Carlos Eire

A young boy during the Cuban Revolution, Carlos Eire was exposed to more pain and destruction than any young child should ever have to endure. He would escape the atrocities of Fidel Castro's Cuba, as part of the largest children's exodus in the history of the Americas. The so-called Pedro Pan airlift brought 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban boys and girls to the United States in the early 1960's.

After arriving to the United States at the age of eleven, Eire spent over three years in a number of foster homes, including one for juvenile delinquents. Though his mother eventually joined him in Chicago, despite of severe obstacles placed in her way by the Cuban government, his father never made it to America. Forced to work full-time jobs while attending high school and college, Eire nonetheless embarked on a scholarly career and earned a Ph.D. at Yale University in 1979. He has taught at St. John's University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia, resided for two years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and carried out research in Europe as a Fulbright Fellow.

A historian of late medieval and early modern Europe, and a professor at Yale University, Eire is the author of several books, including the highly-acclaimed Waiting for Snow in Havana, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2003 National Book Award in nonfiction. Waiting for Snow, a memoir relating the story of his childhood and the crushing oppression he experienced in revolutionary Cuba, is his first book without footnotes, and the first to be translated into numerous languages.

His scholarly books include War Against the Idols, From Madrid to Purgatory, and Reformations: Early Modern Europe 1450-1700. He is also co-author of Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions.

After overcoming devastating odds, Eire has gone on to become an incredibly successful and intelligent scholar. A man with much insight to offer, and moving stories to share, Eire will captivate any audience with powerful and direct presentations.