On May 7, 1980, Ojito, an 11th-grade student, was interrupted by the police while eating breakfast in her home in Havana, Cuba. The officers explained that there was a boat waiting at the port of Mariel and asked the family if they were ready and willing to “abandon” their country. Quietly, their mother said yes. Ojito had always known that her family would eventually leave Cuba. Fidel Castro’s rise to power and bait-and-switch transition from the democratic government that he’d promised to a socialist state had robbed her father of his career, and although her parents were not particularly political, they were not supporters of the Castro regime. The Cuban Missile Crisis prevented their first planned exodus, and the family was not allowed to leave during the Castro-sanctioned freedom flights, which began in 1965, because her father had not yet completed his military service.

Jimmy Carter’s presidency altered relations between the United States and Cuba: Carter was seen as a pro-human rights leader whom Castro could potentially trust. Castro began to allow exiles to return to Cuba, and a period of increased movement between the two countries began. More Cubans than ever sought to leave Cuba during these years, and in 1979, the storming of the Peruvian embassy by Cubans looking to emigrate resulted in Castro threatening to “flood” Florida with exiles.