SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to the Pan Am Podcast, brought to you by the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York. This podcast and our museum are dedicated to celebrating the legacy of the world's most iconic airlock, Pan American World Airways. My name is Tom Betty, and I'm the host of this program. Thank you for joining us. The Pan Am Museum Foundation is a nonprofit organization. Please visit our website for more information at the Panamuseum.org. Again, our website is the Panamuseum.org. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. If you are using Apple Podcasts, please consider leaving a review. It will help others discover this program. This podcast is sponsored by the generous personal support of Mr. Adam Aaron, the CEO and chairman of AMC Theaters. He is also president of our sister organization, the Pan Am Historical Foundation. If you're not familiar with Pan Am, welcome. We are honored to have you here, and for you to learn about what we're all about. If you already know of Pan Am, worked for or flown on the airline, or just love our history, it's good to be with you again. So with that, let's get this episode in the air, so to speak. Welcome aboard your Pan American jet clipper! In this episode, we explore Operation Pedropon, the clandestine operation of the United States government, the Catholic Church, and Pan American World Airways to relocate over 14,000 children out of Cuba to the United States. Our guest for this episode is Pan Am veteran Yvonne Condy, who wrote the book Operation Pedropon, The Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban children. She will share many personal insights on being one of the many children that were sent away in the early 1960s by their parents for a better future in America. Yvonne will also share her stories of working for Pan Am during her 18 years in the air. But first, let's learn a little bit more about Cuba and what happened in the 1950s that led to Cuban parents being so desperate that they sent their children out of the country to escape political turmoil. The Cuban Revolution, which culminated in 1959, was the result of a series of political, social, and economic factors in a six-decade period. Cuba was a Spanish colony until the Spanish American War in 1898, after which it became a US protectorate. The country officially gained its independence from the United States four years later on May 20, 1902, with the establishment of the Republic of Cuba. However, while the United States relinquished its military occupation, it retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs through the 1903 Cuban American Treaty of Relations through the Platt Amendment, which also allowed for a permanent U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, a site still under American control today. The 1903 treaty also prohibited Cuba from entering into treaties that would compromise the country's independence or allow foreign powers to use the island for military purposes. Many Cubans strongly opposed the amendment, believing it severely limited their national sovereignty and independence. Three decades later, the amendment was replaced by the Cuban-American Treaty of Relations of 1934, which aligned with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's good neighbor policy. However, it retained the U.S. lease on Guantanamo Bay, a provision that can only be terminated by mutual agreement. By this time, Cuba was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean, particularly for Americans. And the capital city of Havana became a glamorous and cosmopolitan city known for its luxurious hotels, casinos, nightclubs, and cabarets. The country is only 90 miles off the coast of Florida, which made it a convenient destination for American tourists, especially during the Prohibition era between 1920 and 1933 when alcohol was banned across America but was available in Cuba. Americans traveled to Havana to gamble and enjoy the nightlife, and this was the foundation for the island's national image as a playground for the wealthy. Let's take a listen to a four-minute clip from a 1948 Pan American travel film promoting tourism in Cuba via a Panam Clipper.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

And now Cuba, Pearl of the Antilles, the world's sugar bowl and cigar box. Opening its arms wide and welcome, Havana, playground of the Caribbean, a city riotous with colored style groups, green plazas, and perpetual summer. Its charm is bold, its splendor striped, its tempo vigorous. There is a fullness of light, pavements crowded with sweetly dressed people, country cousins in high-peaked straw hats, youngsters with praise of orchids, turban semi dolefully hooking newspapers, lottery sellers calling lucky numbers, their cries mingling with the raucous shouts of fruit vendors, auto blasts, clanging trolley bells, a medley of songs playing a lively counterpoint to the wistful melodies of the always present street singer. Sleep motor cars in a steady stream speed along wide boulevards and buildings of other centuries. In the heart of the city, El Plato, Double Platte Boulevard. The President's Palace. Beautifully colored tile on pillars, window casings, doorways, doors, and walls give a Moorish accent to many an old building. A love of artistry fast being destroyed by mass production. Polite, courteous, and well informed. Elmoral grounded judging promontory. Richard, horseful as a male fist. Across the harbor of the Mala Khan, famous sea wall drive. The historic monument to the battleship May. The fashionable hotel national. The spirit of Havana greets you in the smoldering song of a dark-eyed senorita. Sing whether your love goes away, sing.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Even though the tourism industry was very profitable, Cuba had a highly unequal society where wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few while many lived in poverty. Most of the country's economy was largely dependent on sugar exports, making it very vulnerable to fluctuations in global markets. In the 1940s and 1950s, organized crime from the US invested heavily in Cuba's tourism and casino industries. His government was marked by corruption and repression that led to widespread discontent. By late 1958, the Batista government was increasingly isolated. Various groups opposed Batista's regime, including students, intellectuals, and workers. Among them was Fidel Castro, who became a prominent figure in the resistance. At first, the Eisenhower administration supported Batista's regime, but as the political and economic situation deteriorated throughout the mid-1950s and public support for the revolution grew, American backing waned. In late 1958, Castro launched a final offensive that led to the collapse of Batista's regime. On January 1st, 1959, Batista fled the country and Castro's forces entered Havana, marking the success of the Cuban Revolution. Let's take a listen to a newsreel from January 1959 about this watershed event.

