Operation Pedro Pan

Looking Back

Between December 1960 and October 1962, some 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors entered the United States as refugees under the sponsorship of the Catholic Welfare Bureau of the Diocese of Miami, Florida.

Operation Pedro Pan was the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Between December 1960 and October 1962, some 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors entered the United States as refugees under the sponsorship of the Catholic Welfare Bureau of the Diocese of Miami, Florida. Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh of Barry developed and headed the Cuban Children’s Program in December 1960, which provided foster care to almost 7,000 Cuban minors.

The map shown here was created and given to Archives and Special Collections by Hector Fernandez, a former Pedro Pan. With the assistance of former Manager of Archives and Special Collections Ximena Valdivia, Fernandez documented each of the cities that provided shelter to unaccompanied Cuban children throughout the program, which was active until 1980.

Photo: The Operation Pedro Pan Cuban Children’s Program records are the property of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, Inc., and the collection is housed in Barry University Archives and Special Collections.

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