Uprooted Podcast with hosts Omar Granados and Maureen McCollum wortfm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wortfm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Photos from the summer and fall of 1980, when thousands of Cuban refugees stayed at the Fort McCoy military base in Sparta, Wisconsin, after coming to the U.S. via the Mariel Boatlift.
The Cuban exiles who arrived in Wisconsin in 1980 as part of the Mariel Boatlift have become family to one another. They are Wisconsinites. But their hearts remain in Cuba, and they want to visit their homeland one more time if they can find a way.
Maureen McCollum, host and producer of Wisconsin Life, teamed up with University of Wisconsin-La Crosse professor Omar Granados to research for "WPR Reports: Uprooted."
Enrique Moré has roots in La Crosse. He's been a part of the city's music scene for decades, most notably playing with Mr. Blink. Wisconsin is his home. But it didn't feel much like home when he first got here, when he was one of a handful of Cubans to settle in La Crosse after arriving in 1980 as part of the Mariel Boatlift.