SPEAKER_10 11:55

This is Movitone, Jeffrey Sumner reporting. Havana goes wild as the news spreads that Cuba's long struggle has ended with the flight of Batista and the triumph of Fidel Castro. Now it seems is the moment to celebrate and demonstrate. Run to the jails and let out the political prisoners. Down with the followers of the old regime. The news is good. Castro is on his way to Havana, and his troops will soon be here, so hurry. Now is the moment to celebrate and to get a bit of our own back. Opportunity beckons. Go to the gambling halls and break them up. The government made big profits here. Why shouldn't we?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

The Cuban Revolution had profound implications, leading to the establishment of a socialist state under Fidel Castro and a significant shift in U.S.-Cuba relations. At first, there was widespread enthusiasm for Castro's government from the Cuban people, particularly due to promises of land reforms and plans for social programs like better education and better health care. However, as the government began to clamp down on dissent and political opposition, some concerns started to emerge. Let's take a listen to another news clip. This one is from British Pathay from 1959.

SPEAKER_11 13:35

In front of the presidential palace in Havana, nearly a million people, which is just about the whole population of this capital city, gathered at the meeting of their new leader, Fidel Castro. The summary courts martial and executions of Batista followers have brought criticism from abroad, especially America. Castro wanted to know how many countrymen felt on the subject, and the historical reception shows that humans would support just about anything he did. Despite outside criticism of Castro's methods, trials and executions will continue.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

The program facilitated the migration of Cuban children to the United States as a response to the Cuban Revolution and the subsequent fear among Cuban families that their parental rights would be revoked and their children would be indoctrinated into communism. Under the operation, more than 14,000 Cuban children, primarily between the ages of 6 and 16, were sent to the US without their parents. The children were placed in foster homes and orphanages and other institutions with the intention of reuniting them with their families later. The operation ended during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 that put the United States and the Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear war. Let's take a listen to our final news clip of this episode from NBC News.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

Havana, early 1962. Castro's government has invasion jetters. It is whispered Kennedy has asked the Soviets to keep hands off should the United States invade Cuba. That Kennedy has promised anti-Castro Cubans the support of six United States divisions. Castro pleads with Khrushchev. He says an invasion is coming. Up to now, the Kremlin has turned a deaf ear. Now Castro's needs coincide with Khrushchev's. On Cuban TV, Castro denounces the blockade. Everything has been a total fiasco for the Americans.

SPEAKER_06 16:32

Now they attempt to prevent us from defending ourselves. They expect us not to look for help from the socialist camp. That is imperialism.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Now the showdown has begun. For the first time, the cities of the United States and the people who live in them are vulnerable if war comes.

SPEAKER_06 16:53

Do you, Ambassador Zoran, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don't wait for the translation, yes or no? Я не не хожу.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

I'm not. I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor does. In due course, sir, you will have your reply. Sir, would you please continue your statement? You will have your answer in due course. Continue your statement, please. You will receive the answer in the due course. Do not worry.

SPEAKER_06 18:09

I'm prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over if that's your decision. And I'm also prepared to present the evidence in this room.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Operation Pedro Pont reflects the complexities of the Cold War era, immigration issues, and the struggles faced by Cuban families during a tumultuous period in 20th century history. Now on to our interview. But she was no stranger to the Pan American family. Her father worked for the airline in Havana in the 1940s and 1950s. As a young girl, Yvonne's parents sent her to Miami for a better future as part of Operation Pedro Pon. She wrote a book about this life-changing and historic program titled Operation Pedro Pond, the Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban children. There is a link to purchase this book in the episode description. Before the interview, I'd like to read an excerpt of the prologue in Yvonne's book that I found profound. Quote: Imagine you are six, eight, or even seventeen years old, and suddenly your parents send you away to an entirely new culture where people speak a different language. Conjure the fear and confusion that you would feel, not understanding why you were uprooted from those who you love and all that is familiar. When nations confront nations, or ideals challenge conflicting ideals, children have often paid the greatest price for this confrontation. They have lost their innocence in a way no child ever should. The principles of their elders place them in physical and emotional jeopardy. They become pawns in a fatal game without the benefit of calling the moves. Thank you very much, Yvonne for joining the Panam Podcast. It's an honor to talk to you. So we have a very interesting episode today. We are talking about Pedro Pan, the operation in the early 1960s of getting 14,048 Cuban children out of Cuba into the United States and other countries. Why don't we start first, Yvonne, talking about your life, where you grew up and your family?

