White Lies: The Pen

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News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Documentary

4.8 • 11.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

On May 18, 1980, a man named Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez arrived in Key West from the port of Mariel. With no family waiting to sponsor him, he was sent by plane to a resettlement camp at an army base. There he was interviewed by the INS and, a few days later, he boarded another plane, this one bound for the federal prison in Atlanta. But wait - he'd committed no crime, so why was the US government detaining him? And how long could they hold him? In Episode 5, the story of Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez and the beginning of the indefinite detention of Mariel Cubans. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Previously on White Lies
0:04.2	We'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again
0:09.9	The Cubans review is not really having any rights
0:12.4	There's a racial element to this suspicion and stereotype
0:16.3	Absolutely, without question
0:17.8	Many of them were black young men unskilled
0:21.3	These were considered the most difficult people to find sponsors for
0:26.0	They were sent here with a label and you know what we did? We accepted the link
0:38.1	On Sunday May 18, 1980, less than two weeks after President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Cubans with an open heart and open arms
0:46.2	A man named Genoro Seroa Gonzalez arrived in Key West from the port of Mariel
0:51.8	By all accounts Seroa Gonzalez was a quiet and reserved man. He was 45 years old. He'd once studied medicine in Cuba
0:59.4	He was on the shorter side, thin, and he was afro-cuban with very dark skin
1:04.8	His hair was close cropped, slightly receding, and had a warm and broad smile
1:10.2	Seroa Gonzalez had the names of some relatives he believed lived in Florida
1:14.2	But he didn't know how to contact them
1:15.7	And so after a brief interview in Key West with no family members there waiting to pick him up
1:20.8	He boarded a government airplane with around 300 other Cuban refugees to make the flight all the way up to Fort Indy and Town Gap
1:27.6	in Pennsylvania
1:29.3	There, the government had set up a processing center, similar to the one at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas
1:34.4	Where the refugees could be connected with social services, could try and locate family members, or could wait for a sponsor
1:41.8	Just a few days after Seroa Gonzalez arrived in Fort Indy and Town Gap
1:45.8	He was ushered into an interview room with an immigration inspector
	...

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