Almost forty years ago, during the sweltering summer of 1980, Fidel Castro declared that any Cubans desiring to leave the island of Cuba could do so, as long as someone outside of Cuba would come to the island and claim them. Between April and September of 1980, 1,600 vessels, commissioned by previously exiled Cubans, crossed the Florida Straits to claim more than 125,000 Cubans. The boats returned to the United States overloaded with precious cargo: Cuban families exiled from their homeland, searching for freedom.

This is the story of one of those families. A story from the exiled south.

Mariel intro music: Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos - Aurora en Pekín

El Lector intro music: The Spam All Stars - Fiesta de los Feos