The Mariel Boatlift: A Cuban-American Journey

In this informative and moving work, historian Triay (Fleeing Castro) expertly explores one of the most infamous refugee crises in U.S. history, the 1980 Mariel boatlift, in which roughly 125,000 Cuban refugees left the country for America after an economic downturn. Each chapter first covers a particular event leading up to the exodus and then offers interviews with refugees, volunteers, and leaders. Through discussion of those events—the early freedom flights of the 1960s; the Peruvian Embassy crisis, when thousands of Cuban citizens sought shelter in the Peruvian embassy in Havana; Castro’s decision to allow more than 1% of Cuba’s population to flee in the Mariel boatlift in order to “release the pressure of unemployment and a bad economy”—readers get a vivid picture of the horrible conditions those choosing to leave Cuba endured: government-organized mob violence, time in filthy refugee camps waiting to be allowed to depart, and death-defying ocean journeys on overloaded ships through stormy weather. Triay argues that while Castro attempted to ensure those leaving were social “undesirables” (particularly people with criminal convictions and mental illness) and to propagandize against them, for the most part the “marielitos” were law-abiding male minors and working families. This compassionate and accessible study is especially relevant given current debates surrounding immigration. (Oct.)