Delia Reyes Oral History

Immediately following the international custody and immigration controversy with young Elian Gonzalez in 2000, Sixth Floor Museum leadership decided to develop a small-scale exhibit in the Museum's Visitor Center that would contextualize the current event and explore U.S. and Cuba relations going back to the late 1950s. Opened in October 2000, the exhibit was entitled "Unfinished Business: Kennedy and Cuba." As part of the research and community promotion for this exhibit, the Museum pinpointed several Cuban natives living in Dallas who were willing to share their memories of leaving Cuba at the start of the Castro regime. I have very fond memories of this project because it formed the basis of my initial Museum internship in fall 2000. This oral history with Delia Reyes was actually the second interview for which I served as videographer. Even though it was more than twenty years and some 1,500+ oral histories ago, I still have vivid recollections of this and other early interviews as I learned basic videography and interview skills while working "in the field." 

One month after this oral history was recorded, Ms. Reyes participated in a Museum panel discussion for the opening of the "Unfinished Business" exhibit on October 29, 2000. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator