This season on ‘Chess Piece,’ the Elián González story as you’ve never heard before

New York (September 25, 2024) - Futuro Studios, the original podcasts and programming division of Futuro Media, in collaboration with My Cultura, iHeartMedia’s podcast network dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and stories, present Chess Piece: The Elián González Story, hosted by Emmy award-winning journalist Peniley Ramírez. This 10-episode series premieres on Wednesday, September 25. Following the launch, the episodes will debut weekly on Wednesdays. Listen to the first episode now here.

The podcast takes listeners back to Thanksgiving 1999, when then five-year-old Elián González was rescued near the Florida coast after his mother and others drowned in the Florida straits after fleeing Cuba. Many Cuban Americans saw Elián’s survival as miraculous and almost mythical. The question of whether Elián should stay with Miami relatives or return to his father in Cuba ignited a media firestorm, placing Elián at the center of a high-stakes political conflict between Cuba and the U.S.

Above all, Elián’s story highlighted the all-too common situation many Cubans have faced: painful family separation. 

Our host, investigative journalist Peniley Ramírez, has experienced this separation. At the age of 11, Peniley’s father revealed a dangerous truth to her. He’d be going on an official trip for the Cuban government to the U.S., where he would defect from his home country and never return to Cuba. Throughout the podcast, Peniley weaves her personal story of separation with that of Elían’s, taking listeners beyond the sensationalism of his rescue and into the complicated politics of the Cuban experience.  

“This is the most personal project I have worked on in my entire career,” said Ramírez. “Twenty five years after Elián’s rescue, this case is still relevant to the Cuban community, to the geopolitics of our region and most importantly, to thousands of Cuban families like Elián's and my own, who have been marked by family separation.”

“Peniley Ramírez's own story and perspective as someone who lived in communist Cuba until her teenage years and has also been immersed in the Cuban exile community in the United States, serve as a guiding light to show us the humanity, trauma, and resilience embedded in this story,” said Maria Garcia, Executive Editor at Futuro Studios. “We also take a really revealing look at the ideologies that animated this saga. Above all, this story is about the pain and love within families.”

These deeply personal insights add depth to the broader historical and political context surrounding Elián's case. Ultimately, the U.S. government, under President Bill Clinton, ruled that Elián should go back to his father in Cuba. A subsequent raid to remove Elián from the home of his Miami relatives fueled anger against the government. Cuban Americans organized to punish democrats for taking Elián back to Cuba by voting Republican in large numbers in the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. The podcast reveals how this punishment vote had a lasting legacy in American politics.

This season on Chess Piece, we tell you the Elián González story unlike you've heard before.

Listen and follow Chess Piece: The Elián González Story on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Chess Piece on Futuro’s social media channels: Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, and Facebook. 

About Futuro Studios

Futuro Studios is a Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast studio from Futuro Media, committed to uplifting voices, stories and perspectives that have been historically overlooked in the world of audio. They partner with some of the world’s top media companies to produce beautiful storytelling that centers Latinx, Black, Indigenous and immigrant experiences. 

Futuro has been at the helm of have  of critically-acclaimed projects such as Anything For Selena (WBUR), La Brega (WNYC), LOUD: The History of Reggaeton (Spotify), The Last Cup (NPR), and The Sum of Us (Higher Ground), among others. Our podcast Ídolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sanchez (Sonoro) won two 2023 Ambie Awards, and Suave (PRX) was the recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting.