Deconstructing Fort Chaffee’s Cuban Refugee History

In 1980, more than 125,000 Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's communist regime were boatlifted to America and processed at military compounds including Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. Among the population were gay Cubans and prisoners that Castro had purged from his prisons. The Cubans were widely portrayed by the press as criminal—a stigma that's persisted. But as Jacqueline Froelich reports, historians are working to clarify the record. Photo: "Task Force Commander, Colonel Don E. Karr with Cuban refugee family"--Courtesy Fort Chaffee Museum