TITLE: Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
SPEAKER: Tom Gjelten
EVENT DATE: 11/07/2008
FORMAT: Video + Captions
RUNNING TIME: 68 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript (link will open in a new window)
DESCRIPTION:
"Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba" is the dramatic story of one family, its business and its nation, paralleling Cuba's own development. The Bacardis of Cuba, builders of a rum distillery and a worldwide brand, came of age with the nation and helped define what it meant to be Cuban. Across five generations, Bacardi family members have held fast to their Cuban identity, even in exile from the country for whose freedom they once fought. The family's story is a microcosm of Cuban history, originating when the island was struggling for its freedom from Spain and continuing through the rise of Fidel Castro a century later.
Speaker Biography: Tom Gjelten is a veteran correspondent for NPR on international issues and a regular panelist on the Public Broadcasting System program "Washington Week." His reporting from the former Yugoslavia won him the George Polk and Robert F. Kennedy awards, as well as an Overseas Press Club award. He is also the author of "Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege."
