Victor Andres Triay's presentation addresses the origins and development of Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program, which brought thousands of unaccompanied minors from Cuba to the United States between 1960 and 1962. Beginning with the Castro Revolution's rise to power in 1959, the lecture will explain how the Revolution's increasing radicalization and its embrace of Marxism sparked the "first wave" of mass migration out of Cuba. Dr. Triay will describe how, during that "first wave;' Father Bryan Walsh of the Catholic Welfare Bureau, former Ruston Academy headmaster James Baker, and others laid the foundation for Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program. The presentation will also discuss how the programs operated and the experiences of those who were Pedro Pan children.
