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Operation Pedro Pan

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Lillian Maria's Story

I was only eleven years old, and much of what happened that cold day of the month of March of 1961 I cannot fully remember. Among those fuzzy thoughts", I see myself dressed with a white skirt and a pink blouse with a sweater to match. On one hand I carry my "Priscilla" doll with her wardrobe case and on the other a small purse that contained a box of my favorite coloring pencils. My mother, grandmother and my aunt had taken me to the airport, telling me that I would travel to Miami, for just a few days and that I would stay with my cousins there.

I felt that still, in the midst of the tragedy, I was pretty lucky because I was not traveling alone. I was accompanied by a life long school friend, Olga Maria Nodarse and one of the Ursuline nuns who had been our teacher, Mother Corina.

The last hours in my beloved Cuba were not very pleasant. The week before the trip had been quite upsetting, especially to a child like myself whose world came crashing down the day they told me I was leaving Cuba.

A few days back I had lost my pet cat to the shots fired by a "miliciano" neighbor who was partially retarded, but who carried a gun anyway.

The thoughts of separating from my family and from the only world I had known, in such short notice, made me very insecure.

As I stood there in the "pescera area"of the Rancho Boyeros Airport, I could not contain my tears... the sudden empty feeling that one gets when leaving his native country, with thoughts of not knowing what lies ahead, is one emotion I will never forget!!!

As we boarded the airplane, of course there was a final check of items carried by hand, and I still remember what that last "Miliciano" asked me. He said in a cold way:" Why are you taking all those coloring pencils for? " In my innocence, I answered that I liked to draw, and it was my hobby. He laughed and told me that only the "burgueses" were able to dedicate to such matters. I looked at him in the eye and answered that I did not know what "burgueses" meant but if they liked to paint and draw, then I was one of those. He found my answer very funny, and finally as the line behind became longer for the delay of the trivial conversation, his partner advised him to let the girl keep her pencils and go on with the line, because he was delaying the process. I continued on my way to the airplane obtaining my first victory against the communists..I had been able to keep my coloring pencils!!!

When we arrived in Miami we were received by the Catholic Welfare volunteers and taken to the Kendall Home for Children. There I was reunited with my cousins who had come a week before, and I was surprised to see some of my classmates and nuns of the Ursulines of Miramar, where I had studied since kindergarten. I was one of the lucky ones...I was not alone. In April of 1961 the "Bay of Pigs Invasion" took us by surprise and there was a general feeling that we would go back soon, but as we all know the invasion failed in a matter of days.

The day I left Cuba, 48 years ago, marked my life so heavily that to this day I believe it was one of the most important days of my life. Finding myself at the "Point of No Return" at such a young age made me a strong person. I boarded the plane at eleven years of age and descended feeling thirty.

I have never been back to my native Havana, but I do hope, that before I die, God will grant me the privilege of visiting her again one day, and to take my children and grandchildren to visit their roots, to be proud of who they are and where they came from. !Que viva nuestra Cuba...pero LIBRE!!!

FORTY NINE YEARS LATER

My mother rescued me the day before the Catholic Welfare had decided to send me to an orphanage in the state of Colorado in May of 1961..As she and I were reunited the two of us held on to each other and went to live with Cuban friends who were already established in Miami Beach. We stayed with them until my mother was hired as a teacher of Spanish at the Mount Sinai Hospital and she obtained a decent salary that was able to maintain us.

Life continued as normal as we could do with what we had. A few months later my mother's two other sisters arrived from Cuba. We rented a big four bedroom house in the Miami Shores area with all of my cousins (two girls and a boy) and there we lived together for the next two years. Eventually, the fathers of my cousins were able to leave and come to Miami to reunite with their families. However, the best memories I have of the first few years in Miami was that very special time. It was a time when all of us shared the hard times, the happy times, and the sad times,not forgetting our first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My education, after attending the Ursulines Academy in Havana, continued at St. Rose of Lima Catholic School until 1964. My high school years were spent at Notre Dame Academy in Miami until graduation in 1968. That summer right after graduation, I went to Miami-Dade Community College where I studied for the next two years until receiving an Associate in Arts Degree in 1970. Next September, I transferred to Barry University obtaining two years later a Bachelor of Arts Degree with majors in English and Spanish, and minors in Psychology and Education.

Following the Barry University graduation, in 1972, I was hired by the State of Florida's Division of Family Services (Cuban Refugee Assistance Program). There I had the opportunity to help my fellow Cubans who were still leaving the island in very upsetting circumstances. The experience doing this marked me forever. My duties included helping older Cubans who had to be placed in nursing homes or in foster homes. Many times the stories of their exile from Cuba was just as sad as our own Peter Pan Flight, and our identification with the Cuban tragedy was shared and sometimes alleviated through the compassion that we felt for each other.

Two years later, I was given the opportunity to teach 9th Grade English at my own alma mater, Notre Dame Academy High School,where I stayed until the birth of our son, Luis Miguel, in 1981.

Having married Jose Luis Montero, a Spaniard from the region of Galicia I've had the opportunity to travel extensively through Europe, Mexico, Caribbean Islands and Israel.

We also had the opportunity to live in Spain for about three years. Hopefully, we will return there soon.

For many years, as well, we owned and managed a bookstore by the name of Libreria Continental in the Miami area.

As a teacher I also had the opportunity of working at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy for two years until 1992. The following year I decided I wanted to become a Real Estate Agent and so I did to this day.

Today, on looking back at my life, I can see and feel the excitement of all the experiences that began that bleak and cold day of March of the year 1961, as a Pedro Pan Child", not knowing, that 48 years later, I would discover that I had reached that magical place called "NEVER NEVER LAND", to stay there forever and live happily ever after.