Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children [Hardcover]

Yvonne M. Conde (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 041592149X | ISBN-13: 978-0415921497 | Publication Date: April 1999 | Edition: 1st

Between 1960 and 1962, over 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba alone by desperate parents who feared for their children's future under Castro. The author, herself a Pedro Pan child, has recorded hundreds of their diverse stories and experiences from American foster homes and orphanages. These children share their feelings about this painful time in their lives. The book investigates the events and key figures surrounding the exodus, including the roles of the Catholic church and the State Department, and the extent of the CIA's involvement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Conde was 10 when her parents put her on a flight to the U.S. alone. She was one of 14,048 children to make the trip via Operation Pedro Pan, a clandestine organization that smuggled visas intoAand children out ofACuba. This book is not a memoir, but a well-researched history of Operation Pedro Pan, a portrait of early revolutionary Cuba and a compendium of testimony from the now-grown children. As Conde shows, the near-unanimous joy at Castro's ascent turned to growing disillusionment and fear as he revealed his commitment to Communism. The rumor of a coming "patria postetad," a document that allegedly would order all children over the age of three into State care, made exiling the children an attractive option for many. Operation Pedro Pan ultimately involved the Catholic church, the CIA, the State Department and multiple civic groups in the struggle to find U.S. homes for the children. About half were without relatives or friends on arrival and were placed in orphanages, foster homes or boarding schools until their parents could get visas to join them. Conde's study of Pedro Pan cases is interesting, but her conclusionAthat as adults they are left straddling two culturesAcould probably be said of any immigrant group. She is better at tracing the causes of the flight than analyzing the effects, especially as she treats her own story in the same brief and fragmentary manner as the other case histories she offers. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It's a remarkable episode in cold war history: 14,000 Cuban children sent from the island by their parents in the years after Castro's revolution. Conde was a participant but didn't realize she was one of thousands until she read Joan Didion's Miami, which stimulated her curiosity and, ultimately, this book. Conde sent out some 800 questionnaires and received 442 written responses; she interviewed 173 people, including Pedro Pan children, parents, foster parents, journalists, teachers, psychologists, and opponents of Castro in Cuba. The book's primary value lies in the individual stories, from tearful departure and arrival in Miami to temporary shelters and placement in homes or, in some cases, in orphanages; to learning a new language and adjusting and, in many cases, assimilating; to reunions with parents, adolescence in the '60s and '70s, and adulthood. The book is not particularly well written or organized, but its subject makes Conde's work worth considering for acquisition. Mary Carroll

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041592149X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415921497
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who are these critics?, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Operation Pedro Pan and I found it engrossing! I couldn't put it down. Although I am Cuban and a Pedro Pan child myself, I believe I am objective when I say that, yes, the book has a couple of typos, but nothing that detracts from the overall quality of this important historical work. As for it not being "organized"according to the Booklists review, Ms. Conde has presented a wonderful chronological sequence of events, starting with a thorough explanation of the political events in Cuba 1959-62 that made our parents take the drastic action of sending us away. It is followed with information on how the program started, how the visas were distributed clandestinely in Cuba, the temporary shelters in Miami where we were placed, letters from the children back then, and chapters on orphanages, living with foster families, abuse, forgetting our Spanish, the reunions with our parents, what happened to some of us in the 60's and 70's and comments from the children today on how this experience affected us. It finishes with the very valuable results of her questionnaire to 442 of the children, the only research of its type to date, as far as I know. Not well organized? C'mon! As for "not particularly well written"(Booklist again) people either like or dislike different authors and their styles, I found hers to be journalistic and easy to read. Who are these critics and what are their hidden agendas?

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Was There, January 20, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children (Hardcover)

It is a vivid, accurate, well documented and honest account of the events that took place four decades ago. As a Pedro Pan participant, this book brought back many memories and experiences that I lived through. It is very well written and easy to read. It makes the reader feel that she or he is witnessing the story unfold before their own eyes. Some addresses, direction to places (the entrance to the Kendall camp was on SW 117 Ave, not 107 Ave) and sequential events in the camps are incorrect (the Marists brothers were the ones that closed Kendall and opened the Opa-Locka camp). These are minor details that do not subtract from the overall content and quality of this book. It is the best written and the most informative account of this exodus of unaccompanied children that I have read to date.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, touching and disturbing, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Operation Pedro Pan: The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children (Hardcover)

This book brings to light a historical phenomenon hidden beneath the spotlight of cold war headlines of the early 1960s. Nearly forty years later, the exodus of 14,000 Cuban children whose lives were devastated by those headlines would still be hidden, if not for the diligent work of Yvonne Conde. Through painstaking research and sensitive, insightful writing, Conde has laid out in meticulous detail a more complete story of the effects of Castro's revolution on the lives of the Cuban people than I have read before.

As a middle-class American who was fourteen in 1961, I was shocked to read of this all-but-lost piece of history-14,000 Cuban children sent alone from their homes, many of whom were my age at the time.

Impressive in her ability to combine a clean, journalistic style with empathy and deep insight, Conde has written a beautiful and important book that lays out a timeline of political events even as it captures the personal pain, loneliness and fear of innocent children. The author tells each story in a way that compels the reader to imagine being a child again, suddenly sent away from parents and home to adjust, at best, to a foreign language, strange food and customs and harsh climates and, at worst, to endure the nightmare of physical, emotional or sexual abuse at the hands of strangers. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to know the whole story.