Maria Fernandez had been in a steady mental and physical decline for years and her family always believed the now-72-year-old suffered the most from a painful childhood experience.
Eight Fernandez brothers and sisters were part of the clandestine exodus from communist Cuba in 1960 that became known as Operation Pedro Pan. The Catholic Church organized an airlift of 14,000 unaccompanied children to Florida and then to other states, including New Jersey.
In Nov. 2023, several of the siblings sat down with the NBC New York I-Team in New Jersey — the same state where they all eventually were re-united with their parents decades earlier. They described the toll of separation and uncertainty, emotions they had never shared as a family.
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“Our mother always told us to look forward, not back,” Bea Hernandez said at the time.
The children, ages 4 to 16, were sent out of the country in separate groups so as not to arouse government suspicion.
They talked about their determination to find each other again, no matter the challenges. Maria was too mentally fragile at the time to participate in the interview, but when she saw her siblings share their stories of love and strength, she decided she wanted to let her voice be heard.
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Maria, originally placed in a reformatory on Staten Island with two of her brothers, said she was later abused in a foster home, an agonizing admission the siblings always suspected.
Maria said talking about her trauma helped heal the suffering she’d kept inside for 60 years and lift her burden.
“I know now I am not the only one who suffered,” she said.
“We have our sister back,” said youngest brother Juan, who was born in the United States. “We thought we’d lost her. Now she’s truly free.”
