At Harvard and around the world, "not all Cuban Americans think the same on this," he said.

Some members said they believe that the media has portrayed the Miami Cuban American protesters as overly antagonistic. Others, like Dominguez, said the community's actions are disappointing.

"I'm as Cuabanso as the next guy, but to see the crowds rioting, pushing cops around, starting fires and obstructing justice did not make me proud in the least of being a Cuban-American," Dominguez wrote. " The last thing our people need is to be seen on TV in a rambling mob."

But CAUSA member Manuel A. Garcia '00 said he finds it disturbing that any Cuban-Americans disagree with the Miami community and want Elian to be returned to Cuba.

"I personally think of these people as traitors to the Cuban American community," he wrote in an e-mail message to The Crimson. "These people who fled or whose parents fled Cuba now want to return him to what they know will be a life without a future, without opportunities, without any freedoms. They are condemning this child to a fate that they themselves left Cuba to avoid."

But CAUSA member Richard A. Perez '00, who is also a Crimson editor, said that that calling some Cuban-Americans disloyal simply because they disagree over Elian's fate goes against the very spirit of what the community as a whole came to the United States to protect.

"Every opinion should be heard and shouldn't be persecuted," he said. "One of the reasons why [Cuban Americans] want Elian to stay [in the United States] is for freedom of speech."