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Well, I was born in Havana, Cuba, and I grew up in Havana, where I lived until I was 10. Um my parents were both middle class. They both worked in my mother in retail, and my father worked for Pan American World Airways. Oh, interesting. What what did he do for a Pan Am? He worked in a passenger service and selling tickets in the Havana office and dealing with the passengers, etc.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Excellent.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

What when did he start for working for Pan Am? You know, I I'm not sure, but I do know that Poppy, as I called him, had worked for Pan Am for over 20 years. So he must have started from the probably in the forties, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

So what was uh Cuba like in uh the nineteen fifties when you were growing up?

SPEAKER_03 21:59

Well, I have of course wonderful memories as a child in Cuba and Cuba was incredibly a very civilized place for Latin America. Havana was a little jewel. My what I remember about Cuba, because I left when I was 10, basically was a child's everyday life, my school where I lived, my friends, my weekend going to the beach and and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

I've always wanted to visit uh Cuba. It's one of those things and and Iran for that matter. Both of those countries and cultures are so fascinating and the food is amazing. My my parents live in Clearwater and I was able to go to Old Tampa and and the uh the Cuban food is just so good.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

You don't have to go to Cuba. You can come to my apartment anytime.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

All right uh well there you have it listeners I am invited to dinner at Yvonne's so your your father worked for Pan Am what happened when Castro started coming on the scene in Cuba well first of all I think we have to understand that it was the 1960s and the Cold War was in full swing and people were very afraid.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Castro came into Cuba and December January 1st 1959 and my family was very pro-Castro that we had signs on our door that said this is your home fidel and everybody had a desire to see change in Cuba because Batista had been a dictator a benevolent dictator but a dictator nevertheless and Castro as a young man of 33 with lots of ideals touched the hope of the Cuban people and I remember as a child perfectly when he came into Havana riding tanks and how the streets of Havana were destroyed by the weights and the grooves of the tanks threats. So it was very exciting people were screaming crowds and mobs were greeting him but then things started to change he started saying we don't need elections the voice of the people is enough he started asking people people were required to turn in their guns and then things that started affecting children happened and that's when parents started getting scared there was a rumor going around Cuba that a patria potestad or the government taking over the rights of parents was going to come into effect. And some people actually saw this document the government denied it at one point the truth will never be known if this was real or if it was just rumor but other things were happening like my school when I finished in 1960 I'm sorry was going to be taken over by the government. The government closed all Catholic schools and the government also sent priests and nuns into exile they had to leave Cuba. So for Cuba who it was a Catholic country uh all these signs were very worrisome also at the end of 1960 the feature escolar accumulativa which was a file that every Cuban student had to have where it logged the family data the ideological position of their parents all these things together with the Cold War formed a I don't want to call it hysteria but a sort of hysteria among Cuban parents then the Russians started coming into Cuba and children were being sent into to study in Russia and Fidel sent his own son to study in Russia. By January of 1960 400 students had gone to Soviet Union.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

So parents started getting worried let's put it that way let's talk about your family during this time so you you're how old at this time? Well in 1961 I was 10 years old when Fidel came in I was nine yes okay so you remember what's what's happening and you remember the the mood in your household what was going on with your parents and how did their position change of Castro and what was going on in 1960?

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Well we started going I remember my parents going from loud approval of Fidel to whispers all of a sudden they couldn't talk out loud they didn't want the neighbors to but I started hearing how they were not happy with the changes that Fidel was implementing. And all of a sudden one day I was told that I was going to be sent out of Cuba alone and that's when my life started to change but their life has had my my uncle had left Cuba he had left some of his prized possessions with our my family because you couldn't leave anything Cuba with anything first of all you had to request permission to leave and they came and did an inventory of your house. The government did? Yes of your complete possessions once you asked for permission to leave Cuba they would come and inventory your house you have 12 forks 12 plates one TV set one bed wow and the day you left they would come back and check that you had not given away anything or scolved anything you also when I say you the elderly people of course they lost their job once you requested to leave Cuba you were out of a job. So children were exempt from this you see people who were under 18 did not have a job obviously and they did not need a visa because the United States granted us visa waivers we could come into the country without a visa and that's what made for children to leave Cuba easier and that's what started parents once parents realized this they started sending their children to the United States.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Let's talk about that so this is a secret operation uh between the Catholic Church the US government and airlines you wrote this wonderful book which for our listeners there's a link in the episode description to purchase this book let's talk about this operation and and how in secret over 1400 children were relocated.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

