Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, THE CUBANS, 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.
Watch author Anthony DePalma discuss his new book THE CUBANS: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times below:
“DePalma’s writing is evocative and detailed. . . .The country comes alive with each sentence, and the end result is an homage to Cuba and the Cuban people that is both heartbreaking and hopeful.”—The Washington Post
“An unvarnished look at revolutionary Cuba . . . The Cubans doesn’t dwell much on Fidel and Raúl Castro . . . Instead, it is about resilient and resourceful individuals who seem to innately know from birth how to “resolver”—creatively resolve their predicaments—to survive. The individuals DePalma writes about are not ordinary at all, but complex, three-dimensional people, drawn with a nuanced and empathetic hand.”—ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America
“In his thoroughly researched and reported book, replete with human detail and probing insight, [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
