Cuba is an island surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.[1]The Republic of Cuba was founded by Christopher Columbus when he met with the Taino’s, the indigenous group of Cuba. They were quickly enslaved during the colonialism of the Spanish in the Americas. When the Taino’s began to rebel, Spain brought Africans to work on the land. Under Spanish rule, Taino’s had no rights or representation. This frustrated the indigenous group, and on February 28, 1898, the American battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor. The US declared war in which the US won, taking Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Cuba. The US remained in control of Cuba until Thomas Palma was elected president in 1902. Palma was removed after asking the US to kill his opponent; this caused a revolt that caused the US to intervene. Finally, in 1940, the first constitution was created.[2] Fulgencio Bautista was the first president after the new constitution. He declared martial law, which involves temporarily substituting military authority for civilian rule.[3] He created a bond with the US and created a playground or Sin City for American money. He remained in power for eight years, and after his term, he started coupe on March 11, 1952, and suspended the rights and liberty of the Cubans.[4]
Fidel Castro was born May 13, 1927, to parents Angel Castro and Linda Gonzalez. He attended a Jesuit school and obtained a law degree at the University of Havana. Fidel Castro took Fulgencio to court because he was trying to overthrow Carlos Prio and charge Bautista with violating the constitution. Castro was sent to prison, and he took Cuban exiles to Mexico to organize an army of Cuban exiles called July 26, which had 82 men. There he met Che Guevara and managed to assemble a small group, but only 12 lasted. In 1959 Castro overthrew Batista. Batista, his army, and anyone that could be tied to the old regime is the first to leave.[5] From January 1, 1959 – October 6, 1962 248,070 escaped. Castro was quickly praised because he said he promised the people their rights back and the reinstatement of the constitution. He made many promises, he said that property would be gifted to citizens, promised a proper sharing scheme for sugar mill owners, set up educational reforms, and made college free. Making housing reforms, he pledged to get rid of sin city, because the United States set it up as a playground and was mob controlled. Problems in Cuba were 75% of the houses were made from palm trees, 1 doctor for 2,000 people, 50% of the houses had no toilets, 95% had no running water or electricity or refrigeration, the average income was $91 a year, 43% illiteracy, and American sugar companies owned 75% of all the land.[6]
The US was under the impression that Castro wouldn’t last long. The new wave of migration began on March 17, 1960. Indefinite voluntary departure was granted by Eisenhower as temporary visitors. The US sent the CIA to Cuba to create conflict in the new regime by destroying Cuba’s sugar and tobacco fields. The Bay of Pigs was an attack by Batista’s army formed in Florida. The first issue was they landed in the wrong area, the equipment was inadequate for the type of warfare, the supply ships were sunk, and the Cuban underground counter-revolutionary groups were never contacted against Castro. On April 17, 1960, the invasion began; Castro’s communist ideology was backed up by the Soviet Union, which promised to protect the Cubans for the $100,000,000 worth of crops lost in the exchange. Many things went wrong during the attack, and Cuba was already prepared with 20,000 troops compared to 1500 men from the US. The US gave the Cubans $500000000 in food, pesticides, and medicine. They also agreed to take out missiles in Turkey if Russia took out Missiles in Cuba. They did this because President Kennedy placed a naval quarantine to stop incoming Russian ships.[7]
Operation Peter Pan came next in the wave of migration. It was created by the catholic welfare bureau and said in newspaper accounts that Castro was going to send all children to Russia to get a good education and create professionals. Parents who were completely against Fidel Castro were faced with the possibility that their children could be sent to Russia, and this led to a plan to send thousands of Cuban children to the US. By getting fraudulent passports, between 1960 and 1962, more than 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba by parents who feared the future of Cuba under Castro.[8]
November 1962, Russian nuclear missile sites being constructed in Cuba were secretly captured by an American U-2 surveillance plane. The most hazardous US-Soviet Union conflict resulted from this action. The Soviet Union and Fidel Castro made a covert pact to plant nuclear missiles in Cuba to aim at the US after the Bay of Pigs disaster. Kennedy warned the public in a statement that the use of weapons of mass destruction would not be tolerated. No Russian ships were allowed to bring missiles; thus, the president issued an order for a naval quarantine.[9]
