0:00

Activists have been working to restrict access

0:02

to certain types of books in schools.

0:04

I'm Angela Mongos of NPR's Book of The Day

0:06

podcast, and we spent a week talking

0:08

to authors to band books to get their

0:10

take on being subject to a political

0:12

mailstrom. Listen to the book of the day podcast

0:14

from ManPR. Hey, it's Gregory

0:16

from Rough Translation. And if you came here

0:18

looking for the second part of our Ukraine

0:20

collaboration with Radio Lab, we are still

0:22

hard at work on that episode. It's

0:24

an episode that's gonna take us to Ukraine

0:27

on the ground We're gonna hear these really

0:29

surprising, very intimate conversations

0:31

with people about abortion and pregnancy

0:34

and just making choices in

0:36

the middle of war. So that'll

0:38

be in the feed next week. Meanwhile

0:40

though, I know you came here looking for a story

0:42

and I've not arrived empty handed.

0:44

I wanna share the first episode of the

0:46

new season of the podcast White Lies.

0:49

So the first season, if you haven't heard

0:51

it, it's descripting tale all

0:53

about the unsolved murder of a white pastor

0:56

in Selma, Alabama in nineteen sixty

0:58

five. But this season, Well,

1:00

it's an international story. It's the first

1:02

chapter in the story of the

1:05

modern US immigration system. But

1:07

it begins with this rescue mission across

1:09

the Florida Strait. That devolves into

1:11

a saga of indefinite detentions,

1:14

prison uprisings, and deportations.

1:17

If you like this episode, be sure to follow

1:19

NPR's podcast embedded to

1:21

get the whole season. Here are the White Lies

1:23

hosts, Chip Brantley and Andrew

1:25

Beck Grace.

1:27

Before we found the man in Vancouver, before

1:30

we sued the state department, before

1:33

we snuck into the graveyard of the federal penitentiary,

1:36

and before we received the brown paper package

1:38

that changed everything. All

1:40

we had were the photographs. We

1:43

just stumbled onto them. We were in the photo

1:45

archives of a newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama

1:48

looking through rows of filing cabinets,

1:50

each one containing small minimal envelopes

1:52

with negatives organized by a year. And

1:55

we were looking for something else entirely when we

1:57

found them. They're in envelopes dated

1:59

nineteen ninety one. One of a loeb

2:01

bread, Talladega Federal Prison

2:03

hostage situation. And another

2:06

Cubans Takeover Federal Prison. Most

2:09

of the images inside were unremarkable, cops

2:12

feeling about press conference with the

2:14

warden, news vans, all the road.

2:17

But then we found the photos of the middle

2:19

of the roof.

2:23

These were taken on a hilltop hundreds of yards

2:25

from the prison. They were taken with

2:27

a telephoto lens So the angle of view

2:29

is very narrow, the images are blurry, especially

2:31

around the edges. The show

2:33

group of men standing on top of the roof of

2:36

the prison. You can only make

2:38

up their faces, but they're holding bed sheets

2:40

with messages scrolled across them.

2:42

Please media, justice, freedom,

2:44

or death, each one. Another

2:47

so simply pray for us.

2:50

These images had been here in this filing

2:52

cabinet unseen for decades. And

2:55

at least for the people in Alabama, the story

2:57

they depicted had been mostly forgotten. When

2:59

we asked around, hey, do you know anything about

3:01

this prison riot in Talladega in the nineties

3:04

hardly anyone remembered it, despite the

3:06

fact that it had been by far the longest

3:08

prison takeover in the state's history. One

3:10

of the longest in the entire country. And

3:12

for those who did remember something about

3:14

it, the memory was always vague and

3:16

precise. Oh yeah, that thing

3:18

with the Cubans they'd say. It was

3:20

like this decades old story. It just

3:22

kind of faded away around here. Not

3:24

every moment in the past can be remembered,

3:27

there's a burden to remembering the convenience

3:29

to forgetting. Sometimes it's

3:31

just easier to look away. But

3:38

still, there was something about

3:40

these photographs of the men on the roof,

3:43

something about not being able to really make

3:45

out their faces. Something about Cuban

3:47

men in a prison in rural Alabama holding

3:50

a bedsheet that said pray for us.

3:52

Just the incongruity of it all.

3:55

But it didn't take much to realize that

3:57

those telephoto images had framed

3:59

out an unimaginable human drama,

4:01

a mass migration across the sea

4:03

backchannel cold war communicators, family

4:06

separation, and the creation of a secret

4:08

government list. And these

4:10

men had been sent to that prison in Talladega,

4:12

Alabama because their names were on

4:14

this list. And in nineteen ninety one,

4:16

when they took to the roof of the prison, they

4:18

were not being held as prisoners. None

4:21

were serving time for a sentence. They

4:23

were immigration

4:24

detainees, and some of them had been

4:26

indefinitely detained for over a decade.

4:29

The story we're gonna tell you, it's

4:31

about what happened when we set out to find the men

4:33

on the roof. And it starts not

4:35

at the

4:35

beginning, but here at the end.

4:37

At the Talladega Federal Correctional

4:39

Institutions. They were just

4:41

detained there waiting for either deportation

4:44

or trials or anything like

4:46

that. Most of them were awaiting

4:48

deportation. That's Cynthia Corzo.

4:51

In nineteen ninety one, she was a young reporter

4:53

from Miami's Spanish language daily newspaper

4:55

El Nueva Herald.

4:56

I would get phone calls from

4:59

prisoners on a regular basis. And

5:02

one in particular in Talladega,

5:04

his name is Jorge Luis. Marcus Molina.

5:07

He was one that used to call

5:09

regularly and he would always call me

5:11

directly. And one

5:13

day, phone call

5:15

phone rings, collect call from Jorge

5:18

Madquez, and, you know, casual conversation,

5:20

hey, how are you? I said, oh, how are things, this

5:22

and that. And all of a

5:23

sudden, he says, oh, we're rioting and we took

5:25

prisoners. We've got hostages. I

5:31

was like, what do you mean? We have prisoners. He

5:34

said, yeah. Yeah. We're all up in arms.