It started with parents of children who were in a school ran run by a gentleman called James Baker. James Baker was American and he had some connections in Miami and these parents came to him and said do you think you can put my children in a school in the United States for a while until things get sorted out in Cuba because the hope was things were going to be sorted out in Cuba Fidel was not going was going to be again overthrown another overthrow of Cuban politics and it was a temporary thing. And Mr Baker came to Florida to Miami and he met with some uh American people from the Chamber of Commerce in Miami and he also met with Brian Walsh who was an Irish priest and they agreed to take some children in. They thought it was going to be something like maybe 200 children. However it this operation grew and it grew clandestinely I mean the the Cuban government knew we were leaving they would see us at the airport but the visa waivers were distributed through schools mostly in Cuba. They would be brought in through the US Embassy they would be distributed uh through schools people in different schools who were against the government had waste of getting them to parents who requested them and it became the nephew of a former president of Cuba had a clandestine operation they even in his house amazingly and they and it was across from the State Department so it was they would alter passports they would forge visa waivers nobody ever took a penny for any of this it was all altruistic to help these children leave Cuba. Now here comes Pan Am into the picture Pan Am started booking false reservations with false names the agents knew who these false names were and they were given to the children. A parent with a child came to Pan Am and said I want a ticket for my child they would have a prompt exit because they would be given one of these false reservations and I found out as I was researching my book that my father was involved in this. So my father was one of the Pan Am reservation people who was instrumental in getting children out of Cuba. That's very interesting and I uh read in your book that uh Cuban state security was watching your father and uh they called Pan American uh the CIA animal which I found interesting and I found out because after my book came out Cuba had never spoken about this operation it was like it didn't exist but after my my book came out Cuba published the book refuting everything it was all a CIA operation etc and then it mentions my father and his role in this and called him yes a CIA agent which he was not but that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So how does that make you feel your your father was uh working for Pan Am and helping all of these children you know leave and helping the parents have their their children leave how does that make you feel your your father was was part of this operation.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Full of pride my father was no longer with us when when I found out and I never knew this while he was alive. So it was a big surprise that my father was a very quiet bookish guy and he was all of a sudden turned from Clark Kent to Superman in my eyes and there were other other people involved uh comedias etc a lot of Pan Am names that I do have in my book and I did talk to some of them or some of their relatives so yes they were Panam was a big big part yeah let's go back to your story.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

So uh all of this is happening what happened with you?

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Well I I was told that in May 1961 and when all schools closed and I wasn't going to be able to go to a Catholic school in the fall my they decided to send me out and all of a sudden I was told that I was going to go to Florida for a little bit and I was going to stay with some school friends and their her parents and I was thrilled. I mean I had never gotten on a plane yes I had gotten on a plane when I was a baby but I didn't remember I was very excited as a 10 year old and we started looking for clothes for me and I realized I saw that they were buying clothes that were like a little too big and shoes that were a little too big too and I was wondering gosh I wonder if this is going to be a short stay why are they buying these clothes I was my grandmother was a very good seamstress and actually we couldn't get coats and she made she made coat for me. By the time I got out you could only take one big bag and Cubans started using duffels that were like army duffels and they called them the worms you know because they had longish shape because the Cuban government called the people who were leaving worms. So el gusano or the duffel became her symbol and it also held a lot more clothes than a suitcase since you could only take one back. We were all taking gusanos and they got me there were no hardly any shoes left I remember getting a horrible horrible white and brown pair of shoes that I hated and my gusano was like a royal blue and it was a shiny material. It was the most hideous thing I hated it but that's all we could find and that's what I landed in Miami with. So I was not told until like a couple of days before that I was leaving I think they didn't want me to tell my friends and my friends could tell their parents who were perhaps with the government everything became very hush hush very secretive so I was told you know you're leaving on the 11th of August and this must have been maybe the 9th of August and yes on the 11th of August 1961 I got on Pan Am's flight 422 from um Havana to Miami and in the airport people who were leaving were put in a glass room that became known as La Pecera or the fish bowl and you were separated from your family at that moment and so I was there in La Pecera I was very nervous because I heard the stories that they would take away any jewelry you had and I did have some jewelry you know a little bracelet and little the metal etc but no they they I was lucky they didn't there were other children alone they did not see us together etc years later I have been able to get the log of that day of the arrivals of the children and there were like 10 of us on that flight so must have been a handful for the flight attendants at the time to have all these so many unaccompanied children on the flight. And uh well I arrived in Miami. What was it like uh when your parents told you that you were going to the United States I was excited and I was happy because I was going to see my school friends I was going to travel it was something exciting and different I did not have as some other children have told me the premonition that I would never see Cuba again or that I might not see my parents again I really did think it was a temporary thing that they would join me or I would come back to Cuba. And for me it was just a little vacation in Miami even though I had a winter coat and big shoes but you know I I was not I did not comprehend the the finality of it.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

When were you reunited with your family?

