The Pedro Pan Paradox

This chapter considers the many myths and contradictions in common understandings of Operation Pedro Pan. Although people on the island often regard the exodus as a criminal act against the Cuban revolution, no children were prevented from leaving and no one was ever charged or imprisoned for organizing their departures. This chapter also discusses how the story of the “rescue” mission became an ideological foundation of the Cuban-American community in the United States and how, ironically, in the 1999–2000 international custody battle over the refugee child Elián González, a Cuban father’s right of patria potestad was temporarily overturned by the toxic exile politics of Miami’s Cuban community. The author also explains how some young Cuban-Americans, many of them former Pedro Pans, later took the initiative to establish the Antonio Maceo Brigade in order to reconnect with their Cuban roots, despite threats of physical attacks (and even murder, in the case of Carlos Muñiz) by anti-Castro terrorist groups, such as Omega 7.