BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers flew to Miami Monday to see the 6-year-old boy
 they have not hugged in more than two months, but in the end they could not
 bridge the final 15 miles separating them.

 Grandmothers Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana broke into wide smiles as
 they stepped off their chartered jet at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport, 12800
 SW 137th Ave. But instead of traveling to the Little Havana house where Elian has
 lived since late November, they remained holed up in a terminal building past their
 6 p.m. dinner date with Elian, insisting in angry telephone conversations with
 Elian's Miami relatives that they wanted a more neutral ground for their meeting.

 Elian's Miami relatives insisted that the meeting be held at their house, 2319 NW
 Second St., and ordered up a dinner of pork and rice and beans from a nearby
 Little Havana restaurant.

 The grandmothers were expected to fly to Washington late Monday -- perhaps for
 a second meeting with INS officials or to lobby Congress -- although they
 originally planned to fly from Miami to Cuba.

 Exactly what the grandmothers had hoped to achieve in Miami was uncertain,
 since the child's case remained before a federal judge, even as a Florida
 congressman Monday submitted a bill to make Elian a U.S. citizen.

 Their visit nevertheless put a new spin on the 2-month-old Elian controversy,
 moving it away from a political battle between communism and democracy to a
 dispute that remains at heart a human drama.

 Underlining the heated politics of the case, a Miami-Dade Police officer who
 serves on the FBI's counterterrorism task force was among the first to greet the
 grandmothers' airplane after it taxied up to the TACAIR terminal at Tamiami, 15
 miles from Elian's home in Little Havana.

 Miami family lawyer Spencer Eig said the family was ready to welcome the
 grandmothers with open arms. ``They are thrilled,'' Eig said. ``There's going to be
 a lot of cheek-pinching and baby-kissing.''

 WAITING ALL DAY

 Miami family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said Elian was told Sunday night
 that the grandmothers who raised him in the northern Cuban city of Cardenas
 could be coming to visit. ``Elian had been waiting for them all afternoon, he even
 bought a camera to take a picture of them,'' Gutierrez told reporters.

 Hundreds of Cubans gathered outside the Little Havana house in anticipation of
 the grandmothers' visit, chanting, ``Abuelitas, welcome,'' and holding up signs that
 read ``Grandmothers, We're Glad You'll Visit Your Grandson.''

 A young man handed out dozens of carnations in various colors, from peach and
 dark red to white, and the crowd practiced raising them in the air as a symbol of
 the warm welcome the grandmothers would receive.

 Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto and Democracy Movement President
 Ramon Saul Sanchez, who have led street protests against Elian's return to
 Cuba, endorsed the grandmothers' visit and urged calm.

 PLEA FOR PRIVACY

 ``All by themselves, they will see if they can understand each other without
 talking . . . through the media,'' Basulto said. Added Sanchez: ``We are asking
 the community to stay away from the house.''

 Worried Miami Police, nevertheless, ordered demonstrators to either side of
 Elian's Little Havana house and pushed reporters and photographers across the
 street from the home, behind gray metal barricades.

 Police later took away a man who was seen with a gun at his belt. Police said the
 gun was licensed and the man was not arrested. Family sources said the man
 was a security guard who often came by the house on his off time.

 The grandmothers' arrival in Miami came just two hours after Florida Republican
 Rep. Connie Mack introduced a bill before Congress to make Elian a U.S. citizen
 -- insurance to keep the boy here if his Miami relatives lose their appeal against
 an INS ruling that would lead to his return to Cuba.

 Elian was rescued from an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale after his mother and 10
 others drowned when their small boat sank as they tried to flee Cuba two months
 ago. His father in Cuba wants him back there.

 BIG FAMILY ROLE

 Cuban grandmothers have long been an icon of caring -- standing in long food
 lines in Cuba to make sure their families receive their rations and taking care of
 children in America when both parents are out working.

 The grandmothers initially said they would never come to Miami and used
 President Fidel Castro's favorite epithet for the city as home to the
 counterrevolutionary ``mafia,'' insisting Elian be taken to meet them in New York
 instead.

 But they reversed course after meeting in Washington on Saturday with Attorney
 General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, who told them the
 child could not leave Florida because of the pending legal case.

 ``The grandmothers made a very compelling case, a heart-aching plea to see their
 grandson,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said. ``They are going out of their
 minds to see him.''

 PLANNED FOR DAYS

 Family spokesman Gutierrez later disclosed that for the last two days, family
 attorneys and INS officials had been talking about organizing a family meeting
 with the grandmothers in Miami.

 Elian's Miami relatives had made several public comments inviting the
 grandmothers to visit, but the invitation was made official only Monday morning in
 a letter faxed by attorney Roger Bernstein to Owen Cooper, general counsel of
 INS in Washington, Gutierrez said.

 Bernstein tentatively set the invitation for 6 p.m. Monday but insisted the visit had
 to take place at the family home in Miami because ``the grandmothers really
 should see where Elian sleeps, what he eats, who he plays with and how much
 love and caring he receives in the home.''

 Meanwhile, Cardona said the INS will not file its response to the Miami relatives'
 lawsuit in federal court until later this week.

 Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler's office said he was hearing a medical
 malpractice case for five days this week but that he can easily interrupt it to
 accommodate the Elian case at a moment's notice.

 But Hoeveler's office said the judge will not schedule a hearing until the INS has
 filed its response to the relatives' lawsuit challenging the INS ruling to send the
 boy back to his father in Cuba.

 Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Jay Weaver and Alfonso Chardy contributed to this
 report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald