Download or read book A Cuban Boxer s Journey written by Brin-Jonathan Butler and published by Picador. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY OF CUBAN BOXER AND POLITICAL PARIAH GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX'S HARROWING DECISION TO DEFECT IN HOPES OF REAPING THE REWARDS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?" This was the question posed by legendary boxer Teofilo Stevenson in the 1970s, crowned by many as the Muhammad Ali of Cuba, in response to an offer of five million dollars to leave his island to fight Ali. But not all Cubans have come to the same conclusion, let alone with such apparent ease. Guillermo Rigondeaux, two-time Olympic champion and heir to Stevenson's throne, sacrificed everything he had in his home country—his wife, his son, his government-subsidized car and house, as well as universal reverence among his fellow citizens—to try to make it in the mecca of big-money boxing, the United States of America. But has the chance to make good in America been worth the loss of his national identity and the love of his countrymen? And to what extent has he been corrupted by the promise of untold riches? In A Cuban Boxer's Journey, author, filmmaker, and journalist Brin-Jonathan Butler chronicles the fascinating and tumultuous career of Rigondeaux—moody, driven, and almost mythically talented––as he attempts to capture the elusive and often punishing American dream. See how this athlete's most daunting challenge becomes how he can survive the complex forces outside of the ring.
Download or read book In the Red Corner written by John Duncan and published by Random House (UK). This book was released on 1999-11-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional boxing has been illegal in Cuba since 1961, so it was no surprise that Felix Savon, Cuba's double Olympic heavyweight champion, had to turn down the $25 million purse offered by Don King to fight Mike Tyson. John Duncan wanted to make the fight happen and so he quit his then job as sports writer for the "Guardian and left for Cuba. His plan was to cut a deal with Cuban boxing authorities to make this fight happen. His account of the year spent in the maelstrom of Havana's heat and bureaucracy is intercut with often poignant portraits of some of Cuba's most famous boxers.
Download or read book Boxing for Cuba written by Guillermo Vicente Vidal and published by Fulcrum Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, fearing the communist rule of Fidel Castro, Guillermo Vicente Vidal's family sent him to America through Operation Peter Pan. He arrived in Colorado and was sent to an orphanage with his brothers, and his family reunited four years later. Fifty years later, he served as Denver's mayor. This is his story of overcoming incredible odds.
Download or read book The Domino Diaries written by Brin-Jonathan Butler and published by Picador. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful and lively work of immersive journalism, Brin-Jonathan Butler's The Domino Diaries tells the story of his time chasing the American dream through Cuba. Whether he's hustling his way into Mike Tyson's mansion for an interview, betting his life savings on a boxing match, becoming romantically entangled with one of Fidel Castro's granddaughters, or simply manufacturing press credentials to go where he wants-Brin-Jonathan Butler has always been the "act first, ask permission later" kind of journalist. This book is the culmination of Butler's decade spent in the trenches of Havana, trying to understand a culture perplexing to Westerners: one whose elite athletes regularly forgo multimillion-dollar opportunities to stay in Cuba and box for their country, while living in penury. Butler's fascination with this distinctly Cuban idealism sets him off on a remarkable journey, training with, befriending, and interviewing the champion boxers that Cuba seems to produce more than any other country. In the process, though, Butler gets to know the landscape of the exhilaratingly warm Cuban culture-and starts to question where he feels most at home. In the tradition of Michael Lewis and John Jeremiah Sullivan, Butler is a keen and humane storyteller, and the perfect guide for this riotous tour through the streets of Havana.
Download or read book Cubans an Epic Journey written by Sam Verdeja and published by Reedy Press LLC. This book was released on 2011 with total page 801 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of more than thirty essays by renowned scholars, historians, journalists, and media professionals that portray the experience of Cubans exiled in the United States and other countries in the last sixty years.
Download or read book Pitching Around Fidel written by S.L. Price and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2002-02-05 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an artful pastiche of observation, personal narrative, interviews, and investigative reporting, S.L. Price, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, describes sports and athletes in today's Cuba. On his journeys to the island, Price finds a country that celebrates sports like no other and a regime that uses games as both symbol and weapon in its dying revolution. He finds Olympic and world champion boxers, track stars, volleyball and baseball players, but he also finds that with Castro's revolution staggering beneath the weight of a great depression, Cuba's famed sports system is imploding. Athletes are defecting by plane and raft. Superstars bike to games and legends like boxer Teofilo Stevenson are forced to lost themselves in a bottle of rum. Beyond an examination of sports in the hothouse of revolution, Pitching Around Fidel presents a vibrant and realistic portrait of Cuba today, complete with sex-happy tourists, blackouts, Fidel's famous former lover, and a black-power fugitive wanted in the U.S. for murder and hijacking. At once a biting travelogue and a meditation on sports in both America and Cuba, Pitching Around Fidel is a valuable document about a time and place that is close to fading away.
Download or read book Boxing in Havana written by Dominick Sheldon and published by . This book was released on 2018-12 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Photographic portfolio of amateur boxing in Havana Cuba by Dominick Sheldon.
Download or read book On Boxing written by Joyce Carol Oates and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reissue of bestselling, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates' classic collection of essays on boxing.
Download or read book From Cuba with Love written by Megan D. Daigle and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2015-01-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Cuba with Love deals with love, sexuality, and politics in contemporary Cuba. In this beautiful narrative, Megan Daigle explores the role of women in Cuban political culture by examining the rise of economies of sex, romance, and money since the early 1990s. Daigle draws attention to the violence experienced by young women suspected of involvement with foreigners at the hands of a moralistic state, an opportunistic police force, and even their own families and partners. Investigating the lived realities of the Cuban women (and some men) who date tourists and offering a unique perspective on the surrounding debates, From Cuba with Love raises issues about women’s bodies–what they can or should do and, equally, what can be done to them. Daigle’s provocative perspective will make readers question how race and politics in Cuba are tied to women and sex, and the ways in which political power acts directly on the bodies of individuals through law, policing, institutional programs, and social norms.
