birthday. Elian is now a representative in Cuba’s Congress and he’s like in his 30s now. Crazy.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
1. NASA launched Mariner 4 on November 28, 1964. It is the first spacecraft to fly by Mars and send images back to Earth. We found out there’s nothing there. It turned out to be a 325 million-kilometer road trip for nothing.
2. The first national Thanksgiving Day was on November 26, 1789. President George Washington proclaimed it a day of thanks for no longer being British subjects. Thus began the official day of families gathering to talk about politics and eat pie.
3. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was tried for political bias on November 30, 1804. The House of Representatives impeached the Associate Justice for being too Federalist during a Democrat-Repubican administration. He was acquitted at trial in the Senate the following year. Today, we don’t have the will to impeach current Justices who impose their biases of making money ruling in favor of their friends.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. There is plenty to be thankful for. One thing I’m thankful for is my beautiful, full, curly hair. I’m also thankful for Anonymous, Blue, and Xavier basketball being undefeated.
I’m also thankful I made this turkey last year:
I’ll be taking Friday off. I need the rest. Then I’m back at it over the weekend, and when we meet again, it will be December!
Take care, everyone. Thanks for the support!
Okay,
Chris
Lastly, I will always hate Xavier BB!
#3 is so true.