The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times [Hardcover]

Anthony DePalma (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2006

This dramatic story of how a "New York Times" reporter helped Castro come to power offers illuminating insight into the fraught history of Cuban-American relations and the precarious balance between truth and myth. In 1957, Herbert L. Matthews of the "New York Times", then considered one of America's premiere foreign correspondents, 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, Anthony 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 and 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In 1957, Herbert L. Matthews, a veteran foreign correspondent for the New York Times, trekked into the rugged Sierra Maestre in southeastern Cuba. There he interviewed a young lawyer, Fidel Castro, who had landed in Cuba several months earlier with the intention of waging guerrilla warfare to overthrow the Batista regime. Cuban government officials had claimed that Castro was dead and that the rebels had been obliterated. But Matthews' interview confirmed that Castro and his movement survived. Furthermore, Matthews conveyed Castro's plans for a democratic, non-Communist revolution, which earned him the sympathy of many Americans from both political parties. When Castro's revolution quickly turned hard left, Matthews was condemned as either an apologist for Castro or a naive dupe who had served the interests of international communism. DePalma, also a New York Times correspondent, chronicles the career of Matthews and dispels many of the myths surrounding his interviews with Castro and his subsequent reporting on the Cuban revolution. This is an interesting and often surprising piece of investigative journalism. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"a riveting, illuminating and troubling work of reportage and history." -- Yukon News, January 10, 2007

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; annotated edition edition (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586483323
• ISBN-13: 978-1586483326
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,687,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANTHONY DEPALMA



Anthony DePalma was the first foreign correspondent of The New York Times to serve as bureau chief in both Mexico and Canada. Starting in 1993, he covered some of the most tumultuous events in modern Mexican history, including the Zapatista uprising, the assassination of the ruling party's presidential candidate and the peso crisis that quickly spread economic chaos to markets all over the world. In 1996 he was transferred to the other end of America.

In Canada he reported from all ten provinces and three territories, covering natural disasters like the Quebec ice storm and the Red River flood--both once in a century occurrences--the 1997 federal elections that revealed deep regional divisions in Canada, and the historic Indian treaties in British Columbia. In addition, he wrote extensively about the creation of the territory of Nunavut, in which Inuit people formed their own government.

Besides North America, Mr. DePalma has reported from Cuba, Guatemala, Suriname, Guyana, and, during the Kosovo crisis, Montenegro and Albania. His book "Here: A Biography of the New American Continent," was published in the United States and Canada in 2001. An updated version, with a post 9/11 afterword, was published in 2002.

From 2000 to 2002, Mr. DePalma was an international business correspondent for The Times covering North and South America. During his tenure with The Times, he also has held positions in the Metropolitan and National sections of the newspaper. Most recently he wrote about the working class and the environment in New York City. In 2003, he was awarded a fellowship at Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute for International Studies, where he began work on "The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times," which was published in 2006. It has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

Mr. DePalma has taught graduate seminars at New York University and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. In 2007 he was named a Hoover Media Fellow at Stanford University, and he delivered the annual Jane E. Ruby Lecture at Wheaton College. He was a finalist for a 2007 Emmy for his work on the television documentary "Toxic Legacy."

In September, 2008, Mr. DePalma was named writer-in-residence at Seton Hall University, where he teaches journalism and Latin American issues. In 2009 he delivered the Donald B. Regan Lecture on North America at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis, and later that same year he received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for distinguished international journalism from Columbia University. He continues to contribute to The New York Times and is a frequent lecturer on the Americas. His latest book, "City of Dust," about the health and environmental aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, was published in September 2010. The Chicago Sun-Times named it one of the best non-fiction books of the year.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Chapter for the Gray Lady, May 13, 2006

By 

Steve Iaco (northern new jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times (Hardcover)

New York Timesman DePalma provides an excellent, balanced examination of his newspaper's controversial role in Castro's rise to power nearly five decades ago.

The Times scored a journalistic coup in February 1957, when its veteran war correspondent, Herbert Matthews, landed an exclusive interview with Castro in defiance of the dictator Batista's censorship edict. Matthews's explosive page-one story revealed to the world that the young Cuban rebel -- widely thought to have been killed by Batista's forces -- was "still alive and waging a successful guerrilla campaign" in the Sierra Maestra mountains. It's clear that Matthews' story exaggerated Castro's strength and prospects, although it's not true, as Castro later claimed, that he was down to just 18 men and had them march around in circles in order to deceive Matthews.

Matthews was guilty of gullibility, or worse. He had taken sides in the Cuban revolution. And in this regard, he was a repeat offender: his coverage of the Spanish Civil War had been biased in favor of the Loyalists. And before that, he openly supported Mussolini in his conquest of Ethiopia.

Matthews was one of those reporters who saw himself as a shaper of events, not just a chronicler of them -- a dubious prospect for a profession founded on trust and objectivity. The Times compounded this situation by permitting Matthews to serve simultaneously as news reporter and editorial writer -- an experiment the paper soon abandoned. Although denied the paper's new columns to advance his cause, Matthews continued to write editorials in support of Castro, even when it became plain that the Cuban strongman had abandoned all pretense to democratic, constitutional governance.

Matthews is still an object of opprobrium for many Cuban-Americans, and continues to be hailed as a revolutionary hero among Castro loyalists. It's disturbing that a seasoned journalist -- let alone one associated with one of the world's most influential publications -- would put himself in such an untenable situation.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that Cause a Lot of Thoughts, June 14, 2006

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John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times (Hardcover)

It's only when the books are written that we understand what happened. During the time the events are happening our knowledge was simply too little. It makes me feel old when I think back to the newspaper reports that I was reading at the time, now fifty years ago.

As I read this book I found myself full of random and somewhat conflicting thoughts.

First was the thought that Castro was an expert at public relations and was able to find exactly the right man to publicize his struggle and at exactly the right time.

Second was the attitude of the paper. Most of us, at the time, thought that Castro meant was was being written as quotations. It came as a surprise when he viered left. I find myself still puzzled. Was Castro a dedicated communist all the time and merely fooled the Americans? I believe that it was Truman who later said, 'I should have called him and asked him what he needed to make Cuba better.' Could that have changed things?

Matthews was an unabashed liberal. His views on previous wars such as the Spanish Civil War unfailingly took the left wing side. And where does the responsibility of a journalist lie, what about that of a columnist, and Matthews was both?

It also reminded me that Castro will be eighty years old in August. What happens now?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fidelity to Truth, July 16, 2006

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Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times (Hardcover)

While many will buy this book to learn about Cuba and Castro, I think its greater value will be for those interested in journalism. How close can a reporter be to his or her source before bias surely intrudes? When does a reporter's decided notions of what ought to happen, prevent even-handed and clear reporting? How much backing--or control-- should be given an experienced reporter by a newspaper's editors?

To me, the story of Herbert L. Matthews is of current interest not because of what happened with Castro over fifty years ago--but of how it informs today's debate over current journalistic standards at The New York Times and other major media outlets.