5:36

He said it in Spanish.

5:41

And what does that translate to exactly? Basically,

5:44

we've started a riot.

5:48

On the morning of August twenty first nineteen

5:50

ninety one, a handful of the men

5:52

detained at Talladega were in a secure

5:54

recreation yard. They overpowered

5:56

a guard, took his keys, and began

5:59

releasing other detainees in the unit. By

6:01

the time Jorge Marquez Medina called

6:03

Cynthia, all one hundred and nineteen

6:05

detainees had been released from their

6:07

cells.

6:13

After, like, an initial shock, I just started

6:15

asking him additional questions. And

6:19

hung up with him, told my editors, and

6:21

they got me and a photographer on a

6:23

flight out to Talladega to

6:25

cover the situation.

6:27

It's hard for me to put myself in their shoes, but I

6:29

wonder if you got a sense of what they hope to

6:31

get out

6:31

of all of us. I don't know

6:33

that they really sought that through, you

6:36

know, he just said, it was our only option.

6:38

We had to do

6:39

something, and this was the only

6:41

thing we could think of.

6:52

One to three, one to three, one to three I

6:55

got a message into the public opinion of

6:57

the unmet need.

6:59

Some of them have made the statement very

7:01

clearly that they are willing to die

7:03

rather than be returned to Cuba.

7:07

This man just read our names, all of

7:10

our names, and then he said, there's a

7:12

bold way for you to get everybody.

7:15

I think we should go back and remember

7:17

what happened in nineteen eighty. And in fact,

7:19

these people were dumped on the United

7:22

States. We'll

7:23

continue to provide open heart

7:25

and open arms to refugees seeking

7:27

freedom. This

7:29

isn't right. What our government is doing

7:31

in our name is not right.

7:37

You're not being held, who's your charge with the crime.

7:39

These people were being indefinitely detained.

7:41

We can't just keep these people in jail until

7:44

they die.

7:46

In many cases, we

7:49

never heard back from them.

7:51

He was like in the earth and swallowed

7:53

them. From

8:01

NPR, this is White Lies. I'm

8:03

Chip Brantley. And I'm Andrew Beck

8:05

Grace.

8:12

Demand on the roof were in Talladega because

8:14

her names run a list. The secret

8:16

list. A list made in secret,

8:18

kept in secret. The

8:21

list has never been released. So all that's

8:23

known about it for sure is that it was

8:25

announced on December fourteenth nineteen

8:27

eighty four, and that it contains the names

8:29

of two thousand seven hundred and forty

8:31

six Cubans who came to the US in

8:33

nineteen

8:33

eighty, but who the US government deemed

8:35

ineligible for legal admission to the country.

8:37

There was a list of specific individuals.

8:41

And as these individuals became

8:43

deportable, they

8:45

were moved to town, and they

8:48

had the whole list been

8:49

deported. There wouldn't have been any more

8:52

reason for my job. In

8:54

August of nineteen ninety one, Jerry

8:56

Walsh was a deportation officer for the

8:58

integration and naturalization service,

9:00

the INS. He worked inside

9:02

Teledica in the prison's alpha

9:04

unit. For those on the list who were about to

9:06

be deported back to

9:06

Cuba, the alpha unit was the

9:09

last stop. The

9:09

immigration service is strange

9:12

because you deal with

9:14

people as commodities.

9:16

If I arrested a guy for drugs, you take

9:19

the drugs, you send the guy to jail,

9:21

and you're done, you know, you

9:23

arrested an alien, you

9:26

might take whatever he's got

9:28

illegal on him, but then you have this person

9:30

you have to deal with. And

9:33

it's a lot harder

9:35

to take care of people in India's five

9:38

pounds a dope. Well, what led

9:40

up to it was that some of the Cubans found

9:42

out there was gonna be a big

9:44

playing mode of them going back to Cuba

9:46

the next

9:46

day. That's Linda Calhoun.

9:49

In nineteen ninety one, she was working as

9:51

a deportation docket clerk for

9:53

the INS. At the federal prison in Talladega.

9:55

Linda is originally from Brooklyn. Maybe you

9:57

can tell by her accent, and she and

9:59

her family had only lived in the south for a couple

10:01

of

10:01

years. It was like a different world.

10:04

The little 1II think

10:06

when we got there, it must have been like

10:08

four or five years old, and she picked

10:10

up this Alabama slang

10:13

that it was like a

10:15

knife, a sharp knife going in my

10:17

ears and twisting them.

10:19

Yes, terrible to

10:20

say, but I

10:22

hated for for Vicki to talk.

10:24

But despite the kids accents, the family

10:26

liked it in Alabama. They big

10:28

property with a bunch of animals. Her husband

10:30

worked at the nearby army

10:31

base. My first cousin at that time

10:34

was an MP at four McClellan.

10:36

He came home one night and in the driveway,

10:38

there was this little puppy

10:40

that just fitted in the palm of his

10:43

hand while my husband

10:45

loved animals. And he

10:47

put it in a box and and that

10:49

little puppy just

10:51

cried all night and we try

10:53

to feed it with a little doll

10:55

bottle I didn't get that much sleep

10:57

that night. Maybe I should have stayed

10:59

home that day. But

11:01

that day was when they took

11:03

a hostage. Well,

11:05

I remembered that I wasn't

11:07

supposed to be working there that

11:08

day. I had swapped out with a friend

11:11

of mine because

11:13

I had relatives in North

11:15

Carolina who

11:17

invited my family to come hang out on

11:19

the beach. So the day before I

11:21

was in the beach in North

11:21

Carolina, and that

11:24

morning I came on

11:26

duty,

11:26

and there you go. Mary

11:29

Hogan was a corrections officer at Talladega,

11:31

working for the Bureau of Prisons. The

11:33

morning of Wednesday, August twenty first,

11:35

started out like any other day, an alpha

11:37

unit. After breakfast, the detainees

11:39

were allowed time in a secure recreation

11:42

yard just outside the

11:42

unit. So they were in a cell

11:45

and they had to extend their hands out so

11:47

that they could be handcuffed while they were still

11:49

in the cell. Once they were

11:51

handcuffed, we popped open the cell

11:53

door and one

11:55

officer would escort the inmate

11:57

by holding the handcuffs and another officer would

11:59

be supervising

11:59

it. And we

12:02

escorted them out The yard was

12:04

divided into five chain link cages,

12:06

each twenty by thirty feet with a

12:08

chain link fence on all sides, even a

12:10

chain link ceiling. And each pin could

12:12

hold a few detainees. One guard

12:14

would patrol the wreck yard, lighting detainees

12:16

cigarettes, or bringing them water from a

12:18

cooler. There was a little enclosed

12:21

yard area for recreation

12:23

for the detainees, and

12:25

we were sending people out to

12:28

a recreation. I was talking to a guy in a

12:30

bottom cell, through the door to his

12:31

cell, and I heard a

12:34

commotion behind me.

12:36

Over the

12:43

years, we've been working on this story, we've

12:45

heard different versions about what happened

12:47

next. The team from the Bureau of

12:49

Prisons, who had later produced the after action

12:51

report on the incident, was unclear how it

12:53

all started. It say simply that they were

12:55

quote, unable to determine the exact

12:57

manner in which this occurred. From

12:59

our reporting, we know that it started with three

13:01

detainees in one of the recreation cages.

13:03

One story involves a disguise. Another

13:06

features a piece of stolen jewelry and yet

13:08

another an igloo cooler in a distracted

13:11

guard. But the most plausible

13:13

version seems to be that the detainees

13:15

threw a hand ball under the bottom of the fence.

13:17

And when the guard went to retrieve the ball,

13:19

he was enough for one detainee to grab

13:21

his arm and pull him hard against the

13:23

fence. Another detainee whipped out a

13:25

screw they'd taken from a creative instant

13:27

match potatoes and held it against the guards'

13:29

neck. The third DTE grabbed

13:31

the guards' keys, and in a matter of

13:33

minutes, they're trying to get back into the

13:35

unit.

13:35

I'm sitting in my office

13:38

doing paperwork. I think the

13:41

Cubans were supposed to fly out the next

13:42

day. And

13:45

I heard a commotion

13:46

One of the BOP yells

13:49

out. Cubans took over the wreck

13:51

yard. What the hell's going

13:52

on? I says, what do we do?

13:55

I looked at my office door and a

13:57

BOP guard was leaning on

13:59

the entry door looking

14:01

around for help, you know. I went

14:03

out to help him hold the door.

14:05

They finally pushed him

14:08

through the door and

14:10

retreated to my

14:11

office. I think I had

14:13

already called it in. You know,

14:15

ten one, I think, is a general

14:18

code for bad things happening,

14:20

but I think III think I

14:22

specifically said they're

14:24

taking place. I

14:26

started to

14:28

turned to run and and

14:30

the guy stopped and came walking

14:32

towards me.

14:33

And he

14:34

said, don't do it. So I

14:36

give up That's what our training was.

14:38

I said,

14:39

okay, from that run,

14:42

getting

14:42

my radio. I was with the

14:45

language specialist and we

14:47

heard all the yelling and the running

14:49

around and everything. So, you

14:51

know, my legs were

14:53

like this. Moving so fast. I

14:55

tried to hold on to them, but my hands were

14:58

going like that till he says, just take it

15:00

easy. Don't worry. So then

15:02

the door swung open

15:04

and it was the Cubans. They

15:06

opened the door, don't hurt Miss

15:08

Linda. So they

15:10

told him. No. We won't hurt her. I mean,

15:12

it it surprised me how fast

15:14

they move and how they were

15:17

organized. Do you ever

15:19

watch any of the Check Norris

15:21

movies, Delta

15:23

Force? It means quite quick. 123I

15:25

mean, you know, that every one of them knew what

15:28

exactly they had to do.

15:35

Eventually, the, you know, the door between

15:38

my office and the other

15:40

side were open and we were

15:42

vastly

15:42

outnumbered. They

15:44

came into the office. Okay? And they

15:47

started going for telephones. It's at

15:49

this point. Just minutes after they've taken

15:51

over alpha unit, that Jorge Marquez

15:53

Medina called the reporter at El Nueva

15:55

Herald, Cynthia Coorso. And all of

15:57

a sudden, he says, oh, we're rioting and we

15:59

took prisoners. We've got hostages.

16:01

After Qorvo hung up with Mark as Modena,

16:04

her first call was to her photographer, C.

16:06

M. Gurero. The

16:07

other thing I knew about Tallo Bago was that there

16:09

was a big giant erased track there. You

16:11

know, Tallo Bago

16:12

Speedway. By the time Corzo and

16:15

Guehro arrived at the prison, all one

16:17

hundred and nineteen Cuban detainees and

16:19

Alpha unit had been released from their

16:21

cells, and they were holding ten hostages.

16:23

Seven guards from the Bureau of Prisons and three

16:25

INS employees. Media outlets

16:27

from across the country were descending

16:29

on Talladega as was law enforcement

16:31

from across the region. I

16:34

never felt so

16:36

much pressure. On a photo

16:38

assignment ever, it it

16:40

was, like, one big giant SWAT

16:42

unit was there

16:44

surrounding this cell

16:45

compound. A lot of FBI

16:48

that you can cut through the knife,

16:50

the detention was

16:51

so I

16:51

don't know what it was. It

16:54

was how quiet everybody

16:56

was.

17:01

Cuban inmates took over part of a

17:03

federal prison in Talladega,

17:05

Alabama today. At least ten people are

17:07

believed to be held

17:08

hostage, including guards in immigration and

17:11

not And what does your

17:11

training tell you to do at this point once you've

17:14

been locked in this room? Well,

17:16

generally speaking, I mean, you're still

17:18

working. You can oh, you're still you're

17:20

still on duty, but you're not in charge anymore. So

17:22

your job then is to,

17:25

you know, keep yourself safe, keep

17:27

everybody else

17:28

safe, What

17:30

point did you get a sense of how

17:32

the Cubans were gonna treat you all?