56,000 Cubans immigrated to the US between 1962 and 1965, while an additional 5,000 came from the Red Cross camps to carry the ransom for the Bay of Pigs fiasco when the US agreed to swap 53 million dollars in food and medicine. In a shocking move on September 28, 1965, Castro informed everyone that anyone wishing to flee Cuba might do so by traveling to Camarioca. Several boats of different sizes traveled to Camarioca. 2,866 individuals are permitted on commercial aircraft that transport thousands of Cubans each month. The US set up a processing center in Florida called the Cuban refugee center. The Cuban adjustments act allowed Cubans who were there for 2 years to apply for citizenship.[10]
Castro discontinued the freedom flights in August 1971. By 1980 Castro announced that anyone wishing to leave Cuba could do so. Out of the 124776 people who left through Mariel, Castro used this migration to get rid of any Cuban undesirables. He opened his jails and his insane asylums and allowed thousands of prisoners and patients to leave the country. By 1973, 300,000 had left Cuba. Close to 7 or 8,000 Chinese and Jews were also living in Cuba. 26,000 of the recently arrived Marielito’s had criminal history; those individuals were detained in jail pending background checks. 62,541 people were waiting for sponsors who could have ensured they would have a job and a home. 80% of the 1500 people with mental disorders had no criminal records.[11]
On March 28, 1980, six Cubans broke into the Peruvian embassy in Havana using a bus they had stolen. The ambassador refused to hand over the six people who crashed, and one guard died. On April 4, Castro removed the guards, turned off the power, water, and food supplies, and entered Cuba, telling the people there that they should go to the embassy if they wanted to leave. 10,800 people went to the embassy.[12]
2000 rafters from January to August 1994 were picked up by coast cards in the water but the newly arrived would not be allowed in the US and they were sent back to Guantánamo Bay. The US had naval bases because of the Platt Amendment, which enforced Cuba’s independence. Each wave of migration was treated differently. With the arrival of the immigrants, laws were started in Florida to discriminate against Cubans. Cubans open schools teaching Cuban history and culture programs to maintain Cubanidad. As for Cuba, the last 50 years have been run by Castro, and for the first time in 59 years, Diaz Canel took off.[13]
Bibliography
Anderson, Maria. “Pedro Pan: A Children’s Exodus from Cuba.” Smithsonian Institution. July 11, 2017. https://www.si.edu/stories/pedro-pan-childrens-exodus-cuba.
“Batista Forced Out by Castro-Led Revolution.” A&E Television Networks. October 22, 2009. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/Batista-forced-out-by-Castro-led-revolution.
“Cuba.” Nomadic Thoughts. August 24, 2020. https://nomadicthoughts.com/destination/central-and-north-america/cuba/.
García, María Cristina. Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994. Oakland: University of California Press, 1996.
“Fidel Castro Announces Mariel Boatlift, Allowing Cubans to Emigrate to US” A&E Television Networks. Accessed April 25, 2023. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/castro-announces-mariel-boatlift.
Molina, Michael. “Cuba notes.” DNY class notes 2023.
“The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962.” Office of the Historian. Accessed April 25, 2023. history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis.
“Timeline: U.S.-Cuba relations.” Council on Foreign Relations. April 18, 2023. https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-cuba-relations.
Venancio, Mariakarla Nodarse and Isabella Oliver. “Cuban Migration is Changing, the US Must Take Note.” WOLA. Accessed April 25, 2023. www.wola.org/analysis/cuban-migration-is-changing-us-must-note/.
[1] “Cuba,” Nomadic Thoughts, August 24, 2020, https://nomadicthoughts.com/destination/central-and-north-america/cuba/.
[2] Michael Molina, “Cuba notes,” DNY Class Notes 2023.
[3] María Cristina García, Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994 (Oakland: University of California Press, 1996).
[4] Michael Molina, “Cuba notes,” DNY class notes 2023.
[5] “Batista Forced Out by Castro-Led Revolution” A&E Television Networks, October 22, 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/Batista-forced-out-by-Castro-led-revolution.
[6] Michael Molina, “Cuba notes,” DNY class notes.
[7] Michael Molina, “Cuba notes,” DNY class notes.
[8] Maria Anderson, “Pedro Pan: A Children’s Exodus from Cuba,” Smithsonian Institution, July 11, 2017, https://www.si.edu/stories/pedro-pan-childrens-exodus-cuba.
[9] “The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962,” Office of The Historian, accessed April 25, 2023, history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis.
[10] Mariakarla Nodarse Venancio and Isabella Oliver, “Cuban Migration is Changing, the US Must Take Note,” WOLA, accessed April 25, 2023, www.wola.org/analysis/cuban-migration-is-changing-us-must-note/.
[11] “Fidel Castro Announces Mariel Boatlift, Allowing Cubans to Emigrate to US,” A&E Television Networks, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/castro-announces-mariel-boatlift.
[12] Michael Molina, “Cuba notes,” DNY class notes 2023.
[13]“Timeline: U.S.-Cuba relations Council on Foreign Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, April 18, 2023, https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-cuba-relations.
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