November 2014: Carlos Harrison, author of The Ghosts of Hero Street, published by Berkley Caliber
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About the Book:
The Ghosts of Hero Street
By Carlos Harrison
Published by Berkley Caliber
ISBN-13: 978-0425262535
The story of the tiny street that sent more to fight than any similarly sized stretch in the U.S.–and changed the way the people there were viewed.
Twenty-two Mexican-American families sent 57 of their children to fight in World War II and Korea. And they all came from a single street in the railroad town of Silva, Illinois–a tiny stretch of dirt a block and a half long, now officially designated by the Department of Defense as “Hero Street.”
Death found them in many ways, and many places—in a distant jungle, a frozen forest, and trapped in the flaming wreckage of a bomber blown from the sky. One died going over a fence during the greatest paratrooper assault in history. Another, in the biggest battle of World War II. Yet another, riddled with bullets in an audacious act of heroism during a decisive onslaught a world, and a war, away. They were eight men from a single street in a railroad town called Silvis, Ill., a tiny stretch of dirt barely a block-and-a-half long, and their acts of bravery gave it the name it’s known by today: Hero Street.
About the Author:
Photo by Taimy Alvarez
Carlos Harrison
Carlos Harrison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, editor and writer of more than a dozen books in English and Spanish. A former national and international correspondent for the Fox News Channel, Harrison also has written two award-winning television documentaries and seven feature-length screenplays, as well as hundreds of newspaper articles and dozens of magazine pieces.
As a journalist, he has traveled most of the Western Hemisphere and parts of Europe, driven into the path of South Florida’s devastating Hurricane Andrew and flown into the eye of a Category 3 hurricane over the Caribbean Sea with NOAA’s famous Hurricane Hunters. After Hurricane Hugo destroyed 97 percent of the structures on St. Croix, V.I., his efforts brought in the National Guard to establish order and to evacuate dozens of international guests trapped in the ruins of their hotel. He covered the invasion of Panama and was reporting clandestinely from inside Cuba at the start of the mass rafter exodus in 1994.
As a reporter at the Miami Herald, Harrison shared the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News, covering the arrest of Yahweh Ben Yahweh, a national religious cult leader accused of ordering the murder of one of his followers.
In television, Harrison covered hundreds of stories including the hostage crisis at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru, where Tupac Amaru rebels held over a hundred of men and women until government troops raided the building and killed or captured the hostage-takers; the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva; and the changing dynamics of the global economy in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He worked at the NBC and Fox affiliates in Miami before becoming a national and international correspondent for the Fox News Channel.
In print, Harrison has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor; magazine writer for numerous national travel, celebrity and business publications; and as Deputy Managing Editor of People en Español. His books include Ricky Martin’s spiritual/inspirational memoir, Me; four Spanish-language self-help books with psychologist Dr. Isabel Gomez-Bassols; a cookbook with Emilio and Gloria Estefan; and Path of Miracles: The Seven Life-Changing Principles That Lead to Purpose and Fulfillment, written with Samuel Rodriguez Jr., president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
His most recent project is The Ghosts of Hero Street, released by Penguin in hardcover, audio and e-book formats in May 2014.
Harrison lives in Miami.