Nearly 50 Years Later, Cuban-Americans Recall Fleeing as Children
More than two million Cubans have left the island since Fidel Castro took power 50 years ago and turned Cuba into a communist country.
One of the first waves of migration started shortly after he took over, and included more than 14,000 children traveling without their parents.
The trips that began in 1960 evolved into a massive operation that became the largest migration of unaccompanied children in U.S. history.
A Cuban passport is one of the few things Silvia Wilhelm has left from her life growing up in Havana. At 14, she was an aspiring athlete when she left in 1961, with a small suitcase and a few dollars sewn into her dress. "I was a pretty good swimmer," Wilhelm recalls. "I left 85 medals behind and, of course, never saw them again. That is what I hate the most."
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One of the first waves of migration started shortly after he took over, and included more than 14,000 children traveling without their parents.
The trips that began in 1960 evolved into a massive operation that became the largest migration of unaccompanied children in U.S. history.
A Cuban passport is one of the few things Silvia Wilhelm has left from her life growing up in Havana. At 14, she was an aspiring athlete when she left in 1961, with a small suitcase and a few dollars sewn into her dress. "I was a pretty good swimmer," Wilhelm recalls. "I left 85 medals behind and, of course, never saw them again. That is what I hate the most."