Abstract
This article discusses individual and collective experiences of trauma and racial discrimination within the context of the Mariel exodus resettlement camps. From May 1980 until February 1982, more than 60,000 Mariel migrants were detained at several US military bases across the country, as they awaited screening by the US Federal Government and the generosity of potential American sponsors. This period of delayed military detention was a pivotal point in the reconfiguration of the Black Cuban-American community, as the majority of Mariel migrants at these resettlement camps were lower-class, Black, or mixed-race young men, who were faced with the harsh realities of a new racialized identity in the US. Focusing on a study of the resettlement camp located in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, the article uses oral histories to illustrate the negative impact of bureaucratic immigration policies, military policing, inflammatory media reporting, and racial discrimination on the resettlement experiences of a community of Black Mariel refugees in Wisconsin.