SPEAKER_03 37:48

A year later I was met at the airport by my school friends and her parents and half of the children of the Operation Pedro Pan went to Friends or family and the other half went to temporary camps in Miami that the Catholic Church set up to receive these children and a call went out throughout the United States to ask for people to take these children in through the Catholic Church in mass on Sundays etc people were asked can you take in temporarily some Cuban children well a lot of people children did go to foster homes but there were not enough so many of them were placed in schools aborting schools some of them were even placed in orphanages because orphanages were open all year round and so they could house them so the experiences were very varied of these children. As I said I was lucky because I went to these friends family but unbeknownst to us they were moving to Texas so they called my parents and asked that they were going to be taken to could could they take me to Texas but also what we didn't know was and I didn't know until they got to Miami is that my parents were planning to leave Cuba skate by boat like a month later. So they didn't want me going to Texas so calls were made and I was placed with some other friends however my parents didn't escape that way because they you know right now I can't really recall if their boat broke down or if the police was around that a that area but the night they had chosen to leave it didn't work out. So they had to wait approximately a year to reunite with me also on a pennant flight the old-fashioned way on an airplane so yeah what was that like you haven't seen your parents for a year they land in Miami right what was it like to see them after a year well I grabbed my mother and I held on to her I like to say like a monkey grabbing a tree I wouldn't let go I and that evening the government gave them one hotel night and uh they said that I should go back with the family I was staying because it was my mother stepfather by then my parents were divorced and my my half brother and I refused and the four of us slept in one bed me grabbing onto my mom. I I it was very emotional for me. Yes. And what happened with your father my father um stayed behind in Cuba for another year. At that time he left Cuba and went to Puerto Rico and he got a job not with Pan Am Pan wasn't hiring at the time but he got a job with Transcaribbean which was an airline that flew out of Puerto Rico and then he m had health issues so he moved to Texas and he got a job with Mexicana. So he always worked for the airlines he spoke three languages and it was you know he had experience so it was kind of easy for him to get a job with the airlines yeah and when you were reunited with your father uh tell us that story well my father uh I saw him we in Puerto Rico and that was again I was by then I was 12 years old so I hadn't seen him for two years and I he was remarried and again another I didn't grab onto him like a monkey but I I really was so has so happy to see him and you know exile divided our family and my father I lived in Miami my father lived in Puerto Rico then we moved to Puerto Rico but by then my father moved to Texas so my relationship with my father became severed and I mean physically severed because we were in different places after the revolution let's talk more about your book this is the second edition why did you decide to write this book? This book has a long story. When I left Pan Am in 1989 with a Pan Am Early Out and I took that money from the early out and I went back to school and I got a master's in journalism. One of the courses I took it was journalism through stories basically and one of the things we had to read was a book called Miami by Joan Didion. Well in this book called Miami Joan Didion mentions Operation Pedro Pan or the exodus of these Cuban children and I because I had not gone to a camp I had not seen the hundreds of children that were in these camps. So I was aware that I had been sent out alone I was aware that my cousin had been sent out alone I was aware of some school friends that had were sent out alone but I had no idea of the magnitude of this children's exodus. So when I read this I was so stunned and I became I'm obviously became a journalist because I'm an OC person. And so I was this was it I had to find out more. I discussed this with my professor I said I want to write something about this for class and I went and researched and the only thing I could find about Was an article in the Reader's Digest. And I did write that. I interviewed my cousin, a couple of people, but it was very, I knew I needed a lot more than this. I wanted to know why our parents had sent us out. I needed to know what was happening in Cuba. I needed to know what happened to the other children, how they were received in the country, what they went through. So after I handed in my paper and everything, my professor said, you know, I think you should write a book about this. Well, here I am, journalism 101. And the idea of a book was the farthest thing from my mind. When I graduated, that idea, she had planted a seed in my mind. By the way, her name was Margot Jefferson, she's a Pulitzer winning journalist, etc. And she did a good job of uh putting that seed in my mind. And she I started thinking about it, started researching, but the internet was not what it is today at all. It was the beginning 1989, it was really the early years of the internet, and there certainly there was nothing about Pedro Pan, etc. So I went to the New York Public Library and I burnt my lashes looking at microfilm and microfish and looking at all articles and trying to construct a timeline of what was happening in Cuba at the time. The second hurdle was finding these children or the people that had taken care of these children in any in any way. So there was a group called Fundacion Pedro Pan that was starting at the time, and they helped me locate some people in Miami and some children in Miami. That Fundacion eventually evolved to another group called Operation Pedro Pan. And the funny thing is that after so many years of not discussing this, or the children were having the same quest for information that I had because their children were the same age that they were at the time they left Cuba. So that triggered some certain remembrances and questions. So I interviewed about 200 people, I sent out questionnaires, I put flyers in Cuban doctors' offices or waiting rooms. Do you know anybody who was sent out of Cuba alone as a child? And that's how I built my database for researching the book. It was very emotional for me interviewing some of these children. Some of them would cry, and I would cry too. Actually, I'm getting kind of emotional as I speak to you now, because they had never spoken to it. My parents both died before I researched this book. So I was never able to discuss this with, and I never discussed with my parents why they sent me out, their reasons, their feelings, nothing. So this book was a catharsis for me. And um I it was for many other people, and I'm very proud of that. And it's a piece of Cuban history that needed to be told. I always tell people that this is our book and that there are 14,000 more stories, and luckily 14 other people have or their children, because we still call ourselves Pedro Pan children, uh, have written about it and they have uh, and it's wonderful, all their personal stories coming out.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

