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The "El Dorado" Packed with Cuban Refugees during the Mariel Boat Lift: Key West

Florida’s dream beckons people from outside the United States. As Cold War tensions closed diplomatic channels between Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the United States after 1959, many Cubans emigrated to South Florida. After the early waves of immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s created notable communities, subsequent waves of refugees arrived. One notable period of migration was the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, a mass exodus of more than 120,000 Cubans who sought asylum in the United States.