17:34

No.

17:37

We had no idea. I mean,

17:39

the first part of

17:41

any kind of disturbance

17:45

like that is incredibly is

17:47

usually incredibly violent. This was

17:49

not thank

17:50

God, but it

17:51

was could have been at any second. I mean,

17:53

so, you know, you had that kind of in the back of

17:55

your head that bad things could happen any

17:57

second. And then they

18:00

didn't prison riots are usually unwieldy,

18:03

unpredictable, and often very,

18:05

very violent. The New Mexico

18:07

State prison riot of nineteen eighty one of most

18:09

notorious in US history began when a

18:11

group of inmates overpowered four guards.

18:13

The guards were beaten, stripped,

18:15

bound, and blindfolded. The inmates then went

18:17

searching for other guards, dragging one of them naked

18:20

and blindfolded down a flight of concrete

18:22

stairs by a belt wrapped around

18:24

his neck. The riot ended with

18:26

thirty three deaths and over two hundred

18:28

injuries, and what researchers would later call an

18:30

orgy of violence. The

18:32

Talladega takeover began with

18:34

violence too. AGAR was hit over the head with

18:36

a mop handle right at the

18:38

beginning. But the detainees released him for medical

18:40

treatment within hours. And according to the

18:42

after action report, he was

18:44

only, quote, slightly injured.

18:46

So as the first day of the takeover came

18:48

to a close, the detainees moved the

18:50

ten hostages into a hearing room. And they

18:52

brought each one a thin mattress. Then they made their

18:54

way to the property room and found their street

18:56

clothes. So they took off

18:59

their prison uniform and they

19:01

put on their regular clothes,

19:03

you know, clothes from

19:05

that period of time back from the

19:07

nineteen eighties or whenever

19:10

things from that period of time, and

19:12

they were happy to have them. You know, they

19:14

felt more comfortable in

19:17

eddies. Linda Calhoun had worked at Talladega

19:19

for several years, and she'd gotten to know

19:21

many of the detainees. She shared with

19:23

the art supplies when she

19:25

could. And they would give her homemade mother's day cards and valentons.

19:27

They called her miss Linda. The

19:29

ones that spoke English days to talk

19:31

to me, they used to draw draw

19:34

pictures for me. You know, they

19:36

were respectful. They took care of

19:38

us when we were there. You

19:41

know, they could have just said, okay, you're gonna

19:43

go to the restroom, go, and then somebody could

19:45

have come into the restroom with us.

19:47

But they they always stood guard

19:49

when we went up to the shower room. They

19:52

stood guard there with their handmade

19:54

weapons that they made. They

19:56

didn't let anybody come by there, and they didn't

19:58

peak or nothing. So, you know, it

20:00

was like, they took care of us like

20:02

they would, let's say, It's

20:05

gonna sound dumb like their sisters or

20:07

their

20:07

mothers. Okay? Did

20:09

you remember much about Jorge?

20:13

But Marquez. I know he

20:16

told the other the other Cubans not

20:18

to mess with me and

20:20

not to hurt me. Once

20:22

I had sort of a little pimple and it

20:24

started bleeding right away and he

20:26

wanted to know who who hit

20:27

me. Who did that to you? Nobody

20:30

did it to me. I just had a little pimple and

20:32

it started bleeding. Oh, okay.

20:35

So he was ready to go and,

20:37

you know, talk to somebody.

20:39

He sort of maybe was sort

20:41

of I don't know if I should say

20:43

this or

20:44

not. Sort of my guardian angel

20:46

watching over me. You know?

20:57

See, I I see a hostage negotiator

21:00

is a fisherman. And a good

21:02

fisherman just doesn't take a hook

21:04

and a worm. You got a tackle

21:06

box and you've got multiple lures

21:09

in there to use in different

21:10

situations. Clint Van Zant

21:13

was a hostage negotiator from

21:15

the FBI. He arrived at the prison

21:17

soon after the

21:17

takeover. You're a you're a negotiator.

21:20

You're a facilitator. You're a

21:22

middle man. Your used car

21:24

salesman. Vance Vance sent a message to the

21:27

Cubans. To try and end the uprising, he

21:29

wanted to understand their demands. In

21:31

response, Jorge Marquez Medina demanded to speak to a member of

21:33

the press, and he chose Cynthia

21:36

Corzo, a Valinuevo

21:36

Harold. We were just all

21:39

milling about and

21:41

mask would still call me. They

21:43

were trying to get their story told.

21:46

And they said they wanted to speak to the media, and if

21:48

they were speak to the media they wanted to speak

21:50

to

21:50

me. The

21:51

detainees needed to take a hostage with them to

21:53

talk to the FBI, so they picked

21:56

Linda Calhoun. So I went in and they

21:58

told me right away, don't worry, we're not

22:00

gonna hurt you. I said, okay.

22:02

Now you could handcuff saw me, but the

22:05

handcuffs was so whoosh. I

22:07

took off the handcuffs, I says

22:09

here. And they looked at me and I

22:11

says, you see that big fence?

22:13

So do you think I can climb that big

22:15

fence? I says there's no way. So

22:17

we will laugh about it, so they let

22:19

me go out there. We talked to

22:21

the

22:21

FBI, Palle data was

22:24

surrounded by hills. So I

22:26

am up this hill. Is

22:28

that a good vantage

22:29

point? The El Nuevo Herald photographer, Si M Guérero,

22:31

got the call from reporter Cynthia Corzo,

22:33

that they were going in to talk

22:35

to the

22:35

detainees. I just

22:37

gather my ear and I sprint

22:40

down going downhill. It

22:42

seemed like a

22:44

mile. And, of course, everybody's looking

22:46

at me, say, where's Guehrer going?

