Karen Dubinsky
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049106
- eISBN:
- 9780813046709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049106.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Between January 1961 and October 1962, over 14,000 Cuban children under the age of 16, unaccompanied by their parents, departed Cuba for Miami. “Operation Peter Pan” was a clandestine scheme ...
More
Between January 1961 and October 1962, over 14,000 Cuban children under the age of 16, unaccompanied by their parents, departed Cuba for Miami. “Operation Peter Pan” was a clandestine scheme organized by the Catholic Church in Miami and Havana, working with the CIA and anti-Castro forces in Cuba. Parents sent their children out of Cuba for several reasons. As U.S.-Cuba relations deteriorated, and parents could not rejoin their children, many youngsters—about 7,000—found their way into long-term foster care or orphanages throughout the United States. This chapter agrees that the “emotional economy” of parenting, domestic arrangements, and sexuality helps maintain political and economic authority the world over. Fifty years of child migration conflicts have, like missile crises, bombings, and assassination plots, nurtured profound animosities between Cuba and the United States.Less
Between January 1961 and October 1962, over 14,000 Cuban children under the age of 16, unaccompanied by their parents, departed Cuba for Miami. “Operation Peter Pan” was a clandestine scheme organized by the Catholic Church in Miami and Havana, working with the CIA and anti-Castro forces in Cuba. Parents sent their children out of Cuba for several reasons. As U.S.-Cuba relations deteriorated, and parents could not rejoin their children, many youngsters—about 7,000—found their way into long-term foster care or orphanages throughout the United States. This chapter agrees that the “emotional economy” of parenting, domestic arrangements, and sexuality helps maintain political and economic authority the world over. Fifty years of child migration conflicts have, like missile crises, bombings, and assassination plots, nurtured profound animosities between Cuba and the United States.
Deborah Shnookal
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781683401551
- eISBN:
- 9781683402220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683401551.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
The story of Operation Pedro Pan (or Operation Peter Pan) and the Cuban Children’s Program remains a highly contested one, still regarded in Miami as an urgent humanitarian “rescue” mission while in ...
More
The story of Operation Pedro Pan (or Operation Peter Pan) and the Cuban Children’s Program remains a highly contested one, still regarded in Miami as an urgent humanitarian “rescue” mission while in Havana it is viewed as a scheme that hoodwinked parents into sending their offspring out of the country as unaccompanied minors and sometimes even described as a mass kidnapping. This book moves beyond Cold War tropes about threats to the Cuban family by the revolutionary government and uses the episode to examine in detail the social reforms that unfolded in the wake of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and how these changes encouraged a new revolutionary youth culture of political activism and challenged the United States’ historical, political, and economic control and cultural influence in Cuba. By focusing on the generation of young Cubans who came to maturity in the early 1960s and tracking the parallel trajectories of the Pedro Pan children and their siblings, friends, and classmates who stayed on the island (100,000 of whom participated in the 1961 national literacy campaign), this book for the first time takes a broader view and presents a more nuanced explanation of this history.Less
The story of Operation Pedro Pan (or Operation Peter Pan) and the Cuban Children’s Program remains a highly contested one, still regarded in Miami as an urgent humanitarian “rescue” mission while in Havana it is viewed as a scheme that hoodwinked parents into sending their offspring out of the country as unaccompanied minors and sometimes even described as a mass kidnapping. This book moves beyond Cold War tropes about threats to the Cuban family by the revolutionary government and uses the episode to examine in detail the social reforms that unfolded in the wake of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and how these changes encouraged a new revolutionary youth culture of political activism and challenged the United States’ historical, political, and economic control and cultural influence in Cuba. By focusing on the generation of young Cubans who came to maturity in the early 1960s and tracking the parallel trajectories of the Pedro Pan children and their siblings, friends, and classmates who stayed on the island (100,000 of whom participated in the 1961 national literacy campaign), this book for the first time takes a broader view and presents a more nuanced explanation of this history.
