Exhibit to feature Cuban ‘balseros’ experience

Posted on Saturday, 08.16.14

Exhibit to feature Cuban 'balseros' experience
BY EMMA COURT
ECOURT@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Driven by desperation, riding in anything they could make seaworthy,
they came to South Florida — many to Miami — to start new lives.

A new initiative by HistoryMiami and the Smithsonian's National Museum
of American History is aiming to capture the experiences of both Cuban
balseros, or rafters, as well as those of Cuban exiles in general: How
they traveled here and what they found upon arrival.

In an event timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the 1994
exodus, the two institutions are soliciting contributions to the project
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at HistoryMiami in the Miami-Dade
Cultural Center.

Part open house, part space for donations, the organizers are
encouraging both physical donations — anything brought on the journey
from Cuba to the United States, along with photographs and documents
from life in America — as well as individual stories, which will be
preserved as oral histories that will be saved at the Smithsonian and
may be used in future exhibitions.

The two institutions' collaboration will produce an exhibit in honor of
the 20th anniversary of the balsero crisis, titled, Exiles in South
Florida: Collecting Cuban Migration History.

"The journeys of many Cubans to Miami are extraordinary migration
stories seldom told within a national context. They provide an avenue to
discuss Hispanic and Cuban culture and the migrant experience in the
United States," Steve Velasquez, associate curator at the Smithsonian
Institution, said in a statement. "This project allows for the museum to
work with Florida partners in documenting how this migration experience
has shaped the individual, the community, and the nation."

HistoryMiami will follow up the exhibit with a 3,000-square-foot
exhibitiion in summer 2015 called Operation Pedro Pan. A collaboration
with Operation Pedro Pan Group Inc., it will focus on the stories of
unaccompanied Cuban minors sent to the United States in the early 1960s.

If you go

Here are several community events tied to the 20th anniversary of the
1994 balsero exodus:

Exiles in South Florida: Collecting Cuban Migration History:
HistoryMiami and the Smithsonian Institution invite anyone who fled Cuba
to share their stories, photographs and other objects from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. Saturday at HistoryMiami, 101 W. Flagler St.

Revisiting the Balsero Crisis and Its Aftermath, Twenty Years After:
Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute will host a
symposium featuring scholars, artists and others at 2 p.m. Sept. 4 at
FIU's South campus, Graham Center 150, 11200 SW Eighth St.

Guantánamo: Kept At Bay exhibit opening, 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 10, the Frost
Art Museum at Florida International University, 10975 SW 17th St. The
exhibit will be on view through Oct. 19.

Guantánamo Public Memory Project: traveling exhibit opening, Sept. 22 at
the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences Gallery, 1210
Stanford Dr., Coral Gables. On view through Oct. 31.

Source: Exhibit to feature Cuban 'balseros' experience - Miami-Dade -
MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/16/4293680/historymiami-and-smithsonian-invite.html