Cubans intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba under the terms of a migration agreement. In , some 5, Cubans embarked from the port of Camarioca in small boats, landing in south Florida. In , the Mariel boat crisis brought , Cuban migrants to the U. These migration waves came when the Cuban economy was in crisis and standards of living were falling.
All three occurred when Cubans had few avenues for legal migration. With legal routes foreclosed, pressure to leave built over time as the economy deteriorated, finally exploding in a mass exodus of desperate people. After studying U. Hit by the dual shocks of renewed U. These external shocks hit an economy already weakened by the decline in cheap oil from crisis-stricken Venezuela due to falling production there, forcing Cuba to spend more of its scarce foreign exchange currency on fuel.
Since Cuba imports most of its food, the island nation has experienced a food crisis. By the time they arrived in Miami, local reporters were waiting to snap pictures and do interviews—a grand entrance into America.
A framed photo in Albelo's apartment shows him hauling his boat into Miami on arrival day, June The first was after Castro took power in and began confiscating private factories, farms and houses. This spurred a ,person exodus to the U. In , when Jimmy Carter reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba—and just a week after Albelo was imprisoned—Castro authorized the Mariel Boatlift, exporting , The fourth mass exodus of 35, occurred in The fall of the Soviet Union just years before had deprived Cuba of a major trading partner, causing food and electricity shortages.
When people tried leaving, Castro punished them, but finally let them go amid riots. Since then, the U. Thus, thousands of people still raft out every year. Once in Miami, they join a complex crosshatch of fellow refugees, including many who are escaping from other oppressive Latin American countries.
But Cubans have staked out the strongest presence, making up over one-third of the population. Newcomers often start in places like Little Havana, a neighborhood near downtown, or the working-class suburb of Hialeah, and if they become wealthy—as many Cubans do—occupy suburbs like Coral Gables.
After arriving in , he spent several weeks getting screened at a detention center, then hit the streets. For three years, he bounced around the couches of different friends and extended family, and different jobs, working as a baker and a truck driver.
His break came in , when he was hired as the wrestling coach of Belen Jesuit. This prep school was founded in the s in Havana, Cuba, and was even attended by Fidel Castro.
But following the revolution, the alumnus expelled his school because of its religious affiliation, and exiles opened a new campus in Miami. When Albelo arrived, the school had a fledgling wrestling program, fielding only 3 members. He quickly turned it around, and it has since been a powerhouse. He also referees international matches, fulfilling his lifelong dream of world travel that went unrealized in Cuba.
And he started a t-shirt printing business, Atila Embroidery, in His daughter is now 37, and works as a lawyer in Cuba, remaining there so she can live near her mother.
Although he left Cuba thinking he would never return, Albelo began making trips back in , as the country grew more lenient towards visitors. He wanted to see his daughter, and make amends with his parents. Albelo sees himself coaching well into the future. His two cousins also remain in the Miami area, and are truck drivers, with one opening his own business.
He sees them occasionally, and says the time they spent 25 years ago scheming to escape Cuba—and nearly dying along the way—has never been brought up. But it is an event that still burns in his memory. Like so many others in Miami, it is a story born from the need to escape political oppression—and the desperation to succeed. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here.
More From Forbes. Apr 28, , am EDT. Apr 14, , am EDT. Apr 3, , am EDT. Mar 27, , am EDT. Mar 3, , am EST. Dec 20, , am EST. Relatives from Miami came to collect those left behind in Cuba. Within weeks President Lyndon Johnson inaugurated the so-called "freedom flights. A small portion of the refugees arrived indirectly through countries such as Spain and Mexico. It all began when a bus crashed through the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana. Two guards were wounded as they shot each other, and Fidel Castro, in a fit of anger, removed the security post from the embassy entrance.
Interest Section in Havana, Wayne Smith, "because within hours there were 10, Cubans inside the embassy and thousands more on the way. As the constant influx of exiles arrived in Florida everyone noticed the difference between these refugees and those who had come before. Castro also sent the U.
The Cuban American community in Miami, just emerging as an important economic and political force, would have to contend with its new image; criminals, uneducated Cubans, and non-whites had now joined their ranks. But the one most embarrassed was Fidel Castro himself.
For the first time there were riots in Havana. To release pressure, Fidel Castro declared once more that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba could go.
For some time, balseros "rafters" washed up along the coast of Florida aboard every conceivable thing -- truck tires, wooden rafts, anything that would float. As they left Cuban shores by the tens of thousands, they made an unforgettable spectacle. Regulating the Flow Since then there has been an effort to once again regulate Cuban migration to the United States.
Castro promised not to encourage irregular departures from Cuba, and the U. Whether these accords will survive the collapse of the Cuban regime, or any change of government in Cuba, is major concern among U. The fear in everyone's mind is another Mariel.
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