I found this an interesting comment. I was talking about this topic last week with a Cubana friend of mine. She said that the extreme position of both sides is due in a large part to "el Santerismo" or Santeria, a spiritistic religion with African animist roots. Both sides (including Fidel) view the boy as a "profeta" due to his "miraculous" survival of the tragic voyage ( the dolphins and all that). They are fighting over him because they believe his presence brings good luck. One of the TV reports on this showed a group of the Santarismos conducting rituals only a block away from the house where the boy was being held. Fidel in particular is concerned over his physical survival, since he is 73 years old. To me, this explained a lot of the fanaticism - that and the always reliable nationalism. Mark Story, RPT Eastern Washington University Cheney, Washington > jurisdiction and his father's entitlements. Much as the Miami ex-Cuban > community and its sympathizers would like to turn this into a > Moses-in-the-bullrushes miracle, it is nothing more or less than a simple > re-patriation, the fate which Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and > Haitians (all of them fleeing far worse tyrants than Castro) routinely > face. > > Bill Ballard, RPT > New Hampshire Chapter, PTG
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