Letter to Elena Pérez: Birth Mother of the Cuban Refugee Girl

"If she can't be with me — her own mother — then she should be with her own father who wants her. Material things don't matter in life, but being raised and loved by your real parents does. You can't treat real parents like nothing; they are the most important thing." — Elena Pérez, birth mother of the Cuban refugee girl

Elena Pérez:

You appear to have been restored to a semblance of sanity, or if not sanity, to your real self, which insanity may actually have ameliorated. Your real self, as revealed in your despicable declarations to the media, shows you to be a warped human being, incapable of empathy even for your own daughter, or, rather, the baby that you delivered just so you wouldn't explode.

For her entire life, in Cuba and the U.S., and for as long as she was condemned to be in your custody, you abused her; and even now, that she has been removed from your custody, you are still endeavoring to inflict pain on her. So you want her to be with her biological father, your sometime sexual partner, who never took any interest in her welfare, in Cuba or here, the man (he is as much a man as he is a father) who allowed you to abuse her in Cuba and consented that the abuse should continue in the U.S. by surrendering sole custody to you. In another father, with no possibility of leaving Cuba himself, such a sacrifice would have been an expression of parental love, as it was in the Jews who gave their children away to Christians so that they would not end up in the ovens. But it was no expression of love on his part that guided his decision to cut her off from his life forever. He knew when he signed away custody that he had entrusted his daughter to a monster and washed his hands entirely of her and you (the last part must have hurt you). No letters, no phone calls, no birthday cards were sent to his daughter. You and her were a nightmare for him which he was glad to shake off forever, or so he thought, little realizing that someday his dormant parental instincts would be miraculously reawakened through the wondrous agency of the fatherfucker of all Cubans, the tyrant from whom you fled.

Of course, you want us to believe that you were a loving mother and are ceding your daughter to her biological father only because you can't have her yourself. But she is not yours to cede anymore. You do not now and never shall have any say in her life again, thank God. Your opinion in this custody case matters less than a stranger's, less than mine. There have been too many deaths of children in recent years due to the negligence of family services agencies and judges who believed that it was always in a child's best interest to be in the custody of a birth parent, even when the child had known nothing but abuse at her (his) hands. So resign yourself to the fact that your parental status is terminated and your opinion of no consequence whatever anymore.

So "material things don't matter in life," you say. Well, they mattered to you once, anyway. Didn't you come to this country in the first place because you were dissatisfied with living conditions in Cuba and wanted the material things that you now disdain when it is more profitable to disdain them? Didn't you in fact enter and win a lottery to come to this country and be "corrupted" by its materialism? Surely it was not the quest for freedom that brought you here since you are now so eager to have your daughter returned to slavery. And will you follow suit so that you can keep her company?

Ironically, this time it was not you who won the "lottery" but your cast-off boyfriend. If he succeeds in his attempt to deprive his daughter of a life and future, his own fortune will be made. The miserable landless "farmer" will become a protégé of the Cuban state. Like Juan González, Elián's father, he will literally eat at Castro's table (or at least under it). He will never have to work again (not that he works now). And if he behaves himself — that is, if he takes himself entirely out of his child's life and allows her to be used (not that he will have any choice then) as abuelito Fidel's (or Raúl's) marionette — the aptly-named Izquierdo, like González, will be made a "Hero of the Republic" and selected a deputy to the People's Assembly. Not bad for a malanga farmer (when was the last time anyone saw a malanga in Cuba?)

At least you have the assurance that if your child is deported to Cuba, she will not want for milk. Unlike other Cuban children, her supply will not be cut off at age 7. She will always be well-fed and well taken care of because she will represent the (false) face of Cuba's children to the world. Those material needs that you pretend not to care about will be satisfied in Communist Cuba. It is everything else that she will be deprived of. Her personality will be washed from her with mild-altering drugs and mind-control techniques, exactly as happened to Elián. Her expression will become distant and vacant, as if her very soul had been vacuumed through her eyes. This is the fate that awaits your daughter in Cuba, and given your past history, we are not surprised that you see nothing objectionable in it.

You are right in one respect — being raised and loved by own's parents does matter. You and your boyfriend are not capable of providing love to this child or raising it. You have proved it already beyond a doubt. If you had even the least love for your daughter you would not still be trying to destroy her life. Neither would your tethered ex-boyfriend, who is speculating with his own flesh and blood.

Of course, it is of no importance to you — your heart is incapable of love and much less gratitude — but the child that you abused and your boyfriend abandoned has been lucky the second time around, for now she has parents who do love her and are worthy to raise her. And, of course, she still has her older brother, who protected her from you and filled-in for the father who abandoned her. They are her family. They are the most important people in her life. Not you. Not your ex-boyfriend.

The Poor Little Cuban Girl that They Call "Eliana"

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