The Mirta Ojito papers contain a collection of clippings, press releases, and government documents relating to the Mariel boatlift, and photographs, clippings, and excerpts documenting Cuban history. Ojito used the files for writing the memoir of her exile in the United States, El Mañana (Finding Tomorrow), published in 2005.
The materials found in the collection create a context from which the social and economic cost of the Mariel boatlift, for both Cuba and the United States, can be understood. Various prominent (and at times notorious) figures within the Cuban exile movement are examined.
The Leopoldo Ochoa Papers include files, casework and handwritten depositions from Guantanamo Bay detainees in the 1990s as well as Mariel boat lift migrants detained in federal prisons. These documents were compiled as a result of Mr. Ochoa's work as a pro bono attorney.
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.
The Eneida Guernica Collection contains academic documents and data by educational psychologist Eneida Guernica.
The collection includes a statistical study on Cuban and Mariel children, a bilingual education study, a paper on the PRAM method for teaching languages, original research material, and pamphlets on PRAM.
The Alberto Muller Collection contains materials relating to the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Mariel Exodus collected by Cuban writer and journalist Alberto Muller.
Documentation in this collection contains materials related to the Mariel Boatlift, Alberto Muller and the return of Brigade 2506 in December 1962.
