A Cuban Refugee S Journey To The American Dream

In this deeply moving memoir, González recounts his remarkable journey from Cuba and his upward track through education in United States. At a time when the fates of millions of refugees and Hispanics in the United States has never been more uncertain, González's story is more important than ever.

In February 1962, three years into Fidel Castro's rule of their Cuban homeland, the González family—an auto mechanic, his wife, and two young children—landed in Miami with a few personal possessions and two bottles of Cuban rum. As his parents struggled to find work, eleven-year-old Gerardo struggled to fit in at school, where a teacher intimidated him and school authorities placed him on a vocational track. Inspired by a close friend, Gerardo decided to go to college. He not only graduated but, with hard work and determination, placed himself on a path through higher education that brought him to a deanship at the Indiana University School of Education. In this deeply moving memoir, González recounts his remarkable personal and professional journey. The memoir begins with Gerardo's childhood in Cuba and recounts the family's emigration to the United States and struggles to find work and assimilate, and González's upward track through higher education. It demonstrates the transformative power that access to education can have on one person's life. Gerardo's journey came full circle when he returned to Cuba fifty years after he left, no longer the scared, disheartened refugee but rather proud, educated, and determined to speak out against those who wished to silence others. It includes treasured photographs and documents from González's life in Cuba and the US. His is the story of one immigrant attaining the American Dream, told at a time when the fate of millions of refugees throughout the world, and Hispanics in the United States, especially his fellow Cubans, has never been more uncertain.

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.

“Impressive . . . [Cristina García’s] story is about three generations of Cuban women and their separate responses to the revolution. Her special feat is to tell it in a style as warm and gentle as the ‘sustaining aromas of vanilla and almond,’ as rhythmic as the music of Beny Moré.”—Time Cristina García’s acclaimed book is the haunting, bittersweet story of a family experiencing a country’s revolution and the revelations that follow. The lives of Celia del Pino and her husband, daughters, and grandchildren mirror the magical realism of Cuba itself, a landscape of beauty and poverty, idealism and corruption. Dreaming in Cuban is “a work that possesses both the intimacy of a Chekov story and the hallucinatory magic of a novel by Gabriel García Márquez” (The New York Times). In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the novel’s original publication, this edition features a new introduction by the author. Praise for Dreaming in Cuban “Remarkable . . . an intricate weaving of dramatic events with the supernatural and the cosmic . . . evocative and lush.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Captures the pain, the distance, the frustrations and the dreams of these family dramas with a vivid, poetic prose.”—The Washington Post “Brilliant . . . With tremendous skill, passion and humor, García just may have written the definitive story of Cuban exiles and some of those they left behind.”—The Denver Post

The award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel from Alan Gratz tells the timely--and timeless--story of three different kids seeking refuge. A New York Times bestseller! JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world... ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America... MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe... All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers -- from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end. As powerful and poignant as it is action-packed and page-turning, this highly acclaimed novel has been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than four years and continues to change readers' lives with its meaningful takes on survival, courage, and the quest for home.

Transformative Teaching Around the World compiles inspiring stories from Fulbright-awarded teachers whose instructional practices have impacted schools and communities globally. Whether thriving or struggling in their classrooms, instructing in person or online, or pushing for changes at high or low costs and risk levels, teachers devote intense energy and careful decision-making to their students and fellow staff. This book showcases an expansive variety of educational practices fostered across international contexts by real teachers: active and empowering learning strategies, critical thinking and creative problem-solving, cultural responsiveness and sustainability, humanistic integration of technology, and more. Pre- and in-service teachers, teacher educators, online/blended instructors, and other stakeholders will find a wealth of grounded, motivating approaches for transforming the lives of learners and their communities.

Leadership in Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention blends the wisdom of numerous long-term professionals addressing drug and alcohol issues with helpful strategies and current science. Organized around the Pyramid of Success that emphasizes Competence, Confidence, and Commitment, this book offers practical and grounded approaches for better addressing substance abuse issues. Included are insights from 50 contributors, featuring professional perspectives from practitioners with decades of experience. While issues of substance abuse are not readily solved or cured, they can be better addressed – more effectively, more efficiently, and more appropriately. This timely resource offers a unique blend of science-based strategies and resourceful foundations for implementation. Designed for those working either directly or indirectly with problems associated with substance use disorders, this book will aid those in a wide variety of settings, whether in schools, communities, business, or government.