22:48

Oh, Guehrer's onto something? What's

22:50

happening to

22:50

Guehrer? Why is he running so fast? And

22:53

then all of a sudden, next think I know we're in the

22:55

compound, and that's where

22:57

everything was so

22:58

the

22:58

high tension man. We were right at least,

23:00

like, ten feet in front of them.

23:02

Sitting down, talking to

23:04

him, and I'm shooting away. It was

23:07

like anything could happen, and

23:08

we'd be in the middle of it. I

23:10

kind of just remembered a million

23:12

things going on at once, like, there

23:14

were things happening in every

23:15

direction. And you kinda didn't

23:18

know where to look. Okay?

23:19

You know,

23:19

let me start taking notes, but where do I

23:22

look first? I see in Guéro shot

23:24

photos and Cynthia Corzo took notes

23:26

and spoke to the detainees, the negotiator

23:28

from the FBI. Clint Van Zan grew

23:30

increasingly concerned that the detainees

23:32

didn't want to negotiate an end of

23:34

standoff. They wanted media to

23:36

instead. The lead

23:36

hostage taker was demanding

23:39

that the CNN come with

23:41

a live camera. And,

23:43

well, I mean, that wasn't gonna happen. And

23:45

he was yelling louder and

23:47

louder. And I told the

23:49

female reporter and this camera person I

23:50

said, turn around and walk away. And

23:53

at that juncture, the guy says, look, I wanna show you

23:55

the hostage. And I remember

23:58

telling you if you I know. The the guy

24:00

show the hostage.

24:02

Stop this now. They're gonna bring the hospice to the

24:04

dorm. I said, both of you

24:06

with me turn around

24:10

walk away and walk back

24:12

into the command

24:12

post. Mhmm. There's negotiators here at the

24:15

tip of the spear. You're out

24:17

there as far as you can be.

24:18

And if things go

24:20

right, that's good. And if you're

24:22

wrong, people die. It's

24:32

Toldig,

24:32

Alabama, it's day six, and

24:35

we're here hoping that

24:37

this siege will end

24:38

shortly. Six days after the takeover

24:41

started, an INS Staffer showed up with

24:43

a VHS camera document

24:45

the crisis for the agency's internal use.

24:47

There are wide shaky shots at the

24:49

outside of the prison with a line of TV news

24:51

trucks with satellites on

24:53

top. A

24:53

helicopter passes overhead, law

24:56

enforcement officers and right gear, lounge, or

24:58

beneath an oak tree, and then the

25:00

camera moves to a room adjacent to

25:02

Alpha

25:02

unit. And shooting through a window

25:04

captures the unit's roof.

25:12

The Cubans have gained access to the roof of Alpha unit,

25:14

and soon dozens of the detainees

25:16

are there. Some of them begin to

25:18

unfurl a banner.

25:20

But now you can read this one. Can

25:21

you read it for me? I can't make it

25:24

on me. Camera. Yeah. I could Can someone read

25:26

it for me? No. I I read

25:27

it.

25:28

We office. Can you say this new one

25:30

on me? You might be able to

25:31

read this. Pressure what?

25:34

Just justice,

25:37

freedom, or death.

25:39

They unfurl another banner. It

25:42

says simply pray for us.

25:44

As the takeover enters the second week,

25:46

the feds are running on of patients and the Cubans are increasingly

25:49

desperate. Their primary demand that the

25:51

deportation flights stop is falling

25:53

on deaf

25:53

ears, and their only bargaining chip

25:56

is a continued safety of the hostages.

25:58

Our job was to try

26:00

and make these guys like us enough to where

26:02

they didn't wanna kill

26:04

us.

26:04

one of the guys came in with

26:07

a with a pillowcase

26:09

and said, need

26:11

an identification card from everybody.

26:14

To all two relationships into the billet

26:17

case. And he said,

26:18

okay, we're gonna pick a name out for the

26:20

first guy we're gonna kill.

26:22

I mean, we were all bright people, and I think

26:24

we all knew that it was very,

26:26

very, very possible and

26:28

and kind of likely

26:30

that we might not make it out in one piece.

26:32

You

26:32

know, I wasn't buying the whole butcher thing

26:35

in a in a

26:37

pillowcase bit I thought

26:39

that was more just

26:39

showmanship, but didn't matter

26:42

because

26:42

if they

26:43

were gonna do it, they were gonna

26:45

do it. So I didn't know if

26:48

we were gonna be rescued or

26:50

not. And I wrote my kids a

26:52

little node each telling them that

26:54

I love them, the matter wide,

26:56

and, you know, to pray for

26:58

us and not to

27:00

be angry with anybody

27:03

that things happen

27:05

and that I

27:07

loved them and to take care of each

27:09

other and their dad and

27:11

a grandma and

27:12

grandpa. detainees agreed to have

27:14

the hostages examined by medical staff in

27:16

exchange for more food rations. During

27:18

this

27:18

exchange, the hostages were able to

27:21

communicate their fears things might soon turn

27:23

violent. And that was all the

27:25

FBI needed to finally move

27:27

in.

27:29

It was my habit to

27:33

sleep with my feet in

27:35

front of the door. So

27:37

if anybody decided to come in, they'd have

27:39

to wake me up.

27:41

And I heard

27:44

a a flu.

27:46

And I stood out and went to the door. Of

27:48

course, I thought it was a flash bang.

27:50

What had happened on the on

27:52

the door furthest from

27:54

us, they charge that was placed on the door

27:57

slipped off the door. When the

27:59

assault went down at Talladega, the

28:01

hostage rescue team put explosive

28:03

charge on one of the doors to get in.

28:05

And initially, the charge did

28:07

work. And another negotiator standing

28:09

next to me

28:10

said, oh my god, everybody's gonna die.

