The Elian Gonzalez Case

Resonates With Cuban Expatriate

By Steve Bigham

This month in Miami, thousands of Cuban-Americans have crowded the streets in support of Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old Cuban boy who is at the center of a major custody debate.

Federal courts are now trying to determine when the six-year-old boy will be reunited with his father Juan Miquel Gonzalez, a Cuban citizen who has come to the United States to claim his son.

Meanwhile, Elian’s US relatives have cared for him since late November, when he was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba drowned when their boat sunk.

Here in Newtown, physician Humberto Bauta has been watching closely as the events unfold. It has been nearly 40 years since the Newtown resident fled Cuba. He knows what life is like in the tiny Caribbean island nation and believes the boy deserves a chance to discover the American dream.

“If the little boy ran away from Cuba with his mother for a better life, and now they’re sending him back, I don’t think it’s right,” he said Monday.

Dr Bauta admits he does not know the relationship between Elian and his father, although the fact that the father now has a new family should be taken into consideration, he said.

The Newtown doctor believes Cuba’s Fidel Castro will consider it a victory for Cuba if the little boy returns to Havana.

Dr Bauta left Cuba for good in 1962 while a post-graduate medical student at Havana University. Escaping the Communist country was much easier in those days, he said; he simply told airport officials he was headed to the United States for a visit.

“People always ask me if I ever plan to go back to Cuba. Why should I go back?” he says.

Dr Bauta was already a doctor when he arrived in the United States, having graduated in 1959, a year before Fidel Castro came to power. Upon arrival, he completed his residency and internship at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.

His wife, Gretchen, was born in northern Ontario and educated in England. She remains an active supporter of Newtown’s conservation efforts.

Eventually, the couple purchased a 50-acre tract of land at the top of Great Hill where they built a contemporary home using native stone and wood.

Dr Bauta first joined Newtown’s medical community as a member of Dr Thomas F. Draper’s staff.