Although the majority of the Cuban exiles which comprised the initial wave of immigration were of mid to high societal standing, the operation of Pedro Pan ushered in a group diametrically different from the norm, unaccompanied minors. Ranging from as young as five years of age to their mid-teens, over fourteen thousand Cuban children left their country via airlift, alone or with siblings, to escape Castro’s totalitarian regime. This was the largest exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Undoubtedly, this event stands out by the uniqueness of the situation and also the personal experiences offered by those who were part of the migration (now in their late 50s and early 60s). The audio clip featured above – and the NPR article located here – contain first-hand recollections of the climate in which they left, the means for their travel, and the unfortunate dismantling of many, but not all, families. As for Jose Azel, at the time an eleven year old, his father decided to send him to the U.S. to avoid the indoctrination spearheaded by the Castro regime. Sadly, Azel was unable to see his father again as many Cubans simply were unable to leave due to the totalitarian regime’s lock-down on emigration.
The nature of this migration – that is, its relatively buried past – poses difficultly for research. Nonetheless, personal experience as well as the records kept by Father Bryan Walsh, the man tasked by the U.S. government to administer visa waivers, (discussed briefly in this video) provide ample material for piecing together this history. Although the memory can be a fickle thing, one would be hard-pressed to find much bias in the first-hand recounts of such a formative event. In the case of Operation Pedro Pan, as many of the migrants were initially unaware of their part in this exodus, first-hand retrospective accounts (such as the NPR article) in conjunction with documentation provide the basis for historical inquiry. Thus, the personal stories featured in NPR’s article provide context for the various visa waivers and other documents which have been cataloged; of course, this sentiment is also applicable to other historical events in which the participants are able to record their accounts. Additionally, various works have been created on the subject of Pedro Pan which place personal experiences within the historical context of the operation. Yvonne M. Conde, in her work Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,000 Cuban Children, does just that. Adding context to the nature of this exodus she asserts that:
[It was] not an organized departure and more overt than European Exoduses, the children’s departure were a cautious trickling out of Cuba, on commercial planes, on a daily basis.
In closing, the Pedro Pan Operation potentially offers many historical lessons such as: conditions which would compel parents to send their children away for a better future; how to manage unaccompanied children seeking asylum; and the effects of such uprooting on population. Furthermore, Operation Pedro Pan – owing much of its current history to first-hand accounts – underlines the importance of personal experience in correctly uncovering the past.
– Ben Vorderstrasse