That's very inspiring. Very inspiring. Um, looking back, do you think that the operation uh was justified? Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

If it had not been for the operation, uh, I don't know what my life would be today. Many Cuban children had the visa waivers when uh the flights between Cuba and the US stopped. And I have to say, this operation started in December 26, 1960, and it ended in October 1962 when the missile crisis between Cuba and the USSR started, and all flights between Cuba and the US stopped. It became a very big problem because many of the parents were in Cuba and the children were in the US. Also, many children in Cuba had their visa waivers, had their exits planned, and their lives were stuck. They were they were stuck in Cuba. So I was very lucky. Uh, the ones that were stuck in Cuba, eventually some came out, some have not, but their lives were totally different. They have lived under communism uh with no choices, whereas we had choices. Uh, some a couple, not many, but I would say about a dozen Cuban children went back to Cuba, Pedro Pan children. Um, some say that a couple that their lives they were never trusted once they were in Cuba because they were they had been, although it was not through their fault. So it it it's very complicated, but they I yes, and most of the people I interviewed, Tom, at the end say, yes, that the majority that they think their parents did the right thing, and that yes, they're happy that they came to to this country. As a matter of fact, um, a couple of days ago, the new ambassador to Spain was named, Benjamin León, and he's a Pedro Panchild. A previous ambassador to Spain, U.S. ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, has just written a book and he was a Pedro Panchild.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

There have been US senators, there have been writers, musicians, all sorts of walks of life. And I I would like to think that we have contributed to make this country better, as it has helped us become better people, too.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit, let's pivot for a moment and talk a little bit about your Pan Am story. So your father worked for Pan Am, and then in your early 20s in 1971, you decided to join Pan American as a flight attendant. Why Pan Am? Why a flight attendant? And tell us about your Pan Am journey.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

In 1971, I was 21 years old. I was living in Puerto Rico, and I was always had had, I think I was switched at the hospital, and I'm really a gypsy, but I love to travel. I've always wanted to travel, and the one way that I saw I could travel and get paid for it was Pan Am. My family had friends, a friend in Puerto Rico, and she let us know that they were going to be hiring interviews. And off I went. And yes, I was hired, got based in New York, and never looked back. I think they were the best years of my life and the best education I could have ever had. It broadened my horizons, made me a completely different human being.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Did you ever think about flying on a Pan Am flight out of Havana and now you're working for the airline?

SPEAKER_03 51:55

I never yes, I did. Pan Am was always part of my life. I mean, you know, Pan Am father, Pan Am. So, yes, it felt like we are a Pan Am family, unfortunately. And this is another interesting story. My father was living in Texas, and we had, I when I was hired in 71, I wrote to him, you know, there was no phone, phone communication was expensive and not like it is today. And I said, Daddy, I'm I have parents uh can get tickets so I want to take you on a trip. Well, when I landed in 1972 in August from a flight, my flight service supervisor was waiting for me at the jet bridge, and she told me that um they had received a call that my father was very ill in Texas, and Pan Am had booked me a full fare flight on Branif to go to Dallas, Texas. I went to on my unif wearing my uniform, I got on a Braniff plane and I flew to Dallas, and when I got to Dallas, I was told that my father had died.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

Pan Am was so kind, and at that moment they told me to take off as much time as I needed. They, as I said, they had paid for my full fare ticket, and it's the kind of thing that you don't see anymore. It was a corporation with a heart, and nowadays you hear the complaints of people that don't, and that's why all former Pan Am employees love Pan Am so much and care so much about Pan Am, because it was a heart. It really did.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

It is it is remarkable. Um, when I uh talk to Pan Am people, you know, some of them lost their pensions and they are still so committed. And Pan Am, you know, their heart is blue uh with Pan Am Blue, and it's just extraordinary to see and hear that passion uh come through. Let's talk about your flying career. So 1971 to 1989. What's your favorite aircraft? What's your favorite route? Tell us some stories.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Uh favorite aircraft has to be the 747 SP. That was such a nice place. It really was. It it had the perfect size, first class and business class, and and my my first flight, and this is a hysterical story, was I was on standby, I get to New York, it was Christmas Eve, and I get called for a flight to Santo Domingo, and it was a charter. And when I get to the gate, they were waiting for me because I was a Spanish speaker to close the door. I they close the door, they tell me to sit in the back, a jump seat, etc. I sit down, very first flight, here I am, all nervous, brand new little uniform and everything. And there were a lot of drunk people on board because they had been waiting at the gate and they had their own bottles, etc. So all of a sudden, this man gets up to go to the bathroom, and we told him to sit down. We take off, you know, etc. So after takeoff, he gets up again and he throws up all over the head of the lady in front of him.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Oh no, this is your first flight.

