Motivation for Cuban Parents to Send Their Children to the USA in Operation Pedro Pan

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Research Question: What motivated Cuban parents to send their children unaccompanied to the United States during Operation Pedro Pan and to what extent were their actions justified?

Section A. Scope of Investigation
The investigation identifies the motivating factors that drove Cuban parents to send their children unaccompanied to the United States between 1960 and 1962 in an event known today as Operation Pedro Pan. In addition, the investigation evaluates the parents’ actions and the risks associated with separating children from their families in the midst of political instability in order to determine whether the parents’ choice was justified. To do this, two primary source journals, one written by the founder of the operation, as well as multiple first hand recollections from Pedro Pan children are utilized. In addition, a number of historical articles and books published in the years following Operation Pedro Pan are used to learn of the controversy surrounding the event and to gain an understanding of the situation in Cuba during Fidel Castro’s regime.

Section B. Summary of Evidence
Fidel Castro entered Havana, Cuba and took his place as Prime Minister in January of 1959, just after the fall of the Batista regime. Within days, many of the Cuban upper class began exiting the island, wary of losing their socioeconomic status and possibly their lives (Leonard 13). Castro’s radical new policies appealed to most of the suppressed lower class seeking change, but the middle sector “became disillusioned with their new leader” and soon comprised the majority of the Cuban refugees in Miami, Florida (Leonard 3). Beginning in December 1960 and ending with the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, over 14,000 of those refugees wou...

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...rk Times, 11 Jan. 1998. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
Rodriguez-Soto, Ana. "Pedro Pan: Making History in Slow Motion." Miamiarch.org.
Archdiocese of Miami, 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Shumate, Candiss. "Saving" Children from Leftist Agendas: The Susurrant Role of the Catholic
Church. Washington: The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 2011. ProQuest. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Torres, María De Los Angeles. The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the xU.S., and the Promise of a Better Future. Boston: Beacon, 2003. Print.
Triay, Victor Andres. Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998. Print.
Walsh, Bryan O. "Cuban Refugee Children." Journal of Interamerican Studies and World
Affairs 12.3/4 (1971): 378-415. Jstor.org. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

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