Fort Chaffee collection

Collection

Fort Chaffee collection

• undated, 1980-1995 (Creation)

3 Boxes, 1.25 LF

The Fort Chaffee Collection brings together two sources of materials relating to Cubans who arrived in the U.S. during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift and were detained at refugee camps at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

Barbara Lawson was director of the Cuban-Haitian Task Force from 1980 to 1981, and she donated reports, correspondence, memoranda, artwork by Cuban refugees, and recordings of news interviews she gave during her tenure with the Task Force. These materials document the operations and policies of Fort Chaffee from 1980 to 1981, discussing, among other topics, security issues in Fort Chaffee and difficulties in placing entrants who were considered not suitable for sponsorship. Lawson donated additional materials in 2018, including correspondence, postcards, newspaper clippings, greeting cards with artwork by Cubans held in Fort Chaffee, and press and Army Public Information photographs related to the Boatlift.

Gastón A. Fernández donated the research materials he collected and used for his book The Mariel Exodus Twenty Years Later: A Study on the Politics of Stigma and a Research Bibliography (Miami: Ediciones Universal, 2002).  These materials consists primarily of photocopies of reports and interagency correspondence of the various U.S. government agencies responsible for the processing and settlement of Mariel refugees and for administering Fort Chaffee and other camps.  The Fernández donation also includes photographs by the U.S. Army and snapshots of refugee activities at Fort Chaffee. The photocopied documents seem to have been obtained by Fernández primarily from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, although they are not clearly identified as such.

Issues of La Vida Nueva, a newsletter published by the Cubans detained at Fort Chaffee with the support of the 1st Psychological Operations Battalion of the U.S. Army, and Crossroads, a newspaper published for Fort Chaffee personnel were transferred to the CHC Exile Journals collection.

Original order has been maintained.

This collection is open for research.

Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner.  Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.

Most of the materials in this collection donated by Gastón A. Fernández are photocopies of originals owned by other repositories and as such are available for research purposes only. U.S. Army photographs cannot be published without the permission of a U.S. Army Information Officer.

Preferred citation: Fort Chaffee collection, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.

• English
• Spanish

Gift of Gastón A. Fernández (CHC06-026), 2006, and Barbara Lawson (CHC07-014, CHC18-111), 2006 and 2018.

Gift of Barbara Lawson: 11 issues of La Vida Nueva and brochure titled Refugiados Cubanos: Last Step to Freedom.

Gift of Gastón A. Fernández: 47 issues of La Vida Nueva; one issue of Campo Libertad Periodico ( Elgin AFB), 1980; and 11 issues of Crossroads.

Processed by María R. Estorino. Materials in this collection were previously listed under CHC5175 Cuban Refugee Prisoners at Fort Chaffee Collection and CHC5232 Fort Chaffee Records. These two collections were merged into CHC5175 Fort Chaffee collection on March 18, 2011. Finding aid subjects terms assigned by Ana D. Rodríguez, February 2013. Updated by Juan A. Villanueva, April 2016. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021. Scope and content updated by Amanda Moreno, January 2022.

• Mariel Boatlift, 1980
• Refugee camps -- Arkansas
• Refugees -- Cuba

• Fort Chaffee (Ark.)

• Sound recordings » Audiocassettes
• Memorandums
• Reports