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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (79015)	4/26/2000 6:28:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Is it the incident (alleged or not, I don't know) where grandmother pulled down his pants and asked "let's see how big it got"? That's the allegation of sexual abuse?

To: jbe who wrote (79015)	4/27/2000 1:34:00 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 108807

abcnews.go.com Molestation or Affection? M I A M I, Feb. 4 ? Cuban-Americans and the U.S. family of Elian Gonzalez are raising a ruckus over the way one of the little boy?s grandmothers says she touched him. But others say her gestures were simply signs of affection. In a recent interview aired on Cuban television and in Miami, Mariela Quintana, Elian?s paternal grandmother, said that when she and his other grandmother visited with the 6-year-old in Miami he seemed ?inhibited? and reluctant to talk, and so she tried to loosen him up. ?We were teasing him. We started this game of whether he had a tongue or not. So I took his tongue out of his mouth and bit it,? she told the interviewer in Spanish. ?I even opened his fly, to see to see his ?parts.? I said let me see how it?s grown, teasing him, to liven him up a bit.? Bitter Custody Battle Cubans who spoke to ABCNEWS in Miami and Havana said the gestures ? both biting the tongue and looking in the boy?s pants ? would be common and seen as affectionate in Cuba, especially for people from the countryside, and especially for a beloved first son, as Elian is. Elian has been the focus of a bitter international custody battle since he was rescued from the Florida Straits on Nov. 25, Thanksgiving Day. His mother and nine other people drowned when the boat in which they were trying to reach Florida capsized. Elian and two adults survived. The child was taken to Miami, where he was placed with relatives. Those relatives now want to keep him, but his father in Cuba wants him back. The grandmothers traveled to the United States to lobby for Elian?s return, and they met with him for an hour and a half at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O?Laughlin of the National Council of Churches. O?Laughlin has since said she believes Elian should stay in the United States. Investigation? Miami police would not confirm claims by Armando Gutierrez, the spokesman for Elian?s relatives in Miami, that authorities planned to investigate possible ?sexual abuse? by Quintana. The family is very ?disturbed and upset? that this has happened, Gutierrez said. ?If you want to see how he?s grown, you measure him. You don?t go inside his pants.? Calls have also been flooding Miami?s Spanish-language radio talk shows to complain about the grandmother?s gestures after the interviewed aired Wednesday in Miami and a story about her remarks appeared Thursday in the El Nuevo newspaper. Ninoska Perez, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, which backs the Miami relatives?s efforts to keep Elian, called the incident ?very disturbing.? ?I cannot understand that kind of behavior from a grandmother with a 6-year-old child, and in this country that?s understood as child molesting.? Different Values But Uva de Aragon, a Cuban-born historian at Florida International University, said she did not believe that the incident was a case of abuse. She said it probably reflected different cultural values, particularly since the grandmothers are from a provincial town and are not especially sophisticated. ?It would never occur to me to do this [behave in this way] but I can understand where they are coming from,? she said. But de Aragon added that her American-born daughters would probably be ?flabbergasted? by such treatment. Letter From Dad The Cuban government?s International Press Center, meanwhile, released a letter today from Elian?s father to Attorney General Janet Reno and Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Doris Meissner, asking that his son be sent back to Cuba, and in the meantime moved to other relatives in Miami. ?I am deeply concerned and anguished over the present condition of my 6-year-old son, Elian Gonzalez, unfairly and cruelly separated from our family for over two months,? Juan Miguel Gonzalez wrote in the letter, dated Thursday. ?Elian has been under constant harassment and pressure from politicians, journalists, lawyers, publicity agents and others unrelated to his family,? Gonzalez wrote. The INS ruled Jan. 5 that only the father has the right to speak for the boy and said Elian should be returned to him in Cuba. Reno has backed that decision. The boy?s Miami relatives, meanwhile, have filed suit in federal court, seeking to block his return. The Cuban government maintains Elian was ?kidnapped? and has organized several mass demonstrations demanding his return. President Clinton has said Elian?s best interests much be considered and politics should not interfere in the case. ABCNEWS? Ron Claiborne in Miami, Marianna Ramirez Corria in Havana, ABCNEWS.com?s Maria Durand and Dorian Benkoil in New York, and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.