By MANNY GARCIA

 Prodded by his Miami relatives, Elian Gonzalez broke his silence Tuesday night:

 ``I want to stay,'' he said in a small voice.

 The youngest survivor of a rafter tragedy that left 11 Cubans dead -- including his
 mother -- spoke for the first time to reporters after the U.S. government said it
 would consider returning him to Cuba to live with his father.

 Miami relatives, who tried to shield Elian from the press as the attention began to
 wear on him, urged the 6-year-old to openly talk.

 ``Tell them how you feel,'' said great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez. ``Do you want to
 stay?''

 ``Yes,'' Elian said, looking at the floor.

 ``Do you like it here,'' Gonzalez asked.

 ``Yes,'' Elian said in a whisper.

 But Elian's father told The Herald in a phone interview from Cuba that his son was
 coerced to say he wants to stay.

 ``That's not what he tells me when we talk on the phone,'' Juan Miguel Gonzalez
 said. ``They are forcing him to say that.''

 Back in Miami, Elian sat on the lap of Marisleysis Gonzalez, a 21-year-old
 cousin. A loan officer at Ocean Bank, she has become Elian's closest confidant.

 ``I understand he's the dad, but this is unjust,'' she said as Elian hugged her
 neck. ``Elian will have a better future in the United States. I urge everyone to help
 us. More than ever we need the support of the community.''

 Then she started to cry. Elian looked into her eyes, pressed his face against hers
 and began to rub her shoulder-length brown hair.

 He squeezed her neck tighter.

 SPECIAL BOND

 Relatives say the two have developed a special bond since his miraculous arrival
 on Thanksgiving Day -- when fishermen found the boy strapped to a black
 innertube floating off the South Florida coast.

 The house in Little Havana with the Christmas lights quickly became ground zero
 for the exile community Tuesday night as word of the State Department's
 announcement spread.

 Miami-Dade School Board member Demetrio Perez arrived. So did Brothers to the
 Rescue founder Jose Basulto.

 Political consultant Armando Gutierrez, a volunteer helping the family deal with
 media inquires, mobilized Spanish-language radio stations, called for U.S. Reps.
 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Miami and reached out to the
 Cuban American National Foundation.

 ``We need to get the word out. We need to get people in the streets. This is
 unacceptable. The child should be here,'' he said.

 Within minutes, Armando Perez-Roura went live on Radio Mambi 710 AM with
 Lazaro Gonzalez, the great uncle. Radios around the neighborhood could be
 heard airing the interview.

 ``We're live,'' Gutierrez said. ``We're live.''

 At about 7:30 p.m., four Miami Police cars arrived at Gonzalez's home at 2319
 NW Second St. They closed off the street to keep crowds away.

 Elian was oblivious to the commotion. He chased his cousins through the
 kitchen, out the living room and into the bedrooms, playing tag.

 Earlier in the day, he showed signs he is getting tired of media attention. Sitting
 on the wood floor in the living room, he said he does not want to see another
 television camera.

 `GO AWAY'

 ``I will tell them to all go away,'' Elian said.

 Relatives kept him busy with piles of toys -- most of them gifts from strangers,
 including bicycles, a Winnie the Pooh and an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet given to him
 by the fisherman who pulled him from the ocean.

 Tuesday morning, police escorted him to see a child psychologist. Three other
 police cars sat outside the house, part of a 24-hour watch. The police are there to
 make sure no one snatches the boy.

 By nightfall, relatives began looking to a higher authority.

 Delfin Gonzalez, a great uncle, prayed to Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron
 saint. He pointed to a tabletop statue of the Virgin Mary his father found in the
 ocean in 1950.

 ``When I heard that Elian was on his way here, I went out to the beach in Marthon
 and I prayed and the miracle happened that Elian survived. Now I'm praying again
 that she lets us keep the child here.''

 Another uncle was angry.

 ``Send him back to Cuba?'' said Lazaro Gonzalez. ``He will have no milk. He will
 have no future. Let the Cuban government beat him up. Why is this country afraid
 of Castro?''

 Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald