The young Cuban assures that “making this film” about Operation Pedro Pan “is taking the broken family portrait and putting it back together.”
MIAMI, United States. – Cuban actor Héctor Medina, known for the film The geeksjoined the cast of Peter Panhistorical thriller by American director Richie Adams about the evacuation of more than 14,000 Cuban children to the United States in the early years of Castroism.
Principal filming has already begun in Mexico and has a cast headed by Néstor Carbonell, Paz Vega and Andy Garciaaccording to the specialized media ScreenDaily this Thursday.
The film’s story is set in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution and follows three characters: one socialite Cuban, an English teacher and an Irish Catholic priest living in Miami who organize a secret operation to remove thousands of minors from the country and help them escape indoctrination and start new lives in the United States.
The plot is inspired by Operation Pedro Pan, the program through which more than 14,000 Cuban children traveled without their parents to United States territory between 1960 and 1962, in a clandestine operation supported by the Catholic Church and the United States Government, according to the synopsis released by ScreenDaily and other specialized publications.
In addition to Medina, the new group of announced performers includes Yul Vázquez (The Lost Bus), Tony Plana (Ugly Betty), Carlos Gómez (from the next Archangel), Selenis Leyva (Creed III), Arian Cartaya (IT: Welcome to Derry) and Garret Dillahunt (Army of the Dead). These names join a cast already made up of Allen Leech, Danny Pino, Annabelle Wallis and Yara Martinez, along with the protagonists Néstor Carbonell, Paz Vega and Andy García, according to portals such as deadline.
The script of Peter Pan was written by Richie Adams and Bart Gavigan from a story by Cuban-American composer Carlos José Álvarez. Adams directs the film and also produces through his new company At Speed Pictures, along with Steve Shapiro, Álvarez himself and the producing couple Ken and Liz Whitney. Production in Mexico has had the city of Mérida, Yucatán, as one of its main locations.
«Making this film is taking the broken family portrait and putting it back together»
Although the production has not yet announced public details about the specific character he will play, Medina has explained in a post on your Instagram account why the story of Peter Pan He finds it especially sensitive. In that message, originally written in English and addressed to his followers, the actor recounted the testimony of two real protagonists of the exodus, Patricia and José Álvarez:
“When Patricia and José Álvarez told me their story, a few tears escaped their eyes. They were the tears of two children. That’s how delicate it is to tell the stories of Operation Pedro Pan. Making this film is taking the broken family portrait and putting it back together. Peter Pan “It speaks of hope,” he wrote.
The actor also connected the project with his own immigration experience. In the same publication he wrote: “When I emigrated to the United States, I thought I would never be able to practice my profession again. My first job as an actor here was thanks to Danny Pino and since then I haven’t stopped. Now I have come to this film in which I am working with him.”
Medina also stressed that, for him, national history is crossed by the same themes that the film addresses: “family, friendship and hope.”
Operation Pedro Pan
Operation Pedro Pan (Operation Peter Pan, in English) was a program that allowed the departure of more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors to the United States between 1960 and 1962. Various investigations and archives, such as those of the HistoryMiami Museum and the documentary collection of the Barry Universitydescribe the operation as the largest exodus of child refugees from the Western Hemisphere during the Cold War.
The Operation was a clandestine exodus of minors between the ages of six and 18, organized in coordination with the Catholic Welfare Bureau of Miami, directed by the Irish priest Bryan O. Walsh. The children traveled mainly on commercial flights from Havana to Miami and, upon arrival, they were welcomed by relatives, religious institutions, foster families or social programs in different states of the country.
The motivations and narratives around Operation Pedro Pan have been the subject of historiographical debate. Many parents acted out of fear that Fidel Castro’s government would take away their children’s parental rights and place them in indoctrination centers, a fear fueled by rumors and the political confrontation between Cuba and the United States.
At the same time, the exile organizations and numerous protagonists of the operation highlight the rescue and salvation component in the face of the advance of the communist model, as stated in the exhibition. Operation Pedro Pan: The Cuban Children’s Exodus, from the HistoryMiami Museum.
