Operation Peter Pan
Encyclopedia
Operation Peter Pan was an operation coordinated by the United States government
(in particular the U.S. Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency
), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
, and certain Cubans
. Between 1960 and 1962, over 14,000 children were sent from Cuba to Miami by their parents. The operation was designed to transport the children of parents who opposed the revolutionary
government, and was later expanded to include children of parents concerned by rumors that their children would be shipped to Soviet
work camps
. With the help of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
and Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, the children were placed with friends, relatives and group homes in 35 states.
(CIA) initiated the visa waiver program and deliberately spread the rumors that Cuban children would be taken from their parents by the Cuban government. She has repeatedly requested that 69 relevant documents be declassified, but even some 50 years later the U.S. government refuses to do so. Her assertion is confirmed by Fidel Castro, who has recently explained that Cuban people's "Revolution had not placed any obstacles whatsoever to prevent those who wanted to leave the country from doing so. The work of the Revolution had to be voluntarily made by a free people. The imperialist response, among many other serious aggressions, was Operation Peter Pan." He further argues that the CIA, in its early counterrevolutionary efforts before progressing to the more aggressive Bay of Pigs invasion
and later Cuban Missile Crisis
, was attempting to use Operation Peter Pan to spread fear and doubt among the Cuban people, especially lower middle-class families (the source of most of the Peter Pan children). Without declassifying any documents as evidence, the CIA has nonetheless denied these assertions.
In 1962, the US government commissioned a documentary film created for the children who came to Miami, called The Lost Apple. The film named Cuban premier Fidel Castro
as being responsible for the parents' non-appearance. According to Torres, then-Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy
approved making the documentary as part of the US government’s campaign against Communism.
Nelson P. Valdes, a University of New Mexico
sociology professor who left Cuba at 15, said he later became convinced that the airlift was a Washington-concocted plot to drive wealth and knowledge from Cuba.
Senator
Mel Martinez
. Also, Latin musician Willy Chirino
, who has cultivated the Miami Sound, and his wife singer/songwriter Lissette Alvarez. Once adults, some of the participants created the charitable organization "Operation Pedro Pan Group" to help needy children and preserve the history of the Pedro Pan exodus.
describes his experiences in Operation Peter Pan in his memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana
.
Yvonne M. Conde, also a Pedro Pan, conducted research and interviews and wrote a book titled "Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children".
Other Pedro Pans have attempted to weave their memoirs into a broader understanding of not only U.S.-Cuba relations but also Cuban Diaspora
-Cuba relations. Román de la Campa's Cuba on My Mind: Journeys to a Severed Nation does this by exploring Cuba's two capitals, Havana and Miami, and the hybrid position of the "one-and-half-generation" as well as by using the Elián González affair as a cipher for understanding how adults in both countries used children to achieve the broader ideological goals of the Cold War
and how those goals are faring at the so-called "end of history
".
Tori Amos
made a song about this operation titled "Operation Peter Pan". It has been released as a b-side through the single of "A Sorta Fairytale
", taken from the album Scarlet's Walk
.
The song "Baby Elian" by Manic Street Preachers
from their album Know Your Enemy
also makes reference to Operation Peter Pan. During the chorus James Dean Bradfield
exclaims, "Kidnapped to the promised land, the Bay of Pigs or baby Elian. Operation Peter Pan, America, the devil's playground."
Jimmy Smits
' character in the TV series Cane
mentioned in several episodes, that he came to the US via Pedro Pan.
Ana Mendieta
is another famous Pedro Pan refugee. She was placed in several institutions and foster homes in Iowa and returned to Cuba several times over the course of her short life to "rediscover" her cultural origins. During her visits, she established contacts with the "Volumen Uno" artists, created works in natural settings, and exhibited at the National Museum in Havana. Her work has also been showcased at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at the Hirshhorn, a Smithsonian Museum, in Washington DC amongst many other International museums. Some of this information was taken from an article titled "A Tree from Many Shores" published by Art Journal.
In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
, an effort to help Haitian orphans has been named Operation Pierre Pan in reference.
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
(in particular the U.S. Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
The Archdiocese of Miami is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastic territory includes Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami,...