Download or read book Cuba and Its Music written by Ned Sublette and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2007-02 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdes, Arsenio Rodriguez, Benny More, and Perez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a Cuban point of view, unearthing surprising, provocative connections and making the case that Cuba was fundamental to the evolution of music in the New World. The ways in which the music of black slaves transformed 16th-century Europe, how the "claves" appeared, and how Cuban music influenced ragtime, jazz, and rhythm and blues are revealed. Music lovers will follow this journey from Andalucia, the Congo, the Calabar, Dahomey, and Yorubaland via Cuba to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Saint-Domingue, New Orleans, New York, and Miami. The music is placed in a historical context that considers the complexities of the slave trade; Cuba's relationship to the United States; its revolutionary political traditions; the music of Santeria, Palo, Abakua, and Vodu; and much more.
Download or read book The Boxer s Soliloquy written by Matt Lucas and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Matt Lucas' first collection, The Boxer's Soliloquy, explores the intricacies of Thailand's most famous martial art. Set against the squalor of Bangkok and in the sweaty confines of Muay Thai gyms, only gradually do these tales reveal their true intentions. These are fifteen stories about the ring, the ropes, the fighters, the smack of bodies against bodies, and the relationships in between.
Download or read book Kid Gavilan written by F Daniel Somrack and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kid Gavilan: The Cuban Hawk" is the story of the rise and fall of one of the greatest boxing champions of all time. Born Gerardo Gonzalez in 1930, he rose from humble beginnings in Camaguey Cuba to become Kid Gavilan, the Welterweight Champion of the World. During the early days of 1950s television, Gavilan became an instant sensation and TV's first superstar attraction. Easily recognizable in his classy white trunks and shoes, Kid Gavilan thrilled crowds around the world with his flashy style and trademark "Bolo Punch." Throughout his championship reign 1951-'54, the "Keed" was virtually unbeatable in the welterweight class. Gavilan fought the greatest boxers of his era including Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, Carmen Basilio, Beau Jack, Billy Graham, Carl "Bobo" Olson, Ralph "Tiger" Jones, Chuck Davey and others.During a time when organized crime controlled the fight game, Gavilan had the courage and character to remain true to his sport. At the height of his title reign, mob promoters like Frankie Carbo and Frankie "Blinky" Palermo robbed him of his crown and denied him the opportunity to regain the championship.Retiring to Cuba national hero, Gavilan was thrust into Castro revolution and virtually forgotten as a champion. Returning to the United States in 1968, his greatness was finally recognized when he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame (1985) and the International Boxing Hall of Fame (1990).
Download or read book New York City s Greatest Boxers written by Jose Corpas and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many years, New York City was considered to be the fight capital of the world." Local venues put on shows almost daily, and the mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden, hosted boxing regularly. Fans flocked from one arena to the other to catch all of the action. New York City's Greatest Boxers is a photographic journey featuring over 180 photographs showcasing many of the outstanding boxers who helped make up the city's colorful history. New York City's biggest boxing stars are all found here, from legendary champions like Terry McGovern and Benny Leonard to local stars and celebrities like Joe Miceli, Tiger Jones, and Tony Danza."
Download or read book The Best American Travel Writing 2018 written by Cheryl Strayed and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of the best travel writing published in 2017, selected by Cheryl Strayed.
Download or read book Cuba written by Fiona McAuslan and published by Rough Guides. This book was released on 2003 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ever more accessible island will soon be the hottest Caribbean destination for North American travelers, according to the authors, who cover all sites and events to suit all budgets. of color photos. 43 maps.
Download or read book Boxing Cuba written by Charles Schumann and published by Hirmer Verlag GmbH. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boxing is the top popular sport in Cuba and part of its cultural identity. The martial arts, often represented as warlike in form, acquire here an unexpected elegance, speed and technical perfection. This publication reflects the Cuban love of sport, from youth work in the back yards of Havana to the preparations for the Olympic Games. At the same time it tells the story of this fascinating world sport. Cuba's pride in its boxers and its sports tradition remains unbroken. Boxing schools and national boxing idols happily granted the photographer Katharina Alt access to their training facilities and private homes in order to record life in and around the sport and the contests. The photos provide an impressive record of the arduous preparations for a fight and continue until the boxers are saved by the gong in the final round. The text by author and journalist Michael Schleicher is divided into twelve rounds and shows how the sport has changed since Antiquity. Motifs, aesthetics and boxing language occur today in art and culture and are thus an omnipresent witness to the fact that "Boxing is life itself", according to Joyce Carol Oates.
Download or read book Prizefighting and Civilization written by David C. LaFevor and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Prizefighting and Civilization: A Cultural History of Boxing, Race, and Masculinity in Mexico and Cuba, 1840–1940, historian David C. LaFevor traces the history of pugilism in Mexico and Cuba from its controversial beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century through its exponential rise in popularity during the early twentieth century. A divisive subculture that was both a profitable blood sport and a contentious public spectacle, boxing provides a unique vantage point from which LaFevor examines the deeper historical evolution of national identity, everyday normative concepts of masculinity and race, and an expanding and democratizing public sphere in both Mexico and Cuba, the United States’ closest Latin American neighbors. Prizefighting and Civilization explores the processes by which boxing—once considered an outlandish purveyor of low culture—evolved into a nationalized pillar of popular culture, a point of pride that transcends gender, race, and class.
