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Saturday, July 04, 2015

Elian Gonzalez - “If Cuba stopped being socialist it would be like Haiti”

Elian Gonzalez: "If Cuba stopped being socialist it would be like Haiti"
/ Cubanet
Posted on July 3, 2015

"And I read Fidel, I love to read Fidel. He likes to give me books, and
sends me one whenever he can."

EFE, Havana, 27 June 2015 — Elián González, the "little Cuban rafter",
believes that if Cuba ceased to be socialist would be "a colony" and a
poor country like Haiti, according to what he says in an interview
published today in the official newspaper Granma.

"It should be clear that if Cuba ceased to be socialist, it would not be
like the United States, it would be a colony, it would be Haiti, a poor
country, much poorer than it is, and it would lose everything it has
achieved," says Gonzalez, 21, warning that sometimes young people
believe that with capitalism the island would be a developed country
like the United States, France or Italy.

Asked how he would like to see the future of Cuba, Gonzalez stressed
that his hopes for the country are that it "develops" and he feels that
in this sense it is "on the right track."

"If Cuba loses its essence, it loses everything it has achieved with the
Revolution, with Fidel and Raul in front, I would be very disappointed.
It would reject all progress, all that has been done," said Gonzalez,
who at age five miraculously survived the shipwreck of a raft of illegal
immigrants traveling to the United States with his mother, who died in
the accident.

The "little rafter" was rescued by US fishermen and taken to relatives
in Miami, Florida who took temporary custody of him, sparking a bitter
legal, family and political dispute between the governments of the
United States and Cuba, whose then president Fidel Castro supported
Elian's father, who lived on the island, in his desire to recover his son.

In his interview with the newspaper Granma, Elián González also referred
to his career plans and reported that plans to join the military.

"Now I am studying at the Camilo Cienfuegos University of Matanzas, in
my the fourth year of Industrial Engineering. I am a cadet planning to
serve the Revolutionary Armed Forces when I finish my studies," he said.

Gonzalez admits he likes studying, hanging out with his brothers and
friends, watching TV shoes and movies, listening to music, in particular
says he has learned to enjoy a genre not very popular in his generation,
repentismo – a form of improvised oral poetry – and also enjoys
swimming, baseball and football, although he is not a "fanatic" of the
latter sport.

"And I read Fidel, I love to read Fidel. He likes to give me books, and
sends me one whenever he can, and for me that is like a homework
assignment and have to read it," he said.

His opinion is that he does "nothing different" from other young people,
"I simply have to be a young person of our times, knowing how to have
fun, share, play sports, but also tied to the tasks of the Revolution,
not losing the essence of how important it is for young people to carry
out the country's development."

Source: Elian Gonzalez: "If Cuba stopped being socialist it would be
like Haiti" / Cubanet | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/elian-gonzalez-if-cuba-stopped/

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