Talking to Strangers

by

Malcolm Gladwell

El Alpinista (“the Mountain Climber”) was a former Havana station chief who defected to work with the CIA. He was a role model to Florentino Aspillaga, a Cuban intelligence officer who defected in 1987 and shared with el Alpinista the shocking revelation that many of the CIA spies operating within Cuba were really working as double agents for the Cuban government.

El Alpinista Quotes in Talking to Strangers

The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by El Alpinista or refer to El Alpinista. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Default to Truth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

This is what makes no sense about Florentino Aspillaga’s story. It would be one thing if Cuba had deceived a group of elderly shut-ins, the way scam artists do. But the Cubans fooled the CIA, an organization that takes the problem of understanding strangers very seriously.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Florentino Aspillaga, El Alpinista
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
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Talking to Strangers PDF

El Alpinista Quotes in Talking to Strangers

The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by El Alpinista or refer to El Alpinista. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Default to Truth Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

This is what makes no sense about Florentino Aspillaga’s story. It would be one thing if Cuba had deceived a group of elderly shut-ins, the way scam artists do. But the Cubans fooled the CIA, an organization that takes the problem of understanding strangers very seriously.

Related Characters: Malcolm Gladwell (speaker), Florentino Aspillaga, El Alpinista
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis: