Operation Peter Pan

Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan) was a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 to the United States over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962.

They were sent after parents feared that Fidel Castro and the Communist party were planning to terminate parental rights and place minors in communist indoctrination centers, commonly referred to as the Patria Potestad.

The program consisted of two main components: the mass evacuation of Cuban children via airplane to the United States – Miami as a particularly common hub – and the programs set up to care for them once they arrived. Both were led by Father Bryan O.

Walsh of the Catholic Welfare Bureau. The operation was the largest exodus of minor refugees in the Western Hemisphere at the time. It operated covertly out of fear that it would be viewed as an anti-Castro political enterprise.

Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution,

Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, but more importantly after the regime's October 1960 move to nationalize industries, the first wave of Cuban immigrants left for the United States. These upper and upper-middle classes were not tied to Batista's government (those left in the days following the overthrow of Batista) but had economic livelihoods incompatible with the regime's goals.

Most, if not all, thought it to be a temporary departure, imagining a life where they would return to Cuba once the United States liberated the country from both Fidel Castro and the spreading Communist movement. Another wave of Cubans left upon the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the subsequent announcement by Castro that he was a Marxist-Leninist.

This proclamation of a new order acted as a catalyst to leave to those who had adopted a "wait and see" attitude to developments. This third wave of Cuban immigrants was predominantly middle class. This wave of Cuban immigrants included middle merchants and management, landlords, mid-level professionals and a significant representation of skilled unionized workers.

The constituents of these different classes looked on warily at the closures of private universities and schools in 1961 since these actions played into their fears that the government would take over the education of their children.

Parental fears,

By 1960, the Cuban government began reforming education strategies. School children were taught military drills, how to bear arms, and anti-American songs.By 1961, the Cuban government would seize control of all private schools.

As a result of the new social order, rumors began to swirl, originating from both inside the United States and other anti-Castro media. Various outlets, including the Miami Herald and Time Magazine, reported that Castro and his followers intended to terminate parental rights, assume custody of all Cuban children, prohibit religion and indoctrinate them into communism.

The CIA-backed Radio Swan station asserted that the Cuban government was planning to remove children from their parents and send them to the Soviet Union. These claims lacked evidence, but denials fell on deaf ears.

These rumors, combined with the pre-existing worry instilled by the Spanish Civil War (during which children were evacuated to other countries), made the patria potestad hoax impossible to contain.

It had already reached the Catholic church and the general public, and opponents of the now openly communist regime who did not migrate during the first wave of the exodus began sending their children off to perceived safety.

Emigration,

By January 1961, 6,500 Cuban children were enrolled in Miami and Miami-adjacent schools. By September 1962, that number had jumped to 19,000.And while Pedro Pans are often depicted as babies, infants or elementary-school-aged children, most of them were actually teenaged boys.

A lack of limitations placed on how many were admitted coupled with federally-funded foster care made the Cuban Children's Program one unlike any other. It only continued to grow and get more complex.

In January 1961, the U.S. embassy of Cuba closed, but Operation Peter Pan persisted. Instead of visas, children received waivers in the form of simple letters signed by Walsh effectively gaining them entrance into the country. Airlines were instructed to accept these letters as official documents and, as an added incentive, the U.S. government covered the cost of flights.

From there, things continued to spiral. In September of that year, the State Department began allowing Cuban child refugees to apply for visa waivers on behalf of their parents.

For many who could not otherwise afford it or did not already have other relatives in the United States, this became a fairly regular means of familial immigration.

Housing,

As the need for shelters grew as the children arrived in increasing numbers, several prominent locations were converted to house them, including Camp Matecumbe, the Opa-locka Airport Marine barracks. Special homes, authorized by state officials and operated by Cuban refugees, were formed in several hundred cities across the nation including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Lincoln, Nebraska; Wilmington, Delaware; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida.

Many children were placed in foster care, some were placed in positive living environments and others endured emotional and physical neglect. Laws prevented any relocated children from being housed in reform schools or centers for juvenile delinquents. Further, the minors were not made available for adoption.

End,

The Cuban Children's Program remained a secret until February 1962, when The Plain Dealer introduced its readers to the masses of unaccompanied Cuban minors who made their way across the country for three years unnoticed.

On March 9 of the same year, the Miami Herald's Gene Miller also ran a story about the event, in which he coined the term Operation Pedro Pan.

The American portion of Operation Peter Pan ended when all air traffic between the United States and Cuba ceased in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

Cuban immigrants were instead re-routed to Spain and other countries following the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Cuban immigrants would have to travel via Spain or Mexico to reach the United States until 1965.

In December of 1965, the United States established a program of Freedom Flights (los vuelos de la libertad) to unite Cuban parents with their children.

The Catholic Welfare Bureau reported that, once the Freedom Flights began, nearly 90% of the minors still in its care were reunited with their parents.

Remnants of the program would continue up until 1981. An estimate of 25,000 children were affected by the program.