Anthony DePalma

The Cubans is a revelatory account of life in one of the most restrictive, isolated and misunderstood places in the world. In this pioneering work of life-writing and reportage, Anthony DePalma reconstructs the interwoven stories of five ordinary citizens and their families to bring the true story of the Cuban people the world. Through their extraordinary journeys, from Castro's heyday, through the devastation of post-Soviet collapse, to the false dawn of recent years, we witness the drama and hardships of life across six decades of socialist state control - where even today the government decides what work you can do and where you live; where food is rationed, basic medicines are unavailable, buildings collapse and rubbish goes uncollected; where millions break the law every day simply to get by. Many celebrate Cuba, one of the world's five remaining communist countries, for bravely holding out against the rampant capitalism of the West. The Cubans lays bare the more complex reality, showing how the revolution that once inspired its people has since tested their faith with tragedy and disillusionment, and revealing the daily acts of heroism and the endlessly adaptive resilience that are required of them to survive.

Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times

The Cubans

A technical interview can be a harrowing experience. You only have a short time to convince someone that you're worth hiring, so you can't afford to go to a job interview unprepared. Unfortunately, memorizing the answers to interview questions just doesn't cut it. You need to understand the underlying concepts.This book is a comprehensive guide that will prepare you for a Java interview. I've conducted over 100 interviews at Fortune 500 companies and meticulously collected the most effective questions with simple, straightforward explanations.This book will teach you object-oriented concepts, data structures, design patterns, and algorithms in interview-sized chunks with over 150 corresponding questions. I promise thatif you read it thoroughly, you will boost your confidence and your negotiating power.A technical interview is a rare opportunity to show potential employers what you're worth. You owe it to yourself to read this guide and make the most of it!

How to Build Confidence with a Solid Understanding of Core Java Principles

Java Interview Guide

In 1957, Herbert L.Matthews of the New York Times, then considered one of the premiere foreign correspondents of his time, tracked down Fidel Castro in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains and returned with what was considered the scoop of the century. His heroic portrayal of Castro, who was then believed dead, had a powerful effect on American perceptions of Cuba, both in and out of the government, and profoundly influenced the fall of the Batista regime. When Castro emerged as a Soviet-backed dictator, Matthews became a scapegoat; his paper turned on him, his career foundered, and he was accused of betraying his country. In this fascinating book, New York Times reporter DePalma investigates the Matthews case to reveal how it contains the story not just of one newspaperman but of an age, not just how Castro came to power but how America determines who its enemies are. He re-creates the atmosphere of revolutionary Cuba and Cold War America, and clarifies the facts of Castro's ascension and political evolution from the many myths that have sprung up around them. Through a dramatic, ironic, in ways tragic story, The Man Who Invented Fidel offers provocative insights into Cuban politics, the Cuban-American relationship, and the many difficult balancing acts of responsible journalism.

Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times and the Creation of Castro's Cuba

The Man Who Invented Fidel

zwykli ludzie w niemożliwym kraju

Kubańczycy

Cubans

In City of Dust, Anthony DePalma offers the first full accounting of one of the gravest environmental catastrophes in United States history. The destruction on 9/11 of two of the world's largest buildings unleashed a vortex of dust and ash that blotted out the sun and has distorted science, medicine and public policy ever since. The likely dangers of 9/11's massive dust cloud were evident from the beginning, yet thousands chose not to see. Why? As the sickening results of exposure became evident, many still refused to recognize them. Why? The consequences are still being tallied in the wasted bodies and disrupted lives of thousands who gave their all when the need was greatest, but whose demands for justice have been consumed by years of politics and courtroom maneuvers. Why?, separating reality from myth - and doing so with exceptional literary style and grace. DePalma covered Ground Zero for The New York Times for four years. DePalma introduces heroic firefighters, dedicated doctors and scientists, obsessive city officials, partisan politicians, aggressive lawyers, and compassionate judges and reveals the individual decisions that destroyed public trust, and the desperate attempts made to rebuild it. The dust that was the World Trade Center has changed everything it touched. This is the story of that dust, the 9/11 disaster after the disaster, and what it tells us about ourselves and our future.

Illness, Arrogance, and 9/11

City of Dust

Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times

"[DePalma] renders a Cuba few tourists will ever see . . . You won't forget these people soon, and you are bound to emerge from DePalma's bighearted account with a deeper understanding of a storied island . . . A remarkably revealing glimpse into the world of a muzzled yet irrepressibly ebullient neighbor."--The New York Times Modern Cuba comes alive in a vibrant portrait of a group of families's varied journeys in one community over the last twenty years. Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, Anthony DePalma, a veteran reporter with years of experience in Cuba, focuses on a neighborhood across the harbor from Old Havana to dramatize the optimism as well as the enormous challenges that Cubans face: a moving snapshot of Cuba with all its contradictions as the new regime opens the gate to the capitalism that Fidel railed against for so long. In Guanabacoa, longtime residents prove enterprising in the extreme. Scrounging materials in the black market, Cary Luisa Limonta Ewen has started her own small manufacturing business, a surprising turn for a former ranking member of the Communist Party. Her good friend Lili, a loyal Communist, heads the neighborhood's watchdog revolutionary committee. Artist Arturo Montoto, who had long lived and worked in Mexico, moved back to Cuba when he saw improving conditions but complains like any artist about recognition. In stark contrast, Jorge García lives in Miami and continues to seek justice for the sinking of a tugboat full of refugees, a tragedy that claimed the lives of his son, grandson, and twelve other family members, a massacre for which the government denies any role. In The Cubans, many patriots face one new question: is their loyalty to the revolution, or to their country? As people try to navigate their new reality, Cuba has become an improvised country, an old machine kept running with equal measures of ingenuity and desperation. A new kind of revolutionary spirit thrives beneath the conformity of a half century of totalitarian rule. And over all of this looms the United States, with its unpredictable policies, which warmed towards its neighbor under one administration but whose policies have now taken on a chill reminiscent of the Cold War.

Anthony DePalma

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