Operation Pedro Pan And The Exodus Of Cubas Children

This in-depth examination of one of the most controversial episodes in U.S.-Cuba relations sheds new light on the program that airlifted 14,000 unaccompanied children to the United States in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. Operation Pedro Pan is often remembered within the U.S. as an urgent “rescue” mission, but Deborah Shnookal points out that a multitude of complex factors drove the exodus, including Cold War propaganda and the Catholic Church’s opposition to the island’s new government. Shnookal illustrates how and why Cold War scare tactics were so effective in setting the airlift in motion, focusing on their context: the rapid and profound social changes unleashed by the 1959 Revolution, including the mobilization of 100,000 Cuban teenagers in the 1961 national literacy campaign. Other reforms made by the revolutionary government affected women, education, religious schools, and relations within the family and between the races. Shnookal exposes how, in its effort to undermine support for the revolution, the U.S. government manipulated the aspirations and insecurities of more affluent Cubans. She traces the parallel stories of the young “Pedro Pans” separated from their families—in some cases indefinitely—in what is often regarded in Cuba as a mass “kidnapping” and the children who stayed and joined the literacy brigades. These divergent journeys reveal many underlying issues in the historically fraught relationship between the U.S. and Cuba and much about the profound social revolution that took place on the island after 1959. Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Red Umbrella is a moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution. In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. And soon, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States—on their own. Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl? The Red Umbrella is a touching story of country, culture, family, and the true meaning of home. “Captures the fervor, uncertainty and fear of the times. . . . Compelling.” –The Washington Post “Gonzalez deals effectively with separation, culture shock, homesickness, uncertainty and identity as she captures what is also a grand adventure.” –San Francisco Chronicle

From 1960 to 1962, 14,048 Cuban minors arrived in Miami. María de los Angeles Torres was six years old when she took part in this massive airlift-now known as Operation Pedro Pan-in which parents, terrified that the new communist government would ship their children to Soviet work camps, sent them instead to America. Torres examines the event from both a historical and a personal perspective. This 'relentless investigator of history' (Miami Herald) forces declassification of key documents, challenging us all finally to come to terms with this pivotal yet largely neglected exodus.

An account of the covert effort to smuggle Cuban children into the USA in the aftermath of Fidel Castro's rise to power, this book focuses on the humanitarian programme designed to care for children once they arrived and the hardship and suffering endured by the families.

Poignant stories from one of the world’s largest political exoduses of children Praise for the first edition: “Compelling reading.”—New Republic “A collection of tearful testimonies woven with a tale of the event that unfolded in Cuba and led desperate parents to make the heart-wrenching decision to send their children along to a foreign country.”—Miami Herald “[Conde] does an impressive job of reporting dozens of personal stories and fascinating vignettes. . . . A compilation of tales, some moving, many astonishing.”—Chicago Tribune “A well-researched history of Operation Pedro Pan, a portrait of early revolutionary Cuba and a compendium of testimony from the now-grown children.”—Publishers Weekly “The book’s primary value lies in the individual stories, from tearful departure and arrival in Miami to temporary shelters and placement in homes or, in some cases, in orphanages; to learning a new language and adjusting and, in many cases, assimilating; to reunions with parents, adolescence in the ’60s and ’70s, and adulthood.”—Booklist “Conde does an excellent job of narrating the essential outline of the history of Operation Pedro Pan, and an equally superb job of analyzing the circumstances that created this exodus, from the viewpoint of those who felt compelled to create it and keep it going. . . . Operation Pedro Pan is . . . as much a primary source as it is a work of history, as much a window onto a mentality as it is a guide to events, names, and institutions.”—Carlos M. N. Eire, Hispanic American Historical Review “Fascinating is the least one can say about this book. It’s the story of thousands of Cuban children who wouldn’t grow up under communism and were sent by their parents to the never-never land of America. Some of them lived happily ever after because this version of Peter Pan is a tragedy with a happy ending sometimes. Fidel Castro, by the way, plays a very credible Captain Hook.”—Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cervantes Prize‒winning novelist On August 11, 1961, at the age of ten, Yvonne Conde left Cuba in one of the world’s largest political exoduses of children in history—Operation Pedro Pan. Between 1960 and 1962 over 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba alone by desperate parents who feared for their children’s future under Castro. Unlike Peter Pan, however, these children continued to grow up even while separated from their families. As the children arrived in temporary camps in Miami, volunteers such as Father Bryan O. Walsh helped them find new homes across the country. Conde tracked down hundreds of these children to tell their diverse stories—their uplifting, poignant, and sometimes tragic experiences in American foster homes and orphanages. Because Conde herself was a Pedro Pan child, others have opened up to her like never before to share their feelings about this painful time in their lives. Today, these children and their families struggle to heal the emotional scars of their long separation. In this edition, with a new prologue, Conde looks back on Operation Pedro Pan from the vantage point of six decades and brings readers up to date on events and discoveries since the groundbreaking first publication of this book in 1999. Writing with compassion and rare insight, Conde uncovers the true tales of a little-known episode of the Cold War.

From 1960 to 1962, 14,048 Cuban minors arrived in Miami. María de los Angeles Torres was six years old when she took part in this massive airlift-now known as Operation Pedro Pan-in which parents, terrified that the new communist government would ship their children to Soviet work camps, sent them instead to America. Torres examines the event from both a historical and a personal perspective. This 'relentless investigator of history' (Miami Herald) forces declassification of key documents, challenging us all finally to come to terms with this pivotal yet largely neglected exodus.

When Julian's parents make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two brothers away from Cuba to Miami via the Pedro Pan operation, the boys are thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it's not always clear how best to protect themselves. 90 Miles to Havana is a 2011 Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative and a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Between April and September 1980, more than 125,000 Cuban refugees fled their homeland, seeking freedom from Fidel Castro's dictatorship. They departed in boats from the port of Mariel and braved the dangerous 90-mile journey across the Straits of Florida. Told in the words of the immigrants themselves, the stories in Voices from Mariel offer an up-close view of this international crisis, the largest oversea mass migration in Latin American history. Former refugees describe what it was like to gather among thousands of dissidents on the grounds of the Peruvian embassy in Cuba, where the movement first began. They were abused by the masses who protested them as they made their way to the Mariel harbor, before they were finally permitted to leave the country by Castro in an attempt to disperse the civil unrest. They waited interminably for boats in oppressive heat, squalor, and desperation at the crowded tent camp known as "El Mosquito." They embarked on vessels overloaded with too many passengers and battled harrowing storms on their journeys across the open ocean. Author Jose Manuel Garcia, who emigrated on the Mariel boatlift as a teenager, describes the events that led to the exodus and explains why so many Cubans wanted to leave the island. The shockingly high numbers of refugees who came through immigration centers in Key West, Miami, and other parts of the United States was a message--loud and clear--to the world of the people's discontent with Castro’s government and the unfulfilled promises of the Cuban Revolution. Based on the award-winning documentary of the same name, Voices from Mariel features the experiences of marielitos from all walks of life. These are stories of disappointed dreams, love for family and country, and hope for a better future. This book illuminates a powerful moment in history that will continue to be felt in Cuba and the United States for generations to come.