Bringing Together Personal Stories
Ninety Miles and a Lifetime Away: Memories of Early Cuban Exiles shares the triumphs and heartbreaking moments experienced by some of the first Cubans to come to the United States after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. The book in 2023 received the Samuel Proctor Award for oral history from the Florida Historical Society.
What’s Inside The Book?
David Powell conducted extensive interviews with fifty-four persons and uses those interviews to tell the story of the refugees who left Cuba between 1959 and the 1962 Missile Crisis, as well as those who embarked on the Freedom Flights of the late 1960s and early 1970s. During these years more than 600,000 Cubans migrated to the US, some by way of other countries but most arriving in Miami with only a few clothes and pocket money. Most came without visas, but the government let them enter the country anyway.
They were ordinary people caught in a struggle between powerful historic forces, but they survived and created the modern Cuban American community. In their own words, exiles describe why they left the island, how they prepared for departure, what situations they faced when they arrived in the US, and how they integrated into American life. Powell shows how the US government created an assistance program for them unlike anything the nation had done before, transforming their lives and America as well.
With the Cold War as a backdrop, the book portrays America at its best—as the imperfect land of refuge and opportunity that it has always been. It shows how refugees can strengthen America if we let them. And it demonstrates that our government can manage a refugee crisis, effectively and humanely, if our leaders choose to do so. It’s an important story to keep in mind during a roiling national debate about immigrants and refugees.
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About The Author
A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Columbia Journalism School, David began his professional life as a reporter for the Associated Press in New York, Miami, and Tallahassee. After earning a law degree from Florida State University, he practiced law for thirty years. In his work and through civic organizations he met many Cuban Americans and was moved by the stories of their lives. He began recording interviews about their memories in 2016, first in Florida and then elsewhere. In 2021, the University of Miami acquired his interview recordings, transcripts, and workpapers for its Cuban Heritage Collection. Ninety Miles and a Lifetime Away: Memories of Early Cuban Exiles is his first book. In 2023, David’s book received the Samuel Proctor Award for oral history from the Florida Historical Society. David and his wife reside in Tallahassee, Florida.
