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A special presentation, sponsored by the FIU Alumni Association, illustrated and contextualized the 1960-’62 exodus of more than 14,000 Cuban children sent stateside by their parents to avoid communist indoctrination.
In December of 1960, the father of Honors College Fellow and Diplomat-in-Residence Hilarion “Lari” Martinez walked into a Pan American office in Cuba praying he’d find a way to get his two sons on a plane off the island.
After the Cuban revolution, the state had closed or assumed control of all the private and Catholic schools. Martinez’s parents, Catholic schoolteachers, were worried their boys were going to be indoctrinated in Marxist-Leninist ideology.
A man in regular clothes, who Martinez’s father knew from the neighborhood to be a priest, greeted him at the door. After a brief exchange, the priest handed him two visa waivers, which were being distributed secretly by an underground network of Cubans and expatriates, for Martinez and his brother.
This is Martinez’s Pedro Pan story. He joined Teresa Ponte, chair of the FIU Department of Journalism and Broadcasting; Fernando Figueredo, chair of the Public Relations and Advertising Department; and alumnae Eloisa Echazabal ’79 and Carmen Romañach ’05, MA ’07 at a panel discussion Oct. 18, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba.
The Pedro Pan Operation, a term coined by Miami Herald writer Gene Miller, was a program created by the Catholic Welfare Bureau of Miami in 1960 to help Cuban parents get their children out of the island-nation.
“Our parents decided we should not attend school in Cuba because they had been taken over by the government,” said Echazabal. “The nuns who ran the school we attended were forced out of the country.”
“We were always hidden at home,” said Martinez. “We weren’t allowed to go out until after the end of the school day.”
A ‘very different’ experience
Through Pedro Pan, children were secretly given visa waivers, authorized by the American government after diplomatic relations with Cuba broke down.
An underground network formed to distribute the visas. Many children were not told until the day of their flight. Parents were worried they would tell the wrong person, and their plans would be foiled or they would be thrown in jail for acts against the state.
The first group of unaccompanied minors arrived in December of 1960. They were flown to the United States, and placed with family friends, foster families or orphanages throughout the country.
“We went to places that were very different from our lifestyles and were used to,” says Figueredo, who was sent to an orphanage in New York. “The experience was very different, very tough, but one that made us who we are today.”
Figueredo chose to stay at the orphanage where he could be with his brother and other Pedro Pan boys. The group formed the institution’s first baseball team and won in their conference.
At the event, sponsored by the Alumni Association, the panel dispelled a few myths that have popped in the decades after the exodus. Very few of the children were from wealthy backgrounds. Most affluent families managed to leave the island before diplomatic relations broke down. While the majority was Catholic, several hundred were Protestant, Jewish or non-believers. And there were never any flights with all children. They were dispersed in order not to call attention.
Parents thought they would only be separated from their kids for a few months. For some that was the case, but for many it was years before they were reunited.
“Children adapt quickly,” said Martinez. “But I’m sure that was not the same for the parents.”
With the missile crisis of October 1962, commercial flights between the United States and Cuba ceased. For three years, travel was through third countries, Spain and Mexico.
Twice a day Freedom Flights began at the end of 1965. Under an agreement between the two governments, parents of unaccompanied minors were accorded first priority. Close to 90 percent of those still in government facilities were reunited with their parents by June of 1966.
Pedro Pans are now in their mid-50s and 60s. In 1991, a group formed the Pedro Pan Program as a way to give back to children in need, document the history and share their experiences.
“It’s fantastic that we are here discussing this,” said Martinez. “I asked my class about Pedro Pan and half had a family member or knew someone who was a Pedro Pan.”
Echazabal says, “Pedro Pan is a good example of the selfless love of parents and the generosity of the American people.”
— Sissi Aguila ’99, MA ’08
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Thank you to the FIU Alumni Association for sponsoring this interesting presentation!
I can't believe parents would actually send their children to a foreign country and unknown dangers to escape possible indoctrination. It smacks to me of irresponsibility or perhaps an effort by parents to find a way for themselves and their children to improve their economic position, still deplorable. Indoctrination happens in all national education systems. I've also heard that this was a CIA backed operation to spread fear and destabilize the government of Cuba. Personally I do not find any reason to celebrate this event and the emotional trauma these children and parents went through.
Michael, that opinion smacks of ignorance. My grandfather hid in a basement for weeks, some of his friends were imprisoned and killed and my mother remembers running through the streets as a child with the sound of bombs behind her. I am now a parent myself and to think of leaving my children is insane but faced with the opportunity of getting them out and giving them a chance at a better life I am not sure what I would do.
Our parents made the ultimate sacrifice to send us to this country as a way to save us from political indoctrination and to exercise the fundamental right to choose their children's education that was taken away by the Revolutionary Government. The fact is that it was a right that was denied to them and nobody can't deny that because it is a TRUTH.
This is the story of Operation Pedro Pan and we, as adults have the right and the duty to tell this true story for future generations.
Any person that knows the Hispanic culture a little bit knows that our families are very close and loving. Taking a decision such as the one our parents had to make was extremely painful and traumatic but they made it out of Love, the purest and most beautiful love there is, the one that is willing to sacrifice so that the other person can have a better opportunity to live in freedom and peace.
They made the right decision and I will be forever grateful to my parents that send me and my two brothers at such an early age.
@Michael: I am not a Peter Pan. My mom and dad were houseparents at the Florida City camp. We had 34 girls in our house ranging from two to sixteen years old. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but do you think that fourteen thousand Cuban kids would have been sent to the US completely alone in the short span of two years if there was no real reason for it? These kids were not sent here to improve the economic status of their families. They were mostly from middle class families who were already feeling the effects of the revolutionary winds of change in Cuba.
Did you ever see the thousands of people that were shot at the firing range without any type of judicial hearing or proceeding when the regime came to power? Many people simply disappeared never to be seen again, or as in the case of one of my uncles: Shot, dismembered and his remains left in a box at the front door of his mother's house.
I was six when my family and I arrived in Miami. The hours long televised diatribes by Fidel still occasionally ring in my ears. It is one of my earliest memories. I think this is something that you had to have experienced.
My Peter Pan friends are very dear to me. This is not a celebration of trauma. On the contrary. It is a celebration of an experience that was difficult for the Pedro Pans but assured them of the freedoms we now often take for granted. It is also a celebration of the dedication and love of the many, many people who worked to get the children safely out of Cuba and to provide a home and care for them.
Recently while in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I attended a play called "Sonia Flew". It was about a girl that had been sent to the US via the Pedro Pan flights and now she had a family of her own. I was very impressed that they were showing this play in Michigan. The whole world should know about what happened in Cuba, and what is still happening. Thank you FIU for supporting the truth and allowing this presentation about the Pedro Pan kids to be known.