Episode 55: Yvonne Conde, Operation Pedro Pan and the Untold Exodus of 14,048 Cuban Children

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In this episode we explore Operation Pedro Pan, the clandestine operation of the U.S. Government, the Catholic Church and Pan American World Airways to relocate over 14,000 children out of Cuba to the United States between 1960 and 1962. 

Our guest for this episode is Pan Am veteran Yvonne Conde who wrote the book Operation Pedro Pan: 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 by their parents for a better future in America in the early 1960s. Yvonne will also share her stories of working for Pan Am during her 18 years in the air as a flight attendant. Her father, Pedro Conde, worked for Pan American in Havana from the 1940s to the early 1960s. 

Yvonne is a freelance writer based in New York City and has written for Latina Magazine, Crain’s, Smithsonian, and Hispanic Business Magazine and has been featured on the NewHour with Jim Lehrer and National Public Radio. 

Operation Pedro Pan 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 18, were sent to the U.S. without their parents. The children were placed in foster homes, 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. 

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!