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Freedom Gate, Freedom House, and the Cuban Refugee Center were the three points of service of the Cuban Refugee Program. After clearing customs and immigration in the Freedom Gate area of the airport, arriving refugees met their waiting relatives or…

Between December 12, 1960 and October 23, 1962, over 14,000 Cuban children arrived unaccompanied in Miami. Through the Operation Pedro Pan program headed by Father Bryan O. Walsh, Cuban parents expedited their children's expatriation ahead of their…

Family portraits

The public school system of Miami-Dade County received federal funds through the Cuban Refugee Program to accommodate the ever-increasing number of school-age children arriving from Cuba. Funding for English-language classes was prioritized at all…

Commercial transportation between the U.S. and Cuba ceased in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With regular flights to Miami permanently suspended, Cubans seeking asylum in the United States had to do so via third-party countries or by…

In an effort to rid Cuba of political dissidents, Fidel Castro announced in September 1965 that he would allow any Cuban who had relatives in the U.S. to leave the island through the port of Camarioca. Nearly 5,000 Cubans traversed the waters between…

To alleviate overcrowded Miami, the Cuban Refugee Program worked with voluntary agencies to encourage arriving refugees to relocate away from the area. By 1980, 304,000 Cuban refugees, about 60% of those processed, resettled to 38 states and 24…

The Cuban caricaturist Silvio Fontanillas (1913?-2000) prepared this cartoon most likely for the newsletter Oportunidades. It depicts the difficulties that many Cuban refugees faced in finding housing in crowded Miami.