The Rumors

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A Florida National Guardsman stands guard in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami as firefighters battle a blaze in the area after rioting on May, 20, 1980. Kathy Willens/AP hide caption

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Kathy Willens/AP

A Florida National Guardsman stands guard in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami as firefighters battle a blaze in the area after rioting on May, 20, 1980.

Kathy Willens/AP

During our reporting, we heard one story over and over again: that Fidel Castro had emptied his prisons to fill the boatlift. It's a story that's been told so often and with such conviction that of course it must be true, right? But what if this was more theater than history? What was happening in 1980 in Miami and throughout the country that made this story so compelling? Why did it feel so true to so many people? In Episode 3, we go to Miami to find out.

Additional context:

• Read Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile by Michael J. Bustamante
• Read The Abandoned Ones: The Imprisonment and Uprising of the Mariel Boat People by Mark S. Hamm 
• Read A Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980 by Nicholas Griffin
• Read City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami by Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick
• Read Imagining Miami: Ethnic Politics in a Postmodern World by Sheila L. Croucher

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