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> The San Jose Mercury News February 20, 2000
>
> IF HE HAD FLED MEXICO, ELIAN WOULD BE A NOBODY
>
> By Gabrielle Banks
>
> With the current media frenzy over the custody of 6-year-old Elian
> Gonzalez, I got to thinking what would happen if, instead of landing in
> Florida, Elian had shown up in California.
> What if, on Thanksgiving Day, a rusty, dilapidated van under hot
> pursuit by the Border Patrol, had plowed into the median of Interstate 5,
> killing 10 people, including Elian's mother and her boyfriend? The would
> be no bleary-eyed testimonials from witnesses that Elian's van was
> guided along the freeway by angelic Ford Escorts.
> Or, what if Elian had crossed the border on foot, past the new and
> improved 14-foot fence, along the rustic mountain route, only to be
> discovered by a livid dentist whose petunias he had brazenly trampled?
> Would the neighbors drop by with toys and homemade pies? Would
> Mexican expatriates extol the virtues of the boy's mother for fleeing dire
> poverty under a less-than-democratic one-party government?
> In former Gov. Pete Wilson's utopian California, the West Coast
> Elian would be barred from school and turned away from getting his cuts
> and bruises treated at the local clinic. Rep. Dan Burton, Sen. Jesse
> Helms and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott would declare that Elian's
> reunification with his great-uncle was putting an unacceptable strain on
> federal resources.
> President Clinton, of course, wouldn't take a stand. Attorney General
> Janet Reno would wait it out. And on the day of Elian's capture, Mexican
> President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon would be sure to have his top
> aides monitoring the U.S. press for and sign of fluctuation in the price of
> silicon chips.
> "Dateline NBC" would not be digging up home movies of Elian's
> childhood in the slums of Mexico City. There'd be no talk of his mother's
> dying wish to settle in the United States. Instead, mothers would publicly
> criticize her for risking such a perilous trip with a child in tow. There
> would be no outrage over the boy's right to live a life free from the
> universal tyranny of poverty. No one would take advantage of the open
> opportunity to question the long-standing U.S. embargo on humane
> border policy.
> The truth is, if Elian came to California, he would disappear into
> oblivion.
> He'd be called an alien instead of a refugee. If Elian's dad wanted
> him back, he wouldn't even have to ask. By the time Mr. Gonzalez got to
> the processing station at the border, he'd be just in time to meet Elian
as
> he stepped off the first police wagon back.
>
>
> San Francisco writer Gabrielle Banks has been a teacher and community
> organizer on both sides of the border. Her article "The Tattooed
> Generation: Salvadoran Children Bring Home American Gang Culture" is
> in the current issue of Dissent magazine.
>
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