At break of day on an April morning in Miami, a young boy hides in a relative’s home.  On the already warm street outside federal agents stand ready to rush the house on cue.  Alan Diaz’s photo captures the moment of discovery and capture.  A man in a closet holds his left arm defensively in front of the young boy and himself.  His face unafraid, his mouth opened in protest.  The boy’s mouth is open in a scream, his eyes squinting, as though trying to block out some of the scene. Opposite them are two men in full gear with weapons drawn; helmets, gloves, eye goggles and bulletproof vests.  The first man facing the man and boy in the closet has an arm out in a gesture mixed with firmness and appeasement.  His eyes are on high alert. 

The boy held in the closet is Elian Gonzalez of Cuba.  The man holding him is Donato Dalrymple, one of the two fishermen who rescued Elian on Thanksgiving Day in 1999.  Elian was found afloat, alone off the coast of Florida.  His mother had apparently drowned in the attempt to flee Cuba with her son.

Elian had been placed with relatives in Miami, but his father, still in Cuba, wanted his son sent home to him.  By the end of that day Elian was reunited with his father at a military base in Washington D.C.  The Miami relatives flew to Washington to protest, but in June Elian returned to Cuba with his father.

In 2015, Elian spoke with reporters and told them he was engaged, studying to be an engineer and would like to visit the U.S. for a baseball game and to see monuments in the nation’s capital some day.

Alan Diaz remembers that day as he was there to take the shot.  The door of the closet opened and he spoke in Spanish to the boy in an attempt to reassure him, he said, “Nothing’s happening little boy.”  As the door was flung wide Alan took the shot of the confrontation between the federal agents and Donato and Elian.

Eddie Adams photographer, journalist and 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner, speaks about the power of the still photograph.  “With the film you see it and it’s over and it goes on the shelf.  The still picture, it’s in front of you all the time.  I think the most powerful weapon that we have in the world is the still photograph.”

Indeed, you can see all of the swirling emotions of those involved in Diaz’s capture of the moment.  Preserved for all time.  Ever before you.