Little Boy Lost: Film Brings Elián González Back To Miami

WLRN Public Media | By Christine DiMattei

Published June 1, 2017 at 8:55 PM EDT

A still from the documentary 'Elian,' about Elian Gonzalez

In 2000, the United States and Cuba were at war. Not over embargoes or political ideology, but over the future of a 6-year-old Cuban boy.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph shows the moment that federal authorities removed Elián from the home of his relatives in Miami so he could be sent back to Cuba.

The child had been found months earlier clinging to an inner tube off Florida after his mother and others drowned trying to reach the United States . In Cuba , his father wanted him back; his family in Miami wanted to keep him here.

The boy is a man now — and when he appears at the start of a new documentary that bears his name, he says simply: "I'm Elián González. You may remember me, you may not ..."

After nearly 17 years, it's safe to say there are many people in South Florida — especially in Miami's Cuban exile community — who will never forget him.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tim Golden, who covered the Elián saga for New York Times Magazine as the story was unfolding, is the writer and co-director of the new documentary "Elián," which opens Friday in South Florida .

In the interview below, he chats with WLRN's Christine DiMattei about the lingering effects the Elián story had on Miami — and the world.

IF YOU GO:

IN MIAMI-DADE

June 2-8

O Cinema Miami Beach

50071stSt, Miami Beach, FL 33141

IN BROWARD COUNTY:

June2-7

CinemaParadiso, Hollywood

2008 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, FL 33020