A Picture is worth a Thousand Words... Specially if you're covering an emigration controversy

The Photograph that I'm going to talk you about... it's very important and controversial due the context that is was taken. It's a picture that shows... how an international conflict cross the line between what it's ethical and what it's dangerous and wrong. I'm talking about: The Elián Gonzalez affair photograph.


It was taken by Alan Diaz, a cuban-american photographer who lived in Miami and took the photo in April of 2000. Around that time he was covering a case of deportation of a cuban kid called Elián Gonzalez. In the picture Elián and his mother appear hiding their house's closet while an american soldier was pointing them with a SMG.
All this happened because the mother of Elián took him and escape from Cuba to Miami. The problem was that the custody of the kid was from the father. The emigration is illegal in Cuba, but in United States there's a law called "wet feet, dry feet" who, according to Wikipedia says: "If a Cuban is picked up at sea or walking toward shore, he/she will be repatriated by force. If he/she can make it to shore ("dry feet"), he/she is permitted to make a case for political asylum.". So this was not only a custody battle between the parents, but also an international conflict between two countries who have a very hostile relationship.

The reason I like this picture is because it shows a thing that nobody in that time considered about this conflict. And that was Elián. The kids are innocent and pure. they don't know absolutely nothing about the cold war or controversies about emigration. The both sides of this conflict just acted according their political ideologies, and didn't think about how he felt or what was the best for him.



If the people in the world think about fix the problems instead of try to find the guilty... maybe things like the Elián Gonzalez Affair could it be avoided.