Fr Walsh and the Pan Pedro Cuban Migrants Essay

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History Miami and the Pedro Pan Exhibit

The Pedro Pan exhibit at History Miami tells the story of the 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children refugees who were sent from their homes in Cuba by their parents to foster homes or campus under the guidance of Fr. Bryan O. Walsh, who worked with the United States government to waive the visa requirements for the children of the Cuban parents who sought to protect them from Communist indoctrination. However, this move caused the children to be separated from their parents, some for many years and some for the rest of their lives. It caused a rupture in the lives of these Catholic families, who were being pulled in two different directions at once: on the one side was the new leader of their nation, Fidel Castro, who sought to rid Cuba of the American imperialist forces that he felt were undermining the country; on the other side, was the U.S. government and the Catholic Welfare bureau which saw an opportunity to lend a hand to Catholic Cubans who did not wish to have their children educated by the new socialist regime that was partnering with the Soviets. The exhibit told this story through a number of plaques and moving pictures, archived footage of Fr. Walsh and the Cuban children who were part of the biggest exodus of unaccompanied children in the history of the Western hemisphere.

The exhibit is moving and compelling for a number of reasons: first, because it shows the terrible measures that Cuban families had to take and the horrible trials that they had to undergo in order to fight what they believed to be a bad influence for their children. Yet by sending their children abroad to a country that also had its own history of oppression and materialistic ideology, it cannot be helped but wondered whether the Catholic Cubans really understood what kind of world they were sending their young children out into. In one sense, it is almost like they were jumping out of the pot and into the fire -- but in another sense this is understandable because they probably wanted a better life for their children and themselves and believed that in America this could be found. But as Weinbaum shows, the idea of "nation" is one that can be used to evoke a number of responses including the idea of "imagined communities" where in reality there was no such real community or spirit or structure, only the promise of one along with a pre-fabricated past (167). It is compelling for another reason because it shows the great consideration that the parents and American families and men like Walsh had for preserving the Catholic faith of these children by getting them out of schools where they feared atheistic indoctrination would occur. Yet one cannot help but wonder whether, despite their intentions, this idea was not a flawed one at best simply because it tore apart families even if only temporarily.

Miami was influential in this migration and became a home to many Cubans who fled Castro and sought a better life in America. Yet, by crossing the "border" into America, these Cubans also crossed a threshold -- their own Rubicon -- one that dictated the adoption of a new identity, the adherence to a new creed, namely, the American Dream (Brady 29). This Dream was basically what Castro wanted out of Cuba. The Catholic Church and the U.S. government, particularly the CIA, embarked on a new journey together, and a portion of that journey is realized in the exhibit, named after the "Operation Pedro Pan" title given the phenomenon by Miami Herald writer Gene Miller in 1962. The title gives support to the notion that this massive migration of children was in part due to a fantasy on the part of the parents and the Church -- a fantasy rooted in the notion that breaking up the family and sending the children off to a foreign land where they would likely be Americanized and brought into the folds of consumerism these children would somehow be better off than were they to stay with their families in Cuba under the Castro regime. The issue is moreover clouded by the politicization of this episode in history. True, Communist powers in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin had a gruesome history of persecution, but in Cuba the story was different: Castro saw the decadence of Western influence in Cuba and sought to end it, even if that meant allying with Soviets for support.

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It was the "capitalism" of the U.S. that Castro was mainly at odds with: that same capitalism that allowed the CIA to conduct black operations in Central and South America so that corporations like United Fruit could exploit the land and labor of the citizens of developing nations (Ruccio). It was this brand of materialistic, consumerist capitalism that was a spiritual poison to the Catholics in Cuba just as much as any anti-religious, atheistic Communist doctrine. Backed by the Western policy of globalization, the capitalists (like the robber barons before them) viewed the world as their oyster, and it their Manifest Destiny to embark on New Expansionism and take over foreign lands as though a new era of slavery were upon us -- one in which instead of bringing the slaves to the plantation, the capitalists took the plantation to them. Globalization became a way of talking about this issue without really discussing the horrible underbelly of the beast -- it was a polite term but one that was wholly disingenuous. Lowe points out the "neoconservative" roots of the term, which were couched in a conservative dialogue that was really not conservative in practice (Lowe 119).

My personal reflection on the event and the exhibit is that it is a sad one for many reasons: first, it is never a happy story when one hears of families being separated. This is in fact tragic, because the family is the building block of society, so how can one expect any social good to come from families being torn apart. Second, I do not know the history of Cuba very well, but I understand that there was considerable tension between certain U.S. entities and the Castro regime, which sought to oust those entities. Whether Catholic Cubans were caught in the middle, their confusion and fears exploited by those entities in America, or whether everyone truly had the best interests of the children in mind, it is difficult to say. All the same, the tragedy of this mass migration of children is actually quite chilling and disheartening and opens up a sadness in me that is hard to express.

Thinking of all the years and events that these children experienced, growing up a foreign land, being educated by a system supposedly better than that of the one their parents feared in Cuba, this creates a sense of wonder in me that compels me to question the motives of those involved. It compels me to ask about the sincerity and role of Fr. Walsh, what he knew of the regime in Cuba, whether he was influenced by the U.S. entities interested in overthrowing Castro (the same entities who may or may not have had a hand in assassinating Kennedy, the first and only Catholic President of the U.S.), whether the parents of these children were pressed into giving them up by members of the Church, why the U.S. did not offer to let the parents come with the children (wouldn't this be the most humane thing to do? Why separate them? Why not let them all come? -- or was this not allowed by the Cuban regime?). These questions are raised in my mind as a result and prompt me to want to investigate this era more fully and to understand this piece of history more deeply. So many issues and ideologies are at play in this slice of history that to see how they all connect and interact would perhaps shed light on a great deal of other connecting threads of history -- such as Kennedy, the Second Vatican Council, Castro, the Soviets, organized crime, etc.

In conclusion, the History Miami exhibit of the "Pedro Pan" operation shows the seriousness of issues regarding culture, religion, nationhood, and politics. It shows how these issues intertwine and can have tragic effects for even children. It shows how seriously the people involved took their religious faith, to such a degree that they were willing to hand over their children to strangers in another land and hopefully be united with them again soon, though some never were. At the same time it raises questions about the sincerity of those involved, whether religion was the primary motive or if there was an alternative one, such as the American Dream or an exploitative purpose, such as the using of the Church to make a political play in Cuba. These issues are deep and intertwined and, at root, very personal so while this exhibit….....

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