Elian Gonzalez Press Conference with Marisleysis

On Easter Sunday, April 23, 2000, the Gonzalez family gave an emotional press conference on C-SPAN to discuss the seizure of young Elian Gonzalez by federal agents from their home the day before. Leading the speakers is Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian’s 21-year-old cousin, who issues a heartfelt plea for justice and demands that Pres. Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno stand before her and explain and “not to stand in front of other people and try to eat their brains with lies.” Just before she stops after 12 minutes, she demands of the assembled reporters, “Don’t get tired of listening to what I have to say.” (She had been speaking for about five minutes before I started recording.) We then hear from Donato Dalrymple, the fisherman who rescued Elian from the seas, and then from another cousin, Georgia Sid, who’s considerably briefer than Marisleysis. I stopped recording just after the lawyer, Roger Bernstein, began to speak. Marisleysis’ harangue is quite an astounding document of someone speaking entirely from the id--raw, unfiltered, and unedited. And heartbreaking.