Elián González, in an interview on Cuban State TV, mourns the passing of Fidel Castro, describing “El Comandante” as a father figure-turned-friend. After he was found floating off the Florida coast as a little boy circa 1999, González remembers wanting to make Castro proud of him.
“He is a father who like my father, I wanted to show him everything I achieved,” he said of the Cuban revolutionary who passed on Friday (Nov. 25) at 90 years old.
González became the center of an international custody battle 16 years ago in Miami, after his mother and other Cubans died in a shipwreck, traversing to the United States from the island. In the end, González had to return to his father and grandparents in Cuba.