Object
Cuban Rowboats
A flotilla of small, open, low‑freeboard craft — wooden and fiberglass skiffs, improvised rafts and even overturned fruit baskets lashed into makeshift boats — battered, weathered and overloaded with people and scant supplies. They bob together at sea, hulls riding low, salt-streaked and unstable; White House staff point to them as a visceral image, the sight that jerks conversation into urgent action.
2 appearances
Purpose
Provide improvised maritime transport for migrants and refugees attempting a dangerous crossing to shore.
Significance
Serve as the visual and logistical catalyst that converts staff levity into immediate policy work: their existence frames the crisis as human-scale, forces operational planning (medical teams, processing) and anchors debates about response, prevention and political optics.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used