New York Times correspondent Anthony DePalma will speak on his new book,The Man Who Invented Fidel:Castro,Cubaand Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times,at4:15 p.m.March 27 (Monday) in the auditorium of the University of Notre DamesEckCenter.
DePalma, who was a visiting fellow in Notre Dames Kellogg Institute for International Studies during the 2003-04 academic year, has worked for the New York Times for the last 20 years, reporting from Cuba, Guatemala, Suriname, Guyana, Montenegro and Albania and serving as the papers bureau chief in Canada and Mexico.He conceived his new book while doing advance research for the 79-year-old Cuban leaders obituary and becoming fascinated by Castros famous 1957 interview with Matthews, a Times editorial writer.
Matthewsinterview, conducted in the Sierra Maestra mountains of southeasternCuba, was an impressive journalisticscoop,upending nearly universal reports that Castro had been killed and his revolution against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Battista defeated.Evidently charmed by the charismatic guerilla and sympathetic to his cause, Matthews presented a flattering portrait which was crucial to Castros survival and eventual triumph and which remains controversial to this day.
DePalma lives inMontclair, N.J; he and his wife, Miriam, have three children, one of whom, Aahren, is a 2004 Notre Dame graduate.
The lecture is sponsored by the Kellogg Institute.
* Contact: * _Kelly Roberts, publications and communications director at the Kellogg Institute, at 631-9184 or krobert2@nd.edu _
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