Elian Gonzalez reaches divine status for some Cuban Americans

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - In "The Boy of the Dolphins," a Cuban painter depicts Elian Gonzalez swaddled, like the baby Moses, in a blue blanket and nestled inside an inner tube. Three dolphins surround him as the hand of God manipulates puppet strings that lead the child away from a red background symbolizing communism.

The painting is based on a story, reportedly told by Elian, that dolphins swam around his inner tube and protected him while he drifted for two days in the waters off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.

"I . . . think that it has been a miracle from God that this boy was rescued alive and that dolphins, like Elian himself says, helped the situation," artist Alexis Blanco said. "Elian, for me, is like a messenger that announces the end of the communist dictatorship (in Cuba)."

Talk of destiny swirls around the 6-year-old Cuban boy who has been embroiled in an international custody battle that unfolds daily before television cameras.

Some Cuban Americans revere him as a divine messenger, believing it is God's plan for Elian to remain in the United States. At least one sociologist contends that Elian's divine image is simply political manipulation by those who want to keep him in Miami.

The circumstances surrounding Elian's sea voyage provoke talk of divine intervention. His mother set her only son adrift to save him while she was among 11 refugees who drowned. Elian was found on Thanksgiving by two fishermen.

One of them, Donato Dalrymple, thinks fate took him to the sea that day, since it was his first time fishing. Dalrymple, who saw mahi mahi - not porpoises - near Elian nonetheless believes the dolphin story.

"I would like to believe that God used the dolphins as an instrument to keep him safe in that water," he said.

Elian also spoke of seeing an angel out at sea, according to Dalrymple and Robert Curbelo, a friend of the Gonzalez family.

"I believe that the guardian angel and God were helping him through those rough times when he was by himself," Curbelo said. "Little boys who are 6 years old don't lie and they don't invent things like that. There are too many factors here not to believe."

One unconfirmed story circulating through Miami's Cuban community has Cuban President Fidel Castro consulting a santero: a priest in the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria, which melds elements of Catholicism and West African spiritualism and sometimes calls for animal sacrifices. The santero told Castro his future depends on Elian, and if the child stays in Florida, Castro's regime will fall. If Elian returns to Cuba, the story goes, Castro will remain in power forever.

"I think that's why Castro's making such a big deal about one little boy when he's let thousands die in the water," Curbelo said.