His teacher in the small Cuban city of Cardenas describes him as modest, down-to-earth and a role model for his classmates. "Elian Gonzalez is very humane, supportive, and takes on each task with maturity," he said, adding proudly that Elian won first place in the last municipal swimming competition.

Those qualities, I'm sure, have come in handy for this young Cuban boy who eight years ago became the symbol of a power struggle between the communist government of Fidel Castro and Miami's Cuban exile community. The boy was allowed to return to the island nation with his father months after his mother died while crossing the Florida straits.

Elian has once again made headlines as he became, at 14 years of age, a member of the Young Communist Union of Cuba. As he was sworn in with some 18,000 other young Cubans, he said to Fidel and Raul Castro on behalf of the group, "You can count on us; we will never let you down."

Those words must certainly be hard to swallow for the family who was at the center of the custody battle with his father in early 2000. Little Elian was found floating off the coast of Florida tied to an inner tube, one of three survivors of a group of 14 Cubans who had escaped from the island in search of freedom.

His mother, reportedly, was the last one to die. Her family attempted to gain custody of the boy, claiming that sending him back to communist Cuba would be an insult to his mother, who gave her life trying to get him to a free society where he could grow up.

Living in Miami at the time, it was difficult not to somehow get caught up in the conflict. The community was bitterly divided between those who insisted the boy should stay in the United States and be raised by his mother's extended family, and those who believed that in spite of living in a totalitarian society, his rightful place was with his father.

The struggle went well beyond the local justice system and moved to the national spotlight. At the end, it was the U.S. Supreme Court that gave the final call, and the outcome was engraved in the minds of those who witnessed it, regardless of what side of the issue they were on. By orders of then-Attorney General Janet Reno, the boy was taken at gunpoint by federal agents from the modest home where he was staying in Miami's Little Havana and transferred to Washington, D.C., with his father before returning to Cuba. His look of fear was captured forever in an award-winning picture taken by a photojournalist from the Miami Herald. Those were emotional days.

Since his return to Cuba, great strides have been made in trying to let him live a normal life. But in spite of living back with his family in their modest home in Cardenas, it's hard to be Elian and go unnoticed. His hometown has become a tourist attraction. Security agents have moved in next door to keep away the trespassers and the curious. Elian often has front-row seats at government functions, and leads parades in Communist Party celebrations.

Now, as a member of the Young Communist Union, the young boy has made a commitment to defending the revolution at any stakes. He has taken a major step toward one day becoming a member of the Communist Party, and if the leadership qualities described by his teacher in Cardenas prove to be accurate, he could very well follow in the footsteps of other party officials who have gone from becoming leaders of the youth organization to holding important positions within the government.

In the middle of the Elian ordeal back in 2000, many people wondered if this young boy, who became a symbol of the division between Cubans on the island and those who fled, would one day play a bigger role in reuniting the families ripped apart by the revolution. You can't help but wonder, while being indoctrinated in a communist system, what impact the images of the struggle of an entire community to defend his freedom when he was only 6 years old will have in such a role.

Maria Elena Salinas can be reached at www.mariaesalinas.com.

(June 21, 2008)