Mariel

1. A female given name.
2. A city and bay in northwest Cuba.
3. The Mariel boatlift, when some 125,000 Cubans entered the United States.

plural Mariels · alternative Mariele · alternative Mariela · alternative Mariella · alternative Marielle · alternative Mariell

1. Someone who arrived in the US during the Mariel boatlift; a Marielito.First known use 20th c.

   I happened to be in the coroner's office one morning when autopsies were being performed on the bodies of two Mariels, shot and apparently pushed from a car on I-95 about nine the evening before […].

   1987, Joan Didion, Miami, Granta, published 2005, page 34