The Snow Tower Statue

The Tower of Snow is a bronze sculpture created in 2012 by Cuban-born American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya. The work serves as a visible monument to the suffering of those affected by war, political conflict, and forced displacement. The central theme of the sculpture reflects the story of a large group of children, including Celaya’s own childhood experience of exile, and encompasses the broader narrative of the Peter Pan Operation of the early 1960s.^【1】

The sculpture depicts a young child supported by crutches, carrying a house strapped to his back with a harness. The figure symbolizes the burden and struggle of transporting one’s home from a dangerous place to a safer one.

Locations and Monumental Function

The Tower of Snow sculpture is displayed at two different locations in the United States. The copy in Miami, Florida, is situated in downtown Miami at the intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and NE 6th Street, on the same side as the Freedom Tower Museum. This copy was erected in 2012 as part of the Miami-Dade College Permanent Art Collection to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Peter Pan Operation, which brought thousands of Cuban children to the United States separated from their parents in search of freedom and stability.^【2】

The location of the sculpture in Miami is designed to evoke the path taken by Cuban refugees in the 1960s as they moved toward the Freedom Tower, which was then used for registration and health services and is now a contemporary art museum.^【3】 The other copy of the sculpture is located on the Lefton Esplanade within Pizzuti Park at Kent State University, donated by Ron and Ann Pizzuti.

The Tower of Snow Sculpture (Flickr)

The Artist’s Experience of Exile and Interpretation

Although artist Enrique Martínez Celaya was born in Cuba in 1964, he narrowly missed participating in the Peter Pan Operation. At the age of eight, he fled Cuba with his family, first settling in Spain and then in Puerto Rico, thereby experiencing exile firsthand. These memories have deeply influenced his artistic work. In adulthood, Celaya discovered that he was not alone in having endured childhood exile in Cuba—that thousands of others had similar experiences. This awareness revealed to him that his story was part of the broader narrative of the Peter Pan Operation, which sent more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to the United States to escape communist repression. While creating The Tower of Snow, Celaya drew from his own experience of exile, but he describes the work as being “about the pain of those children” and emphasizes his intent to honor their memory. The sculpture also alludes to the hardships faced today by 65 to 70 million people worldwide who have been separated from their families or displaced from their homes.^【4】