HAVANA, Jan. 17 —  Miami relatives hoping to gain
                         custody of Elian Gonzalez argue that the island’s
                         shortage of food and other basics promise a
                         bleak future for the child if he is returned home.
                         But Elian’s uninvited fame, combined with his
                         father’s job earning dollars in Cuba’s tourism
                         industry, will ensure that milk, meat and potatoes
                         — luxuries to the average Cuban thanks to the
                         U.S. economic embargo — are staples of the
                         Gonzalez family diet for a long time.
                                 The 6-year-old boy has been in headlines around
                         the world since he was saved Thanksgiving Day, drifting in
                         an inner tube off the Florida coast. Glittering images of the
                         child being showered with gifts and trips to Disney World
                         contrast sharply with the dismal picture painted of his life in
                         the small coastal town of Cardenas.
                                Generally, this is viewed in Cuba as a baldfaced effort
                         to bribe an impressionable little boy into cutting ties with his
                         father, who is demanding Elian’s return.
                                “He’s getting all that stuff because he’s the boy of the
                         hour,” said Alexander Martin Martinez at a
                         government-sponsored protest this weekend. Marching
                         with his high school English students past the American
                         diplomatic mission, Martin asked, “Why don’t they take
                         care of needy kids in their own country?”
                        REALITY CHECK
                                In the United States, anti-Castro Cuban-American
                         groups and even the Republican National Committee have
                         circulated documents in the media claiming that if Elian
                         returned to Cuba, he would never get another drink of milk,
                         would rarely eat meat and would likely end up in a labor
                         camp.
                                While Cuba’s government is often criticized for its
                         repression of political expression, the economic situation is
                         not nearly as bleak as Castro’s opponents have claimed.
                         For instance, children up to age 7 are entitled to special
                         subsidized foods like a liter of milk a day, extra beef and
                         chicken, and even a yearly birthday cake — hard to find for
                         Cuban pesos.
                                More generally, the Cuban government has managed to
                         keep most social services intact, despite a shortage of hard
                         currency and the U.S. trade embargo.
                                Castro often boasts that he hasn’t closed a single
                         school or hospital since the Cuban economy fell on hard
                         times a decade ago. Cuba’s infant mortality rate just
                         dropped again last year to 6.4 per one thousand live births.
                         Literacy stands at 98 percent, and the economy is once
                         again growing, albeit slowly.
                                This year, Cuba earmarked 70 percent of its $9.1
                         billion budget for education, health care, public assistance
                         and housing expenditures. High public spending has been
                         the consistent pattern of the Castro government since it
                         seized power more than four decades ago — even though
                         critics often complain that the government-controlled
                         economy is inefficient and prone to chronic product
                         shortages.
                         SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
                                Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian’s father, counts as one of
                         a growing number of workers whose lifestyle has improved
                         in tandem with the healthy and steady growth of the Cuban
                         tourism industry.
                                Nearly 2 million visitors to Cuba last year left gross
                         earnings of some $2 billion that, along with an improved
                         sugar harvest, helped boost the gross domestic product by
                         6 percent.
                                “This was a good year for the country’s economy,”
                         said Jose Luis Rodriguez, Cuba’s economy minister. Last
                         year’s growth, among the highest in Latin America, showed
                         major improvement over previous years, when GDP growth
                         slowed to as little as 1.2 percent.
                                Rodriguez asserts that this trickles down to people like
                         Elian’s divorced parents. The boy’s home is equipped with
                         consumer products normally scarce on the island, including
                         three color televisions, a VCR and several air conditioners
                         in the three-bedroom apartment.
                                Elian’s household lives well beyond the subsidized
                         minimum diet ration that the government guarantees. Tips in
                         hard currency to workers in the tourist industry make all the
                         difference.
                                Elian’s father, Juan Miguel, is employed at Josone
                         Recreational Park, a dollars-only enclave. Elian’s mother,
                         Elizabet, who died in the boat crossing, earned American
                         dollars working as a chambermaid in the Varadero beach
                         resort. This extra money eased the heavy burden of buying
                         food. The food ration, covering just a portion of an adult’s
                         daily nutritional needs, must be supplemented with
                         purchases from unregulated farmers markets — where a
                         pound of meat costs about a dollar, or two days’ wages.
                         IN MEMORY OF ELIZABET
                                Another issue concerns the memory of Elian’s mother.
                         Advocates for keeping the boy in Florida say he’ll be told
                         Elizabet was a traitor for abandoning her homeland. Until
                         now, the Cuban government has carefully portrayed the
                         young mother as an innocent victim of inconsistencies in
                         U.S. immigration law, lured by a policy that grants asylum to
                         those from Cuba who risk death on the open seas, but
                         sends back similar refugees from Haiti or China.
                                Demonstrations in Havana for Elian’s return include
                         calls to dump the special Cuban Adjustment Act. Under this
                         law, any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil is immediately
                         granted residency even if American officials had turned
                         down their previous visa application. If picked up at sea,
                         Cubans are generally sent back home. Ironically, under the
                         technical interpretation of that policy, Elian Gonzalez
                         wouldn’t have qualified.
                         ‘TYPICALLY AMERICAN’
                                To many in Cuba, equating Elian’s well-being with the
                         amount of money his guardians have strikes them as typical
                         of what’s wrong with America. While most will quickly
                         concede Cuba is not the worker’s paradise of old-style
                         propaganda, they also argue that life is more than money
                         and trips to Disney World.
                                “His father’s love and affection mean more than toys
                         and clothes,” said Dora Aguila Morejon. And anyway, she
                         reasons, Elian will benefit from the island’s free health care
                         and education like the rest of Cuba’s 2.5 million children.
                                Beyond what all Cubans can depend on, though, most
                         people also agree that Elian Gonzalez won’t ever have to
                         worry about his next meal if he returns.
                                “This little six-year-old boy has become a household
                         name,” comments a Havana nurse. In effect, Castro, by
                         declaring the boy a “hero,” has guaranteed his future.
                                The Cuban president, though, has promised a worried
                         Juan Miguel that once his son is home, he’ll disappear from
                         the limelight. No more rallies in his name. The billboards
                         with his picture will come down. Press coverage will be
                         barred.
                                Still, the real challenge, said his father, will be “helping
                         him go back to his school, his life-giving him back his
                         childhood.”
 
                                Mary Murray reports for NBC News and MSNBC