Future Psychological Issues Elián González May Face

Some relatives of Elián González believe it best for him to remain in the United States, while others believe that he should grow up in Cuba. These two factors, with or without the publicity he has received, will forever be imprinted on his mind.

This case is not only a matter of where the boy belongs after his parents’ divorce, but one of divergent ideologies. His mother died in a risky effort to get away from Cuba to the U.S., hoping for Elián to grow up in what she believed to be a better place. His father, on the other hand, does not share her views, at least that is how it appears.

Since his mother is dead and his father is alive, the choice as to where he should live is obvious. While the choice may seem clear, the psychological task ahead for Elián will be to integrate both parents’ beliefs, while not getting trapped in a never-ending web of ambivalence. The trauma of a dead mother and other events in the past year will be an unconscious influence on him for the rest of his life.

Because of the media attention, a custody fight between relatives became a political and ideological clash. Fidel Castro found a cause for himself and the Cuban people. Cuban-Americans saw an opportunity to validate their opposing political beliefs. The United States became involved in this game with Elián as the pawn, further compromising Elián’s future psychological development.

The media has played an enormous role in the development of this story. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in an article published by The New York Times last month, voiced his opinion that Elián belongs in Cuba and not in the United States. He further stated that Fidel Castro’s son experienced a similar experience when his mother brought him to the United States. This earlier custody fight, which Castro eventually won, contributed to his rousing the Cuban people to fight for Elián’s return to Cuba.

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A cartoon in New York Newsday showed Elián, looking very American, saying, “Like, what’s up?”; Castro is looking at him and gesturing; the caption says: “Send him back”. A New York Times letter to the editor offered a possible solution: let Elián go back to Cuba but grant him U.S. citizenship so he could return when old enough to choose.

After resolving the Oedipal conflicts, there are many developmental tasks for a six-year-old. These include the latency six-year period of growth. Elián thus far displays a well-adjusted six-year-old attitude. Beginning at this level of development and throughout latency he needs both parents: a mother for a home base and a father to help him adjust to the outside world of neighborhood and school.

Some outcomes might include a possible resentment towards a stepmother and his father’s Cuban home. A lack of progress in school and a rigidity of personality are also possible. Other outcomes may include an idealization of American culture and of his cousin Marisleysis in whom he seems to have found a loving mother substitute.

As much as we would like to believe that when Elián is back in Cuba living with his father all will be well, in my clinical experience this is not a likely outcome. I wonder, will it be possible for Elián to erase the experiences of his mother’s having absconded with him, her subsequent death, his incredible survival, the men who rescued him, and all the publicity he received? The only hope is that in his Cuban home and school he will be given the opportunity to achieve an emotional balance incorporating all his experiences.

While living in Cuba, will American culture influence Elián somewhere in his psychological future? I think so, for it is one way of preserving the maternal love and connection to the dead mother. He might not be able to identify it as such, but the unconscious meaning of his American experience will symbolically be represented in one form or another.

In adolescence all prior experiences rework themselves. Will the maternal or paternal influence be stronger? Or will Elián be able to integrate the two apparently opposite ideological beliefs into his own personal recipe? These questions will remain unanswered for many years to come.

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