28:12

And

28:12

I I didn't really need to hear that at

28:14

that point because I

28:16

had invested every ounce

28:19

of emotion I

28:20

had. And then they blew

28:23

the door off and went in. I

28:25

said, alright. We need to put those

28:27

mattresses in this hole here. So

28:29

we started showing mattresses in about that time the other door

28:32

went

28:32

off. And

28:33

you could hear chunks of

28:35

concrete ricochet and off the walls

28:38

blew the light fixtures out of the

28:40

ceiling. It

28:41

was early early in the morning because I remember

28:43

I didn't have shoes on, but

28:46

it felt like the ceiling

28:49

sort of jumped up

28:51

and came down because the

28:53

fluorescent light just missed

28:55

my head. It was all dark. So you

28:57

couldn't see where you were walking. I didn't

28:59

have shoes on. I know I stepped on

29:01

some big pieces of

29:03

rock. Because I got healed spurs

29:05

due to that. So we all got up

29:07

and we were barricading the doors. And,

29:09

you

29:09

know, all I need is a few seconds

29:12

these guys are these guys are amazing. And all

29:14

they needed was was that little bit of time. I

29:16

think it was about a minute and a half

29:19

where they made contact with us. And then I think it was

29:21

at at three

29:22

minutes. I was walking through the door. I

29:24

think I was first one out.

29:29

The

29:29

hostage standoff at the Talladega prison in

29:31

Alabama ended just before dawn today.

29:34

They had told us

29:34

out we were all in a group outside

29:38

the unit And I

29:40

asked the rest of the group. Is it okay if I

29:43

have a cigarette now? Because I had to vote on

29:45

whether I could have a cigarette because I

29:47

was that

29:47

annoying. And

29:47

they said, yes, I could, and I laid it up.

29:50

And I think I took about two

29:52

drags and a very nice man from

29:54

the

29:54

FBI. Tap me on

29:56

the shoulder and ask me very politely to put that

29:58

out because I was standing in the middle of their

30:00

field

30:00

armory. And I

30:03

can

30:03

remember very clearly

30:05

the first breath of fresh

30:08

air. I got it must have been four or

30:10

five o'clock in the morning. You

30:12

know, beautiful Alabama morning.

30:14

You breathe in that

30:16

that fresh air and we're just

30:18

greatest

30:19

error I'd ever tasted in

30:22

my life.

30:37

The VHS tape filmed by the INS picks

30:39

back up after the breach of the wall.

30:41

It's dark before dawn. Generators

30:43

run-in the background They're shots of

30:46

INS staffers and then the camera pans across

30:48

the lawn of the prison. Rose and

30:50

Rose of the Cuban men were lying face down on

30:52

the ground not. Their hands sipped behind

30:54

their backs, their feet shackled.

30:56

Standing over them are SWAT team members

30:58

and FBI agents in full rioting holding

31:00

the times. One of the men on the ground has

31:03

heard screaming. Then

31:08

there's a shot

31:13

a little later. The sun has

31:15

come up. The men are being walked one

31:17

by one across the yard to be strip

31:19

searched. There seemed to be more SWAT and

31:21

FBI members than detainees at

31:23

this point. The camera pans across the

31:25

yard where the men were shackled, and now

31:27

it's strewn with clothing and shoes. The

31:29

relics of the personal effects and

31:31

street clothes They had rescued from the prison's property room during

31:33

the take

31:33

home. Looks like a

31:35

blue light special. Hey, Mark. Doesn't it? The

31:37

lectern is pulled in front

31:40

of cameras with the prison in the background. And the acting

31:42

attorney general William

31:43

Barr, yes, that bill Barr,

31:46

steps out to address the crowd. I

31:48

do.

31:49

Extend you my heartfelt appreciation,

31:54

bravery,

31:54

professionalism, the

31:57

occasion.

31:59

Thanks. The

32:03

next day, the deportations resume.

32:05

Jorge Marquez Medina and the other leaders of the uprising

32:07

are on the first flights out.

32:09

The final shots from the tape are

32:11

INS staff milling about in the front of

32:14

the prison posing for

32:15

photographs. It has this weird end of summer

32:18

camp five to it. Hey, Steve. What's

32:20

coming in the future?

32:20

Alright. Hold

32:21

on. Atay,

32:22

this is a great operation with people. Good job, guys. Yeah. you

32:25

very much. Well, no. It's thirtieth nineteen

32:27

ninety one. Don't help me.

32:41

Finding

32:43

those photos

32:46

of the men on the roof is what started

32:48

with all of this. But it wasn't long before we came to

32:50

understand just how vast and complex the

32:52

story was. These men had all

32:55

come to this country in nineteen eighty.

32:57

Part of the When in a matter of months, one

32:59

hundred and twenty five thousand Cuban refugees

33:01

had come to South Florida on overcrowded

33:04

shrimp boats and rusty freighters and

33:06

virtually anything that would float. They'd

33:08

worm their way through the perplexity of the immigration

33:10

system until the US government decided and

33:12

wanted to return some of them to Cuba.

33:15

But it wasn't that This was a cold war. And

33:17

so there were backchannel communicators

33:19

over years about the creation of

33:21

a list, the secret list.

33:24

And while this list was being negotiated, thousands

33:26

of Morio Cubans languished in federal prisons

33:28

without due process, without any constitutional

33:31

rights. And in nineteen ninety one,

33:33

when these men seized the prison and took to the

33:35

roof, again, they were not being held as

33:37

prisoners, but as immigration detainees.

33:39

And some of them had been indefinitely detained

33:42

for more than a decade.

33:43

But it

33:43

wasn't just what had happened to them

33:46

as our angle of view widened as we went

33:48

through rhemes and rhemes of their legal

33:50

filings, picking apart the memos of

33:52

various presidential administrations. Reporting

33:54

from Havana to Vancouver, we

33:56

came across all kinds of stories about

33:58

what sort of people they were. In one version,

34:00

they were dangerous criminals, the worst of

34:02

the worst. In another, they were

34:05

refugees seeking freedom. One

34:07

person would tell us injustice after injustice had

34:09

befallen them while someone else would say.