, and certain Cubans
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
. Between 1960 and 1962, over 14,000 children were sent from Cuba to Miami by their parents. The operation was designed to transport the children of parents who opposed the revolutionary
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba is the governing political party in Cuba. It is a communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state"...
government, and was later expanded to include children of parents concerned by rumors that their children would be shipped to Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
work camps
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. With the help of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
The Archdiocese of Miami is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastic territory includes Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami,...
and Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, the children were placed with friends, relatives and group homes in 35 states.
Origins
According to a May 16, 2009, article in the Miami Herald, Pedro Pan had its origins in the December 1960 visit to Miami by James Baker, headmaster of the Ruston Academy in Havana, to try to secure funds and visas for about 200 children. Baker met with the Havana-American Chamber of Commerce and then with Msgr. Walsh, who then took the plan to Washington.Controversy
The origins and purpose of Operation Peter Pan have been hotly contested by both the Cuban revolutionary government and the Cuban exile community in the United States. According to some reports, Cuban radio fostered—or even invented—fears that the revolutionary government would abduct children from their parents to indoctrinate them; one such broadcast in 1960 is remembered as proclaiming, "Cuban mothers, don't let them take your children away! The Revolutionary Government will take them away from you when they turn five and will keep them until they are 18." One "Peter Pan child", Maria de los Angeles Torres, now a professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, believes that the Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) initiated the visa waiver program and deliberately spread the rumors that Cuban children would be taken from their parents by the Cuban government. She has repeatedly requested that 69 relevant documents be declassified, but even some 50 years later the U.S. government refuses to do so. Her assertion is confirmed by Fidel Castro, who has recently explained that Cuban people's "Revolution had not placed any obstacles whatsoever to prevent those who wanted to leave the country from doing so. The work of the Revolution had to be voluntarily made by a free people. The imperialist response, among many other serious aggressions, was Operation Peter Pan." He further argues that the CIA, in its early counterrevolutionary efforts before progressing to the more aggressive Bay of Pigs invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
and later Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, was attempting to use Operation Peter Pan to spread fear and doubt among the Cuban people, especially lower middle-class families (the source of most of the Peter Pan children). Without declassifying any documents as evidence, the CIA has nonetheless denied these assertions.
In 1962, the US government commissioned a documentary film created for the children who came to Miami, called The Lost Apple. The film named Cuban premier Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
as being responsible for the parents' non-appearance. According to Torres, then-Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
approved making the documentary as part of the US government’s campaign against Communism.
Nelson P. Valdes, a University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
sociology professor who left Cuba at 15, said he later became convinced that the airlift was a Washington-concocted plot to drive wealth and knowledge from Cuba.
Aftermath
Amongst several famous "Peter Pans" is FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Mel Martinez
Mel Martinez
Melquíades Rafael Martínez Ruiz, usually known as Mel Martinez , is a former United States Senator from Florida and served as Chairman of the Republican Party from November 2006 until October 19, 2007, the first Latino to serve as chairman of a major party...
. Also, Latin musician Willy Chirino
Willy Chirino
Willy Chirino, born April 5, 1947 in Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río, Cuba, is an entertainer and singer in the salsa style.-Early Family Life:...
, who has cultivated the Miami Sound, and his wife singer/songwriter Lissette Alvarez. Once adults, some of the participants created the charitable organization "Operation Pedro Pan Group" to help needy children and preserve the history of the Pedro Pan exodus.
Culture
Carlos EireCarlos Eire
Carlos M. N. Eire is the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University. He is a historian of late medieval and early modern Europe.- Career :Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, he taught at St...
describes his experiences in Operation Peter Pan in his memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana
Waiting for Snow in Havana
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy is a 2003 book by Carlos Eire and winner of the National Book Award. The book is autobiographical,about the author's experiences as part of Operation Peter Pan.-Author:...
.
Yvonne M. Conde, also a Pedro Pan, conducted research and interviews and wrote a book titled "Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children".
Other Pedro Pans have attempted to weave their memoirs into a broader understanding of not only U.S.-Cuba relations but also Cuban Diaspora
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
-Cuba relations. Román de la Campa's Cuba on My Mind: Journeys to a Severed Nation does this by exploring Cuba's two capitals, Havana and Miami, and the hybrid position of the "one-and-half-generation" as well as by using the Elián González affair as a cipher for understanding how adults in both countries used children to achieve the broader ideological goals of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and how those goals are faring at the so-called "end of history
The End of History and the Last Man
The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay "The End of History?", published in the international affairs journal The National Interest...
