Resettlement re-cap: a periodic report from the Cuban Refugee Center, May 1964

              SPONSOR CUBAN REFUGEES
Fulfill Their Faith in Freedom
MAY  1964
RESETTLEMENT RE-CAP
FOR ADMINISTRATIVE USE
A  PERIODIC REPORT FROM THE CUBAN REFUGEE CENTER — FREEDOM TOWER, MIAMI 32, FLORIDA
U.   S.   DEPARTMENT  OF   HEALTH,   EDUCATION,   AND WELFARE      —      WELFARE ADMINISTRATION
U. S. CUBAN  REFUGEE PROGRAM
J. ARTHUR LAZELL, Director, Refugee Center
JOHN FREDERICK THOMAS, Director, Washington, D. C.
ERROL T. BALLANFONTE, Chief, Center Operations HARRY B. LYFORD, Editor
18 CUBANS PERISH IN TRAGEDY AT SEA;
LONE SURVIVOR DUE IN U.S. TO MEET SONS
THE MOTHER WAS RISKING HER. LIFE TO JOIN
The first documented group tragedy at sea,
involving Cubans fleeing oppressions of their
homeland, is now on record.  How many other
lives have been lost in the continuing small
boat escapes will never be known.
Vicente Mayans, aged 38, is the lone survivor of 18 Cubans who, like thousands of
others, struck out for freedom by open boat.
Narrowly escaping the fate of his wife and
16 others, he is being nursed back to health
in Kingston, Jamaica, by arrangements of
Catholic Relief Services.  This voluntary
agency, operating at the Cuban Refugee Center,
plans to bring him to Miami to join his sister
Francisca Mayans, who has been in touch with
him by phone.
Mr. Mayans reports that the escaping group
besides his wife, included five children and
five women.  For 18 days they drifted without
food and water after Cuban militiamen, overtaking the boat, reportedly killed the only
man on board experienced in navigation.  Mr.
Mayans buried 16 persons at sea and eventually was found unconscious after the craft was
beached at British-owned Grand Cayman Island.
He had clung to the body of his wife, and to a
TENSE MOMENTS AFTER ESCAPE BOATS BECAME SEPARATED
Some wrapped in blankets, all showing strain from a rough crossing by
small boat, Cuban refugees are pointing out to a U.S. Coast Guard officer in Miami where they believed another boatload of escapees was
adrift.  The five in the picture, including the woman expecting a baby,
were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter lowering a basket five times to
their 20-foot, wildly-tossing boat.  The then missing 19, including
eight children, finally reached Florida in a 27-foot boat under their
own power, after a futile hunt for them had been made by Coast Guard
cutter and plane.  The larger boat had been towing the smaller when
the line snapped and they became separated.  There were joyful scenes
when the two groups were reunited and processed at the Cuban Refugee
Center. (Photo from MIAMI NEWS, taken by Associated Press.)
slender thread of life himself.
The poignancy of the Mayans tragedy is heightened by the fact that the parents were coming
to be reunited with their sons, Vicente, 12, and Jorge, 11, who are with an aunt in New York.
(See back page for more small boat escape news)
HOPES FOR SPRING AND SUMMER RESETTLEMENTS EMPHASIZED IN PROGRAM DIRECTOR'S TALK;
SAYS RELOCATED CUBANS HAVE SET fA REMARKABLE RECORD1
"The urgent need now is to offer opportunities as quickly as possible to the families and single persons in Miami who
are dependent on us for the essentials of life."
Speaking to the Welfare Planning Council in Los Angeles in April, Cuban Refugee Program Director John F. Thomas made
that statement, adding:  "We have asked the voluntary agencies working with us on this program to make a special effort
to resettle as many persons as possible during the spring and summer months.  We have suggested special emphasis on single
persons now, and, during the summer, emphasis on families with school-age children, so that schooling will not be interrupted."
Mr. Thomas said the more than 76,000 resettled Cubans "have set a good record.  When we consider that they left their
country under traumatic circumstances and have moved across cultural boundaries to a land with a different language, with
a different climate in many parts of the country, with different customs -- it is really a remarkable record.  This record
is a tribute to the adaptiveness, the ability and the dedication of the refugees.  It is also a high tribute to the thousands of civic leaders, church members, and the public and voluntary agency staffs throughout the nation whose work and
devotion are the very foundation of the program."
Expressing appreciation for the "splendid role of California and Los Angeles in the refugee program," Mr. Thomas reminded his audience that "there are many more refugees in Miami who would welcome opportunities in California where they
feel that your inter-American heritage, your deep interest in the Latin-American countries, your international cultural
and commercial relationships, and your rapidly developing and expanding economy can provide opportunity for the present
and hope for the future...We seek your continued help in bringing to a successful conclusion the work that has been so
well begun in our first experience as a country of first asylum."