Consumer options for people were restricted. 'But that doesn't mean that there wasn't frustration,' he added.Įven with the government providing new opportunities and free and subsidized food and housing, many still weren't entirely satisfied. 'There's a fair amount of data to substantiate that.'

People of color, people from rural areas gained professional training and saw upward mobility,' Bustamante said. 'Cubans who had been educated under the socialist system in the 60s and through the 70s began to sort of see the fruits of their labor. Michael Bustamante is an associate professor of history and the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami and author of the book ' Cuban Memory Wars Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile.'īustamante said that throughout the 1970s and 80s, socialism worked for most Cubans. And it was able to reach some of those goals. The Cuban revolution promised people a better life: free health care, schools and subsidized housing for everyone. And 15,000 of these Cubans ended up in Wisconsin, including Pozo - who had been facing decades in prison. There was a growing population of Cubans who weren't happy with the state of things in their country, and it would lead to drastic attempts to get themselves and others out.įrom April through October 1980, 125,000 Cubans left their homeland for the U.S. So when Castro gave citizens an opportunity to leave, people did. It’s an island, and travel was a privilege reserved for the elite, like government officials, athletes and musicians.

every day.Īfter the revolution, it was hard for people to leave Cuba. In 1980, President Fidel Castro opened the country’s doors, allowing thousands of citizens to leave Cuba from the Port of Mariel for the U.S. Jacques Langevin/AP PhotoĪs he left that Camagüey prison cell and boarded a mysterious bus at age 22, change was brewing hundreds of miles to the west at the Port of Mariel, Cuba. Cuban President Fidel Castro has agreed to let the Cubans leave the Communist island to start a new life in the United States.

Cuban refugees wait aboard a boat at the port of Mariel, Cuba, bound for Key West, Fla., Saturday, April 23, 1980.

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