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In the
summer of 1994, Fidel Castro opened the ports of Cuba to all
citizens who wished to
leave. In the period of a few weeks,
more than 35,000 Cubans took to the sea in anything they could
find that would float. Some made it to the United States. Some
were rescued on the high seas. Many perished. When the United
States decided it could not immediately accept any more refugees
and placed
many at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, they remained
there for about a year until gradually moved to the U.S.
“The Balsero Crisis Ten Years
Later: No Longer Adrift?,” a
two-day conference scheduled for July 16-17, will examine aspects
of the 1994 migratory wave and the lives of those migrants a decade
later. The conference is sponsored by the Cuban Research Institute
at Florida International University; the University of Miami Libraries & the
UM Center for Latin American Studies; and the Human Rights Institute
at St. Thomas University.
The opening panel, to be held at
2 p.m. on Fri., July 16, at the Bill Cosford Cinema at the UM
campus in Coral Gables, will
bring
together academics, attorneys, and U.S. government officials
to address “The Balsero Crisis Ten Years Later: Policy Lessons
Learned or Not?” Bob Martínez, former U.S. attorney
for the Southern District of Florida, will be among the panelists.
A second panel will present the testimonial of rafters regarding
their experience at sea and over the last decade. An exhibition
will open at the Cuban Heritage Collection of the Otto G. Ritcher
Library at UM, and an interactive, multi-media website, “The
Cuban Rafter Phenomenon: A Unique Sea Exodus,” will be
launched.
FIU will host the Sat., July 17,
session at the Graham University Center from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The first panel, moderated by Damián
Fernández, director of the Cuban Research Institute at FIU,
will address the topic “The Balseros Then.” Felix Masud-Piloto
from DePaul University, among others, will put the 1994 crisis
into historical perspective. The second panel at 11:15 a.m., “The
Balseros Now,” will examine developments since 1994 and
analyze the near future of Cuban migration. Jorge Duany from
the University
of Puerto Rico and Guillermo Grenier from FIU will be among the
participants.
“The theme of this conference
is particularly relevant at this moment,” said
FIU’s Damián Fernández. “The threat
of another mass migration makes the lessons learned in 1994 invaluable.”
Added UM’s Holly Ackerman, “People are curious about
the attitudes and experiences of recent Cuban arrivals as more
of them take citizenship, begin to vote and integrate into community
life.”
María Domínguez, executive
director of the Human Rights Institute at St Thomas University,
said, “The crisis
of 10 years ago has passed, but its impact continues to affect
people, politics and policy. This gathering will help us remember
and learn.”
For additional information, call
the Cuban Research Institute at FIU at 304-348-1991 or visit
its web page at http://lacc.fiu.edu |