SPEAKER_03 55:48

This is my first flight.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

We had to take the lady, we got coffee pots full of water, we took her in the bathroom, we washed her hair the best as possible. We took a blanket, we dried her. She was mortified. She hadn't seen her family in gazillion years, and here they were going, she was going to land with wet hair and dirty clothes. I did not stop throughout the whole flight. When they closed, when we finished and we were ferrying the plane back to New York, I turned to the purser and I said, You know, this was my first flight. I couldn't believe it because I was the only Spanish-speaking person. I didn't stop throughout the flight. So I I had no time to think that it was my first flight. It was answering questions and serving the food and I and looking after the poor lady.

SPEAKER_00 56:43

Well, that's trial by fire, your initiation.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

It was everything was everything was wonderful after that. So I mostly I flew a lot to Europe. I like having three-day trips, uh, occasional longer trips. And when the SP came on, I did fly the Tokyo flights. I love that flight. I think we all did. Although it was long, it was so exciting to land in Narita and the whole Japanese scene. And uh flew to South America, flew to the Caribbean, Central America. Spanish was my language, and um obviously I was able to get those flights. Sometimes I was assigned those flights, but mostly I preferred going to Europe and the friendships I made, the places I went, the stories I have would be five more podcasts to talk so.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

Well, tell us a couple for our listeners. Let's start with any passenger stories, uh, either celebrities or celebrities, celebrity stories.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

We I had, and I can say it because I saw it, uh Jackie Kennedy, who was at the time dating Maurice Templesman. It was after Onassis and everything. And they were making out in flight one C1A and one B. This is Jackie Kennedy making out on the phantom plane. Sure enough. And the other one I had um, well, this Harry Belafonte. And obviously I have an accent and he asked where I was from. So when I said Cuba, he was very pro-Cuban revolution. So he started praising Castro, and I said, Well, I don't agree with you. And uh he kept at it, and I said, Well, I think we should drop this conversation. We obviously don't think the same. And I, you know, he was a passenger. What was I going supposed to? So I was sitting on a jumpset, he came and sat next to me, and on and on he would not let up. And he, but I don't know if he thought he was trying to convince me or what, but he was praising the Cuban Revolution. I finally had to ask one of my co-workers in economy, of course he was writing first class, to switch with me. And I went to work in the back because I didn't want to have any sort of problems with Mr. So those are a couple of the other one was um Neil Diamond, who would not speak to the flight attendants. He had a secretary, a male secretary, who would say, Mr. Diamond will take this Coca-Cola. Mr. Diamond will have Mr. Diamond, and it was okay, you know.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Um any uh emergencies or any memorable trips that you went on?

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Losing an engine on takeoff in Montego Bay, which is a runway surrounded by water on a 727. And I thought, oh my god, we're going into the bay. And uh, we didn't. Great Pen and Pilots, of course. And uh we had to, although it was a turnaround, we had to stay overnight, but while they brought the part to fix the engine, and you know, we although we knew we were on a turnaround flight, we always had clean underwear and we always had uh toiletries because you never knew what could happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

And that's true today, too. Like, you know, people get stranded places, weather, um, those kinds of things. So a tip to our listeners make sure in your carry-on you you have uh you know stuffed for overnight in in case you need it. Let's get back to Operation Pedro Pan. What would you like young people to learn from your stories in your book?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:50

Well, I think my my biggest thing would be that to say that freedom isn't free and your life can change at any time due to politics. And I, you know, I we cannot I cannot judge my parents, and I think they cannot judge their parents' feelings about any political issues, even if they disagree, because you have to live through what they were living through. Uh, my parents were living in the 60s, in the middle of the Cold War, where the Soviet Union was the big, biggest threat the world had. It only had two superpowers. Now we had seven, we have more than one, two superpowers, but politics can change your life. And gosh, we don't know that our parents, we think that our parents don't know as much as we do when we were young, but they sure do. They sure do. And I'm forever grateful to mine for having had the wisdom to take me out of a communist regime.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Have you developed any close friendships uh in your research on your book and reconnecting? Yeah. Tell us a little bit about uh those relationships.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:05