34:11

They got exactly what was

34:13

coming to them. But there was one thing that

34:15

pretty much everyone agreed on. Those men on the roof of

34:17

the prison in Talladega, Alabama in

34:20

nineteen ninety one, they

34:22

were gone. Forgotten.

34:24

They'd been deported or they'd disappeared.

34:26

You couldn't trace them. Early on,

34:28

someone told us it was as if the

34:31

earth had swallowed them. So

34:33

we knew it would be difficult to find the

34:35

men on the roof. But what we could not

34:37

have known when all this started was that

34:40

in trying to track down what happened

34:42

to them, we'd actually wind up finding a bigger story, a

34:44

story about us, about our own

34:46

country, about our

34:47

ideals, and our history,

34:49

and our laws. Sunday, October

34:52

third, Lennon and I

34:54

had late breakfast. Then got ready to

34:56

go to the National City Christian

34:58

Church. This

34:58

is from Lady Bird Johnson's audio diary. It's nineteen

35:01

sixty five. And on this Sunday, she

35:03

was traveling with president Johnson and

35:05

some friends from

35:06

Texas, to a ceremony

35:08

in New York City. Going up for

35:09

one of the most dramatic hours of

35:12

this year's congressional session,

35:14

signing of the immigration bill,

35:17

took place where else, but in the shadow of the statue

35:19

of liberty. And if anybody

35:21

hollows its

35:23

corny, make the most

35:26

of it. On the heels

35:28

of two of the most

35:30

consequential pieces of legislation in

35:33

the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Act

35:35

of nineteen sixty four and the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five.

35:38

President Johnson was poised to sign the

35:40

most sweeping and significant immigration

35:42

overhaul in

35:44

the nation's history. Simply put, the bill would

35:46

redefine who could become an

35:48

American. And in the decades, it would follow an

35:50

unprecedented migration

35:52

for Asia,

35:53

Africa, and Latin America would radically

35:56

reshape the demographics of this

35:57

country. Nearly two hundred

36:00

years after our founding exactly one hundred years after a civil war,

36:02

Gilead Taurus apart. This bill

36:04

liberated our immigration policy from an

36:06

explicitly racist

36:08

quota system. It

36:10

has been unAmerican in the high sense because

36:13

it has been

36:16

untrue. To the faith

36:18

that brought thousands to these shores

36:20

even before we were

36:23

a country. Today,

36:26

with my signature.

36:28

This system is abolished.

36:32

We can now

36:34

believe that it will never again shatter the gate

36:36

to the American nation

36:38

with

36:39

the twin barriers our

36:42

prejudice and

36:44

privilege.

36:49

And his eyes turned from

36:51

Linden's space to the flag to the

36:53

To the great statue itself was caught

36:56

up in the magnificent drama of

36:58

the moment. It was good history and

37:00

good theater. Good

37:07

history

37:07

and good theater. After confessed,

37:10

we're a little obsessed with this idea. Because

37:12

when you look back at the past, it's

37:14

this constant battle between what

37:16

really happened and how we think

37:18

about what happened, the story we tell about

37:20

what

37:20

happened, the history on the one

37:22

hand and the theater on the other,

37:24

It's very theatrical to say that we're a nation of immigrants that what is written

37:27

on the base of the statue of liberty

37:29

right where president Johnson is

37:31

standing is true. That we're

37:33

here to welcome the refuse from your shore.

37:36

You're tired and huddled masses yearning to

37:38

breathe free. But

37:40

the history it can get the

37:42

way of

37:42

that theater. The

37:43

first immigration law passed in the United

37:46

States was the naturalization act of

37:48

seventeen ninety. It established

37:50

that the path to citizenship was reserved

37:52

for free white persons of good

37:54

character. In

37:55

this policy, it excluding non whites would be upheld again.

37:58

The Indian removal act

37:59

of eighteen thirty forced indigenous people from

38:01

their land and denied

38:04

them citizenship. The dred Scott

38:06

decision of eighteen fifty seven held that

38:08

people of African descent even those

38:10

freed from slavery could not become

38:12

US citizens. The Chinese

38:14

exclusion act of eighteen eighty

38:16

two banned migration from China and

38:18

refused citizenship to Chinese people

38:20

already here. And finally, the

38:22

Immigration Act of nineteen twenty four

38:24

virtually eliminated immigration from

38:26

non white countries. The net

38:28

result of all this wasn't subtle It

38:30

was simple to enshrine whiteness as the

38:33

national

38:33

identity. But

38:34

then things began to change. You can draw

38:36

a line from the end of world war

38:39

two to the of rights era align when forces in the

38:41

country are pushing it to live up to the radical proposition

38:43

of this country's founding documents

38:46

that here is

38:48

a place where the inalienable rights of all people will be

38:50

protected before the

38:51

law. It's a time

38:52

when some are trying to tell a more inclusive story

38:56

about country about who deserves to be an American. It's by

38:58

no means a perfect time. There's reactionary

39:00

violence to nearly every attempt

39:02

to change the story. But

39:05

the theater in the history at this moment,

39:07

they align. And that's how we get

39:09

to president Johnson standing at the statue

39:11

of liberty, celebrating the most Expensive Immigration

39:13

Act in the nation's

39:13

history. Those are

39:16

that's the pocketbook

39:17

that I had that when I went

39:19

to work that day. You

39:21

know, when the Cubans sit

39:23

down. That's alright. When the

39:26

Cubans to go with

39:28

the unit, But here's the thing about theater seldom

39:30

converge the way they did back then.

39:32

Usually, they're in tension with each other

39:34

because stories are vulnerable things.

39:37

And tries we might to tell a new story about who

39:39

we are. It's hard to outrun your

39:41

history. Wait.

39:42

Yes. Can I go check the

39:45

pizza? You're sure.

39:45

In your story. Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't want you

39:47

to -- Yeah. I don't know. -- ask

39:49

it twice.

