MiamiHerald.com: Operation Pedro Pan

Statue of late 'father' of Pedro Pan unveiled

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:13 EDT

Veterans of Operation Pedro Pan -- the 1960s airlift that spirited 14,048 Cuban children out of Fidel Castro's Cuba -- gathered Saturday for the unveiling of a statue honoring the father of the mission, the late Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh.

Pedro Pan veteran who first rejected memory of program, now works to preserve its history

Mon, 18 May 2009 23:03 EDT

Arrival date: Sept. 6, 1961 Age:13 During her nine months as a Pedro Pan kid apart from her parents, Eloísa Echazábal accummulated few cherished memories: Time in a rustic camp, months at a Buffalo, N.Y. orphanage and final placement in a foster home where she came to feel unwelcome.

Cubans reconnect with past through Pedro Pan database

Sun, 17 May 2009 23:00 EDT

Scores of Pedro Pan veterans who came to the United States as children during the child exodus crowded into The Miami Herald pavilion on Sunday to find their names in a unique database unveiled by the newspaper over the weekend at Cuba Nostalgia.

Pedro Pan was born of fear, human instinct to protect children

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:21 EDT

Children's exodus captured in database at MiamiHerald.com/pedropan Daring, painful escapes from Cuba to the United States are not unique: Camarioca in 1965, Freedom Flights through 1973, the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1994 balsero exodus boosted the Cuban exile population to about two million. But the most poignant refugee wave remains Operation Pedro Pan -- the secret, two-year-long effort to get unaccompanied minors out of Cuba and away from Communist indoctrination...

Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban parents' agonizing decisions saved thousands

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:17 EDT

Forty years after Operation Pedro Pan ended, I was at Havana's Jose Martí International Airport after spending almost a month reporting from the communist island in 2002.

For Juan Pujol, suffering of separation during Pedro Pan was for the best

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:25 EDT

Juan Pujol believes Operation Pedro Pan rescued him from a Cuban prison, even a firing squad. But taking part in the famed exodus of unaccompanied children also meant he would never be reunited with his parents.

Woman's past awakened by Elián's struggle

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:24 EDT

For years, Carmen Romanach didn't embrace being part of Operation Pedro Pan. But the plight of Elián González, rekindled her own painful memories.

Miami helped Ruiz brothers reconnect to culture left behind

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:23 EDT

Our family came from Havana, a beautiful city that some have called a tropical paradise. My brothers and I came to Miami on a Pan American flight and were taken to a campground that the Pedro Pan organizers had set up in Kendall, near where Town & Country Mall now stands. We were there for about two weeks before being sent to Albuquerque, N.M., where we were taken in by the family of Dr. Eugene Purtell.

Recovered notes give birth to Herald's Pedro Pan database project

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:22 EDT

For nearly half a century, one of the more fascinating chapters in the history of Miami has been hidden away inside binders, all but forgotten.

Brother and sister were the pioneers of program

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:19 EDT

Vivian Latour and her brother Sixto Aquino hold a special place in the annals of Operation Pedro Pan. They are the pioneers, the first two unaccompanied Cuban children to enter the United States under Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh's historic visa waiver program.

Struggles in U.S. were few for three lucky brothers

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:18 EDT

Among some Pedro Pan veterans there's a running joke. They say there are us -- the typical Pedro Pan kids sent to camps, orphanages and foster homes until being reunited with their Cuban parents.

A man known as 'George' was prince of Pedro Pan

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:14 EDT

Ray Flores still recalls his parents' odd, but stern instruction as they tearfully parted nearly 50 years ago. ``When you land in Miami, ask for George.''