On the first day of 1959, and the first day of the Communist Cuban regime, Fidel Castro made a triumphant speech, promising “This time, fortunately for Cuba, the revolution will achieve its true objective.” But Cuba found it hard to achieve the goals of the revolution in the face of a U.S. boycott. For any kind of trade relations to America, Castro would have to drop his allegiance to the Soviet Union. With deteriorating economic conditions at home and little hope for improvement, many Cuban parents made an agonizing choice to put their kids on planes to America, in hopes they would be able to find a better life there.

On this day, November 6, in 1965, the U.S. and Cuba made formal what had already been going on for decades – a mass exodus of refugees from Cuba to the United States. The Freedom Flights program went on for six years and eventually brought 250,000 Cubans to the U.S.

Twice daily five times a week an empty passenger plane would depart Florida on its way to Cuba, returning with an average of 85 passengers, mostly families with young children. The Cuban refugee community grew several hundred thousand strong and prospered through hard work — something they considered impossible in Cuba.