Episcopal Press and News

Search the Episcopal Press and News

Year

All 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962

Enter search query

Church Airlifts Cubans to U. S.

Episcopal News Service. March 13, 1980 [80077]

Jay Mallin

MIAMI -- Thirty-four Cuban former political prisoners and their families reached asylum here in early March aboard a freedom flight sponsored by the Episcopal Church.

The 111 people -- ranging in age from one to 75 -- were the latest of 3,500 Cubans who have reached the United States since the "freedom flights" were first permitted. They are, however, the first to be sponsored by a Church group.

The normal funding channel -- a group known as the 'Committee of 75' -- found itself short of cash when word was received in early February that these prisoners would be allowed to leave. They turned to the Rev. Leopold Frade of Grace Church, New Orleans, and chairman of the Episcopal Church's National Commission on Hispanic Ministries. Father Frade transmitted the need from his diocese -- Louisiana -- to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief which made an emergency grant of $6,500 to underwrite the flight.

Among those on the plane was a man who was a leader in an abortive conspiracy against the regime of Fidel Castro in 1959 and was captured when he landed with an armed group from the Dominican Republic. He had spent twenty years and three months in prison. Also on board was a man who had been a high police official in Cuba during the forties.

There were a number of children on the plane. The youngest was one year old. Her father had been in prison for a year and eight months. Among the oldest of the refugees was the 75-year-old father-in-law of a released prisoner who had spent twenty years and one month in prison. The elderly man was ill and had to be hospitalized upon arrival in Miami.

Some of the refugees reported that once they had been cleared for travel to the United States (their names approved by both the U. S. and Cuban governments) their food ration cards had been taken from them and they had to depend on friends for subsistence. Others were ousted from their living quarters and had to make do as best they could.

The flight was chartered from Lanica, the Nicaraguan airline, which provided a 727. First officer on the plane, by coincidence, was Grover Rawlings, Jr., a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Homestead, Fla.

The aircraft left Miami at shortly after 9 in the morning, arriving at 9:47 a. m. at Jose Marti International Airport at Rancho Boyeros outside Havana. Welcome signs in several languages were displayed from the airport building, and on the field were Cubana de Aviacion and Aeroflot airplanes, as well as an Air Florida plane used for tourist travel.

As the small group from Miami debarked, Father Frade got down and kissed the Cuban soil. He had last been in Cuba in 1960, and is now an American citizen.

The group from Miami consisted of representatives from the dioceses of Southeast Florida and Louisiana, a photographer, two representatives of the Committee of 75, and the Rev. Roberto Perez, a Methodist clergyman.

The Miami group remained at the airport until the refugees could be boarded. The Episcopal Bishop of Cuba, the Rt. Rev. Jose A. Gonzalez, came to the airport but was not permitted to meet with the refugees.

The refugees, waving handkerchiefs in farewell to watching relatives on the second floor of the airport building, were bused to the plane. At 12:20 the craft took off. Aboard it Father Frade and Mr. Perez displayed American and Cuban flags and led in the singing of the Cuban national anthem. Then copies of the New Testament in Spanish were given to the refugees.

Upon arrival over Miami the refugees sang "Quiereme Mucho" (Love Me Much). At 1:10 the group was on American soil. In less than an hour 111 people had crossed to freedom.

At Miami airport the refugees were processed by U.S. Immigration and Customs and the Cuban Refugee Center, a federal agency. They were then taken by bus -- with a police escort at the end -- to Tropical Park for further processing.

There they were greeted by the Rev. Max Salvador, rector of Todos Los Santos, Miami, who represented Bishop Calvin O. Schofield, Jr.

As the men, women and children walked from the bus they could see relatives waving from the stands of the main building. Once the processing was completed, the refugees had highly emotional reunions with the waiting relatives. (Those refugees having no families in Miami are cared for by the Refugee Center.)