Reply #79: Here it is: Dad's neighbors in Cuba say he should raise Coral Gables girl

[Judi Lynn]

Dad's neighbors in Cuba say he should raise Coral Gables girl
Posted on Fri, Sep. 07, 2007
By MIAMI HERALD STAFF
[email protected]

CABAIGUAN, Cuba -- At the end of a tree-lined dirt road and around the corner from a playground with a small Ferris wheel sits a modest single-story home with whitewashed walls and a polished cement floor.

The house is where Rafael Izquierdo -- the man battling for custody of his 4-year-old daughter in a Miami courtroom -- lives with his wife, sister and mother. It's where he says he has readied a room for his daughter's return, and where the little girl may grow up if Florida child-welfare lawyers fail to persuade a judge that Izquierdo is an unfit parent.
(snip)

''If the mother can't handle the child and here's the father -- who is decent, honest and hard-working -- this is where the child belongs,'' said a neighbor who knows Izquierdo from working with him in the fields. ``If it wasn't for politics, the child would be back here in two minutes.''
(snip)

''He used to come by all the time and bring things,'' said a woman who lived near the one-room house that Pérez shared with her children before taking them to the United States. ``Nobody can say he wasn't a good father.''
(snip)

Despite the differences in the two custody cases, back in Cabaiguán, neighbors said the core lessons of the Elián saga also apply now.

''Politics should never get in the way of family,'' one neighbor said. ``Blood ties are sacred.''
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/229884.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2982636

On edit:

I just remembered: the child's mother has made reference to the father's bringing food to them, like fish, and things I don't remember, during the early part of her testimony days ago. It would be a lot harder for me to find any specific part of her testimony, as she was on the stand for five days. It all appeared in the Miami Herald in one way or another, and has been covered by local tv stations, and papers in other South Florida towns.