39:50

This interview with Linda Calhoun

39:52

was the first one we did for the

39:54

story back in twenty fifteen. We'd found the photos of the men on

39:56

the roof just a couple of months before a

39:58

long shot presidential candidate, a

40:00

reality television star, announced his

40:04

run by saying that immigrants were criminals, that our country had become a

40:06

dumping ground for the rest of the world's problems,

40:08

that the American dream was dead.

40:11

And that the solution was to build a giant

40:14

wall.

40:14

The story he told wasn't subtle,

40:16

it was simple. And if this

40:18

seemed out of place and improbable at first

40:21

like theater from a different era. By the time

40:23

we sat with Linda Calhoun in her living

40:25

room, this theater was resonating in

40:27

a new

40:28

way. And that vulnerable national story was fraying

40:30

because of it. Look, put it this

40:33

way. If the

40:35

week got released, And the

40:38

day that they, you know,

40:40

got the Cubans and they stripped

40:42

them and they put them on the floor and

40:44

they kept them there for a couple

40:46

hours, I cried.

40:48

I cried

40:49

because some of

40:51

them didn't deserve

40:52

them. I mean, that's

40:55

I guess it's, like, remarkable attitude. I

40:57

think for somebody who's just been out of that situation, were

40:59

you They didn't do that

41:01

to us.

41:01

Even though we were a house

41:04

to originate redness and

41:06

everything. They still treated

41:08

us with dignity and

41:10

respect. You know? So don't

41:12

you think they deserve the same

41:15

thing?

41:15

What did

41:23

those men deserve? This question

41:26

from Linda Calhoun all those years

41:28

ago, the very beginning of our

41:30

reporting, it's stuck with us.

41:32

Because really, it's a question about what this

41:34

country is of what this

41:36

country is not. A

41:38

question about our values, about

41:40

justice and fairness, about

41:42

how we decide who has the right

41:44

to have rights.

41:45

This season on White

41:46

Lies. They had received shortwave transmissions

41:49

from their Cuban relatives

41:51

that Fidel

41:53

was letting gray Emma essentially come. My mom, of course, had

41:55

no

41:55

choice because she already knew that if she

41:58

cried, I would stay in Cuba. There was a

42:00

continuing concern that Fidel Castro is

42:02

lifting his jails and

42:04

forcing boat captains to take

42:06

undesirable to the United

42:06

States. They get out of their boats

42:08

and they walk through water. And

42:11

they're yours. What do you do with

42:13

them? So you don't know who you're bringing

42:15

or what what their intentions are. If

42:18

there's a racial element to this suspicion in stereotypes.

42:20

Absolutely. We got a question. I mean,

42:22

Miami was sort of like like back

42:23

then, you

42:26

know, who very unpleasant

42:27

place. They were sick

42:27

here with a label, and you know what

42:30

we did? We

42:32

accepted the

42:33

have effectively lost control of our border.

42:36

We are talking

42:36

about the most dangerous group of

42:39

inmates confined in American prisons

42:42

anyway.

42:42

And staff came along and proceeded to beat the living

42:44

daylight time. No journey.

42:47

No journey. No

42:50

journey. And no new process. Just locked up

42:52

and the keys literally thrown

42:53

away. Well, I mean, look at the whole place and

42:55

look at the components of it. Right? We're in

42:58

a graveyard all these men died

43:00

here. This is not the place you wanted

43:02

to. Please don't send this

43:04

letter to the mailbox

43:07

of forgetfulness. I hope one day to go back to United

43:10

States. I I left my daughter when she

43:12

was four years old. I didn't see

43:14

my

43:15

daughter anymore.

43:16

I would

43:17

like to see my daughter. I like to, you know, to feel like

43:19

a like a

43:22

father.

43:48

If you wanna

43:51

hear our next

43:55

episode now, for everyone else, sign

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support our work, and you'll get to listen

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to the entire season sponsor

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free. That's plus dot MPR dot

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embedded. White Liza's ported, written and produced by us and

44:15

Connor town O'Neil. Liana Simpson

44:18

is our supervising producer. Andy

44:20

Yetsi is our

44:22

associate producer. Robert Little

44:24

edits the show with help from Bruce Oster

44:26

Keith

44:26

Woods, Christopher Turpin, and Kamala

44:29

Kelger. Our incredible Core as composed and

44:31

performed by Jeff T. Bird. Emily Vogel, his

44:34

senior visual editor. Barbara Van

44:36

Werkam

44:37

is our fact checker. We had production

44:39

help from Pablo Arguez. Audio engineers include

44:42

Robert Rodriguez and Andy

44:44

Heuser. A huge thanks

44:46

to Radiohead. For

44:48

the use of their song The National

44:50

Anthem, courtesy of XL recordings and Warner Chapel Music.

44:52

Archival tape in this episode

44:55

comes from Seaspan, CBS NBC,

44:57

the PBS NewsHour Collection, and the American

45:00

Archive of Public Broadcasting, the

45:02

Jimmy Carter library, Museum, the

45:04

LBJ presidential library, the US

45:06

citizenship and immigration services historical

45:07

library, and the Hoover Institution

45:10

archives. Special thanks to Elizabeth

45:12

Whitmire in the Alabama

45:14

media group. Long time Birmingham news photographer Joe Songer,

45:16

who took those photos of the men on the

45:17

roof. Jose Glasius and

45:19

the Miami Herald, Zach

45:22

Willsky. Senior historian at the

45:24

US CIS history office and library,

45:26

Wisconsin Public Radio, Britney

45:28

Young and Pat Dugans, an Alabama Public

45:30

Radio and Meredith McDonough in the Alabama Department of

45:33

Arts in

45:33

History. We are grateful for the work of Micah

45:36

Ratner in NPR's

45:38

legal team. And Tony Cavitt, NPR's standards and practices

45:40

editor. Our project manager is Margaret

45:42

Price. Irene Naguchi is the executive

45:44

producer of NPR's enterprise

45:46

storytelling unit.

45:48

And Anja Grundman is

45:50

NPR's Senior Vice President for Programming and Audience

45:52

Development.