".
Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
made a song about this operation titled "Operation Peter Pan". It has been released as a b-side through the single of "A Sorta Fairytale
A Sorta Fairytale
"A Sorta Fairytale" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It was released as the first single from her 2002 album Scarlet's Walk. The song reached #14 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, and #1 on the Triple A chart...
", taken from the album Scarlet's Walk
Scarlet's Walk
Scarlet's Walk is the seventh album released in singer-songwriter Tori Amos' solo career. The 18-track concept album details the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, as well as the concept of America post-September 11th . The album was the first released by Amos on...
.
The song "Baby Elian" by Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, and were at their most prominent during the 1990s...
from their album Know Your Enemy
Know Your Enemy (Manic Street Preachers album)
Know Your Enemy is the sixth album by the Manic Street Preachers. It was released in March 2001 on Virgin Records. The album has songs ranging from energetic lo-fi rock songs reminiscent of their earlier material to highly produced, more melodic pop songs as well as a disco song...
also makes reference to Operation Peter Pan. During the chorus James Dean Bradfield
James Dean Bradfield
James Dean Bradfield is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.- Early life :...
exclaims, "Kidnapped to the promised land, the Bay of Pigs or baby Elian. Operation Peter Pan, America, the devil's playground."
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...
' character in the TV series Cane
Cane (TV series)
Cane is an American television drama created by Cynthia Cidre, who also served as executive producer alongside Jonathan Prince, Jimmy Iovine and Polly Anthony. The pilot was directed by Christian Duguay...
mentioned in several episodes, that he came to the US via Pedro Pan.
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is known for her "earth-body" art work....
is another famous Pedro Pan refugee. She was placed in several institutions and foster homes in Iowa and returned to Cuba several times over the course of her short life to "rediscover" her cultural origins. During her visits, she established contacts with the "Volumen Uno" artists, created works in natural settings, and exhibited at the National Museum in Havana. Her work has also been showcased at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and at the Hirshhorn, a Smithsonian Museum, in Washington DC amongst many other International museums. Some of this information was taken from an article titled "A Tree from Many Shores" published by Art Journal.
In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
, an effort to help Haitian orphans has been named Operation Pierre Pan in reference.
See also
- Cuban AmericanCuban AmericanA Cuban American is a United States citizen who traces his or her "national origin" to Cuba. Cuban Americans are also considered native born Americans with Cuban parents or Cuban-born persons who were raised and educated in US...
- Cuba-United States relationsCuba-United States relationsCuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for purchase of Cuba from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times by United States...
- Mariel boatliftMariel boatliftThe Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980....
- Opposition to Fidel CastroOpposition to Fidel CastroThe Cuban dissident movement is a political movement in Cuba whose aim is "to replace the current regime with a more democratic form of government". According to Human Rights Watch, the Cuban government represses nearly all forms of political dissent....
- Operation Baby Lift
- Polita GrauPolita GrauPolita Grau was a first lady of Cuba, a Cuban political prisoner, and the "godmother" of Operation Peter Pan, a program to help children leave Cuba....
- List of Operation Peter Pan alumni
- Boxing For CubaBoxing For CubaBoxing for Cuba: An Immigrant’s Story of Despair, Endurance, and Redemption is the memoir of Guillermo Vicente Vidal published by Ghost Road Press in November 2007. The book documents the Vidal family as they flee from Cuba in the 1960s and eventually establish a home in Colorado...
External links
- Cuban Refugee Children by Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh
- http://www.cnbc.com/id/37062515/0 - Escape from Havana: An American story documentary
- Operation Pedro Pan - Official Site
- Operation Pedro Pan by the Miami Herald
- Operation Pedro Pan social networking site by the Miami Herald
- "Pedro Pan" from NPR's All Things Considered
- Cuban Kids in Exile: Pawns of Cold War Politics by the Chicago Sun-Times
- The Envy of Goebbels by Fidel CastroFidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
, June 11, 2009 - My Friend, the Cuban Peter Pan by Simon Kuper, The Financial Times