Definitely. I have a good friend in New Jersey. Her name is Emmy, and we stay in touch constantly. Emmy was uh about 14 when she left, and she went to a a house, one of the camps in Miami, and then she went to a foster home, and the foster mother was horrible, and she asked to be changed, and the social services intervened. I have another horrible story of my friend Tino who was abused. He was only five. He was the the children were between six and eighteen, Tom. Most of them were teenage boys because the military service started, and once they started in the military service, and it was mandatory, they could not leave Cuba. So the parents were desperate to get teenage boys out of Cuba so they wouldn't be inducted into the military. So my friend Tino went through several bad homes, and one of them he says they fed him together with the dog on a dish on the floor. And and I do believe him, he's been very traumatized all his life. Um, another one told me, and this is not in my book, that her parents couldn't leave because they couldn't leave her grandparents alone. Grandfather was sick, and one day they were talking on the phone, and the grandparent had picked up an extension, and he heard the parents telling the young girl that the reason they couldn't be leave Cuba was because of the grandparents. And a couple of days later, the grandfather threw himself from the rooftop so he wouldn't be an impediment in the reunion.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

Oh my.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:01

So stories are innumerable, and yes, they do have many, many good friends at this time. I also want to tell you how the name Operation Pedro Pan came about. Um there was Gene Miller was a reporter for the Miami Herald, and the press knew about us, but at the time the press listened to Monsignor Walsh, who asked them not to divulge um the information because he feared that he it might endanger it if the Cuban government saw that it was public. So the Cleveland newspaper was going to break the story. So Ms. Ms. Ms. Monsignor Walsh, at the point he was a Monsignor, gave it to the Miami Herald because they had been good in holding it back. And Gene Miller, a reporter, said it was a bridge in the sky, uh, perhaps it should be called Pedro Pan, like the boy who could fly. And that name is very catchy. That was not the name at the time. The official name was the unaccompanied children's exodus, um, but it became Operation Pedro Pan. Very important that it's Pedro, not Peter, to us, because that was a cute name. Yeah.

unknown 1:05:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:31

Very interesting. And getting back to the story you shared about the grandparent committing suicide, I mean, that just shows you the gravity and the desperation of people during that time for the grandparent to sacrifice himself to make sure the family got out. Very, very moving story. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yes. Anything else you'd like to add about your time with Pan Am, your father's time with Pan Am, or this clandestine operation to get over 14,000 Cuban children out of Cuba in the midst of the Cold War.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:08

Well through the Pan Am Museum, I they were able to find in their files in photos, a photo of my father in Havana in the Pan Am office. And that was so emotional for me and and so heartwarming. I still have in the palm of my hand a pencil lead that I was my father would take me on Saturday sometimes to the Pan Am office while he worked there. And I was spinning around on a chair and I put my hand on a pencil and I stuck it in my hand. I still have it there. So remember my Pan Am office forever and ever in my left palm. It was such a I love going to the Pan Am office in Havana. It was it had a globe like we have seen in other Pan Am a huge globe of the world in its lobby. And um I don't know the people went there were elegant and the people who work there I found them sophisticated and smart. I mean perhaps that's what got the bug in me without me knowing as a little child spending time in the Pan Am offices in Havana. I I know two other Pan Am flight attendants who were also Pedro Pan children. Nellie Perez now Beckhans who flew out of New York and Miami and Rene Esteves who flew out of New York that were both uh Pan Am flight attendants that were both Pedro Pan children. I'm sure there are so many more but I do know those two.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

Anything else you'd like to add Yvonne let me see let me see oh yes October 28th 1927 was the first Panam flight it was carrying US mail to Havana that uh plane was baptized Peneral Machado in in Cuba and 34 years later I would leave on a Pan Am plane the other way from Havana to Miami to my new life Pan Am all the way well thank you very much for uh joining us on the Pan Am podcast again to our listeners you can purchase this book uh there's a link in the episode description I highly recommend it it's a great book and Yvonne you did a fantastic job and uh thank you very much for sharing your stories. Thank you for bringing it out I appreciate it Tom Am was a pioneer in air travel and still stands as one of the most iconic and innovative airlines in aviation history. That legacy lives on at the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York where you can explore the rich history of the aircrafts and individuals at the heart of the company known as the world's most experienced airline. For more information about the Pan Am Museum check out our website at www.thepan Ammuseum dot org. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. As was once a tagline in one of our commercials, we would greatly appreciate your support to help the Pan Am Museum continue making the going great. You can also support the museum by shopping on our online store for all things Pan Am accessories, apparel, jewelry, books, models, and posters. We want to hear from you. If you have a question for us or want to share your story, our email address is podcast at the Pan Ammuseum dot org. As flight crews once said to passengers departing for their destinations around the world thank you for flying Pan Am