RECOMMENDED SOURCES FOR READING AND RESEARCH :

OPERATION PEDRO PAN by Yvonne Conde (1999 - Routledge , NY )
      The only one to date (2009) written by a grown child of Operation Pedro Pan on the subject of our adventure. Hard-hitting and factual, detailed and with examples of human interest. We can find each other in its pages, chapter after chapter. [Book was translated into Spanish in late 2001, you may now present your parents and grandparents with your story. Don't wait for the movie!]

FLEEING CASTRO by Victor Andrés Triay (1998 - University Press of Florida)
      If one can hold it without spitting in its cover (and I have to assume the publisher may be to blame), the book is very well documented and extremely well written, though not as personally detailed as Ms. Conde's.

OPERACIÓN PEDRO PAN (a novel) by Josefina Leyva (1993 - Editorial Ponce de Leon )
      A very entertaining fiction-based-on-reality story by an accredited last-generation writer. This professor has also to her credit "Los Balseros de la Libertad" and "El Aullido de las Muchedumbres" and one of her books is apparently being prepared as a movie by Freedom Pictures Productions.

PRINCIPIO Y FIN DEL MITO FIDELISTA by José Álvarez (2008 - Tratford Publishing, Canada)
ÁLvarez, born in Antilla, Oriente in 1940, was a member of 26 de Julio and was directly involved in many of the early plots by Castro and his supporters to exploit the people's hatred of Batista. He saw how they built the different myths and utilized very subtle lies and manipulated the Press, including the International Press, (always willing to be manipulated and duped, as long as it sells papers and air time!) to turn a bloody Communist revolt and dictatorship into a seemingly patriotic struggle. Every detail is made clear by his indefatigable research and careful exposition, every question is answered and thoroughly explained. I consider it a complete encyclopedia of the Cuba that we saw being raped. This is definitely NOT "just one more book about El Penco". One needs no other books to be thoroughly informed and properly armed to answer any Liberal claim that attempts to lighten Castro's bloody regime and mitigate his systematic and heartless destruction of a country, a culture and a people.  

HAVANA USA by María Cristina García (1996 - University of Cal. Press )
     A history of Cuban migrations from 1959 to 1994. It has the added advantage of being an outstanding historical research book which debunks many of the myths created by Cubans for Cubans and does not pull any punches!

Monsignor Walsh was in the process of writing his own account of our odyssey but passed away (much too young!)  before he was able to do so. As homage for his life and dedication to children, which he never stopped helping!, this website is dedicated to his memory.

BOOKS WRITTEN BY GROWN PEDRO PAN CHILDREN ON VARIOUS OTHER SUBJECTS:

WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA by Carlos Eire. (2003)
   Carlos M. N. Eire, 1979 PhD from Yale University, is the Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies. He has "specialized in the social, intellectual, religious and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe...and the history of death." His other books include "From Madrid to Purgatory"(1995) and "Jews, Christians and Muslims: An introduction to Monotheistic Religions." (1997)
"Waiting for Snow in Havana" won the National Book Award for Non-fiction in 2003. Carlos can be found at www.yale.edu/history/faculty/eire

 
QUADRIVIUM and SAGA by Carlos Rubio Albet.
   Quadrivium won the Premio Internacional de Novela Nuevo León en 1989. Saga was a finalist in Letras de Oro.
   Carlos Rubio, a professor at Shepherd University,  released in March of 2009 his trilogy of satirical novels - about teenage boy and his complications with growing up - in one volume, AMERICAN TRIPTYCH, which unites THE NEOPHYTE with BULLWHIP (published in 2001) and CALIFORNIA FEVER (published in 2003). He also wrote the bilingual DEAD TIME / TIEMPO MUERTO, "a novel about love and loneliness",  which earned finalist status in both Letras de Oro in 1994 and in Pirate's Alley Faulkner Literary Society in 1995. His work has also appeared in several anthologies, including "20 Cuentistas Cubanos", "Cuban-American Writers", "Narrativa y Libertad" and others.
Two other yet unpublished books deal with various subjects; ORISHA with santería and HUBRIS is a collection of short stories. 
He has been working since 2006 on his 12th project, FORGOTTEN OBJECTS. When he is finished, he has promised his daughter to work on an autobiography "or at least something about his life as a boy in Cuba." [Tricia Lynn Strader: "Author writes for more than one audience" in The Journal, February 20, 2009]
He can be found at www.carlosrubioalbet.com


LA SABIDURÍA DE LOS NUESTROS - coleccionadas y editado por Yvonne Conde.
   An eclectic collection of historical Spanish Literature's best quotes and modern Spanish-speaking characters' silliest pronouncements. This is our legacy in the world; the evolution of one of the richest languages and the richest of cultures, cleverly evidenced by Ms. Conde in her choices. A welcome book in your library. 
  

BOXING FOR CUBA by Guillermo Vidal
Bill Vidal arrived in the US at the age of 10 with two brothers and ended up in an orphanage in Boulder, CO. Presently (2009) he serves as Vice-Mayor and Manager of Public Works in Denver. In this book Bill recounts his family's experiences in Cuba and in exile.

CROOKED and THE TRAIL TO GOLGOTHA  by Jack Delgado
Joaquín Delgado's book CROOKED is subtitled "A Tone Reverberating in the Spectrum of Discernment". He can be found at www.gate.net/~joachim/

[Manny Gutierrez - EDITOR]

This Page Last Updated on March 29, 2009