Supposition Review by Reyte On Publishing

A. Johnson

Copyright Lerner Publishing

Point of No Return

Magazine Article

Mirta Ojito

About the Author:

A Cuban American immigrant recounts experience of the Mariel Boatlift that forever

changed relations between America and Cuba twenty- five years ago. Mirta Ojito is a

professor of journalism and a Pulitzer Prize Winner. Institutions where she has taught

include Columbia University, University of Miami, and New York University. Author of

Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus.

Introduction

The author came to America during a time when immigration to the United States was

welcome and our then President Carter, was sympathetic to the plight of refugees. As an

unoffending young teen, the author is keenly aware of the significance of the times. The

times changed the future of not only her life, but also the lives of many compatriots and

the demographic landscape of south Florida.

The Mariel Boatlift that occurred some twenty-five years ago involved over 10,000

Cubans immigrating to the Florida Coast of the United States. They traveled by way of

the Mariel harbor on the west- side of Cuba. The controversy surrounded the character of

some of the immigrants who were released by their President Fidel Castro. Castro used
this opportunity to exile along with professionals and families wishing to leave Cuba,

many convicts and mentally disabled individuals to the United States. This behavior

resulted after steps toward civil communications had supposedly been established

between President Carter and Cuban government officials from Havana.

President Carter in 1977 desired open dialogue between the two countries and instituted

formal lines of communication. There was an U.S. foreign sector established in Havana

as well as Washington D.C. Though there was open communications, the relationship

was far from conciliatory. The Cuban government disallowed family visitations from

former Cuban citizens. This went a long way in provoking the unstable relationship

between the two countries. At this time however, Castro began to establish relationships

with the Cuban community living in America. This was an attempt to mask good will in

Washington, and included the release of political prisoners and the re-entry of now Cuban

Americans to their homeland to visit family.

Summary

As a young girl, Mirta Ojito, found that the country in which she lived and faithfully

entrusted required total political dominance over its citizen’s lives. She describes it as a,

soul-crushing regime that daily required verbal assent or allegiance to government

leadership and authority (Ojito). The regime forced compliance to its agenda and

persecuted any that opposed its methods.

The impetus that sparked the huge exodus of Cubans like Ms. Ojito, to American was the

release of political prisoners and influx of visiting Cuban-Americans to their homeland.

This awakened native Cubans awareness of an oppressive government that regularly

imprisoned, tortured and abused its opposition(Ojito). From their Cuban American
friends and family, Cubans learned that in America if you worked hard, you reaped the

benefits for you and your family. Natives noticed Cuban Americans experienced better

health, a lifestyle of their choosing, and more opportunities to enjoy vacations and simple

pleasures such as a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner (Ojito).

Native Cubans became hungry for more freedom and control over their own futures, and

the welfare of their families. The discouragement and hopelessness culminated in many

deciding to leave Cuba. The first of April in 1980, a busload of Natives led by Héctor

Sanyustiz crashed through the gate of the Havana Embassy, requesting political asylum

(Ojito). The Peruvian Embassy diplomat, Ernesto Pinto-Bazurco, who was an attorney,

was willing to provide sanctuary. This led to a climatic situation that enraged Castro and

he decreed that anyone wishing to leave the country should go to the Embassy. To his

further angst tens of thousands of Cubans soon flooded the Embassy gardens.

This number swelled to 10,000 and other countries offered havens to receive the Cuban

refugees. Castro then stipulated that only the Mariel port was to be opened for

deportation of the refugees. Former Cuban citizens, also numbering in the thousands,

living outside the country were scrambling to send boats to pick up their loved ones west

of Cuba. The confusion that erupted as inexperienced seaman arrived in droves to pick up

thousands of refugees leaving Cuba became known as the Mariel Boatlift (Ojito). Castro

used this as an opportunity to also expel criminals and those with mental illnesses from

the country.
On this one day, the 11 of May, 1980, five thousand refugees came to southern Florida.

This was a record number of entrants to the United States. Changing forever that area of

Florida demographically.

Ms. Ojito recalls how the experience forever changed her life. As she traveled by boat to

a new country, a new life. She reflects on how alone she felt though many countrymen

were with her on the boat, as she watched a flag fluttering on the docks‘of her

homeland (Ojito). Leaving her home, a home where she was born and raised, though the

reasons were noble, do not diminish the traumatic depth of the experience. Though she

has returned to Cuba by plane to visit, the severity of being separated from her native

homeland by that boat trip is still with her today.

web!url http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2005/april/Features/immigration.html