Las Mariposas

Many thousands of them were sent  
by their families, which I always  
thought of as a migration:  
 
butterflies that didn't understand  
having to make the crossing alone.  
 
Las mariposas de Cuba were flown  
across the ocean to the mainland.  
"Por favor, no me hagas!"  
 
The children might never see  
their familias again.  
"¿Dónde están mamá y papá?"  
 
And when all of them had grown,  
many men with children of their own,  
even the most successful of them  
 
would sit and speak of that day  
when their homeland disappeared  
behind them over half a century ago.  
 
Each turning back into una mariposa  
sent on ahead.  And would weep,  
just as they had done long ago.  
 
 
 
Between 1960 and 1962, more than 14,000 Cuban children  
 were secretly air lifted over the Florida Straits to the  
United States, to escape Fidel Castro. Parents said goodbye  
to their children, not knowing if they would ever see them again.  
 
las mariposas = the butterflies  
Por favor, no me hagas! = Please, don't make me go!  
Dónde están mamá y papá? = Where is Mama and Papa?