La Salle High marks 50th

He was the one who facilitated a meeting between six students of Christian Brothers De La Salle schools in Cuba and Miami’s then Bishop Coleman F. Carroll.

The students, all boys, were in their last year of high school when Fidel Castro’s government shut down all religious and private schools and expelled the priests, sisters and brothers who operated them.

More than 100 De La Salle Christian Brothers arrived in Miami on May 25, 1961. Their students visited them a few days later at the Everglades Hotel in downtown Miami, and told them of their desire to finish their education with the brothers.

They wanted to start a school where the brothers could continue the work they had started in 1905 in Cuba, which by 1959 included the running of a university and 23 schools.

The students had not come to Miami via Pedro Pan but they were told to speak to Msgr. Walsh, who in turn accompanied them to a meeting with Bishop Carroll.

The bishop gave his permission, the students raised funds from the community and did some of the construction work themselves, and the school opened three months later, in late September 1961, on the grounds of the all-girl Immaculata High School located next to Mercy Hospital.

The initial enrollment was 260 boys. Four of the six students who spearheaded its construction — Jose M. Arellano, Oscar Bustillo, Eduardo Sanchez and Nestor Machado — were present at the 50th anniversary celebration, along with one of their teachers, Brother Marcelino Coto. (He died this month, a few weeks after the 50th anniversary event.)

During the celebration, Archbishop Thomas Wenski blessed and rededicated the original school building as the Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh Humanities Pavilion.

The plaque reads: “We dedicate this original La Salle building in loving gratitude to Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh (1930-2001) and the instrumental role he played in Operation Pedro Pan from 1960-1962, which continues to impact our school history today.”

Eventually, Immaculata and La Salle high schools merged into one co-ed school, now known as Immaculata-La Salle. Many of its former students were Cuban refugees and their children make up a large part of the student body today.

The De La Salle Brothers no longer staff the school but their former students continue to do good works for the poor, including operating and funding an after-school center for the children of farmworkers in Homestead.

The Educational Center SJB De La Salle, which just marked its 20th anniversary, also offers English, computer and sewing classes for adults, and hosts a camp for children in the summer.