Collections

On June 25, 2025, the VOC Museum is opened a temporary gallery on Operation Pedro Pan, the United States’ mission to save over 14,000 Cuban children from communism between 1960 and 1962. Several Pedro Pan children were involved in the design and execution of the temporary gallery. The exhibit was curated by Carmen Valdivia and made possible with the generous support of Maximo Alvarez.

Father Bryan O. Walsh, a young Irish-American Catholic priest and director of the Catholic Welfare Bureau in Miami, became aware of requests to provide temporary homes for Cuban refugee children in the U.S. In 1960, with the sudden influx of Cuban exiles, Walsh and other local leaders recognized the likelihood of an impending child welfare crisis. Meanwhile, James Baker, headmaster of Ruston Academy, an American school in Havana, was organizing a network of Cubans and expatriates to help get children out of Cuba. On December 12, 1960, Walsh and Baker met and launched the humanitarian program. Baker would get children out of Cuba and Walsh would provide shelter and care for those children with no relatives in the U.S.