Editing Operation Peter Pan (section)

=== End ===

The Cuban Children's Program remained a secret until February 1962, when ''[[The Plain Dealer]]'' introduced its readers to the masses of unaccompanied Cuban minors who made their way across the country for three years unnoticed. On March 9 of the same year, the ''[[Miami Herald]]''<nowiki/>'s [[Gene Miller]] also ran a story about the event, in which he coined the term Operation Pedro Pan.<ref name=Bradford2016>{{cite journal |last1=Bradford |first1=Anita Casavantes |title=Remembering Pedro Pan: Childhood and Collective Memory Making in Havana and Miami, 1960–2000 |journal=Cuban Studies |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=283–308 |id={{Project MUSE|613549}} {{ProQuest|1785500897}} |doi=10.1353/cub.2016.0011 |jstor=44111920 |s2cid=147381213 }}</ref>

The American portion of Operation Peter Pan ended when all air traffic between the United States and Cuba ceased in the aftermath of the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] of October 1962.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bolender |first=Keith |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p8v9 |title=Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba |date=2010 |publisher=Pluto Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt183p8v9 |jstor=j.ctt183p8v9 |isbn=978-0-7453-3040-2}}</ref> Cuban immigrants were instead re-routed to Spain and other countries following the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Cuban immigrants would have to travel via Spain or Mexico to reach the United States until 1965.

In December of 1965, the United States established a program of [[Freedom Flights]] (''los vuelos de la libertad'') to unite Cuban parents with their children. The Catholic Welfare Bureau reported that, once the Freedom Flights began, nearly 90% of the minors still in its care were reunited with their parents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.pedropan.org/history |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=www.pedropan.org}}</ref>

Remnants of the program would continue up until 1981. An estimate of 25,000 children were affected by the program.<ref name=":1" />