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Ernest
Hemingway isn't just remembered in Cuba, he's
an institution and a cottage industry. The rambunctious
American writer first started frequenting the
island in the 1920s, when he was living just across
the straits in Key
West, the southernmost of the islands
on the tip of the U.S. state of Florida.
He moved there with his third wife Martha Gellhorn
in 1940 and lived there until 1960, when he returned
to the United States for medical treatment. He
committed suicide the following year in Ketchum,
Idaho. |
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Cuba
formed the backdrop for a lot of his writing, particularly
'The Old Man and the Sea', and the farm he lived in became
a pilgrimage in the 1950s for Hollywood's rich and fashionable.
Hemingway was genuinely loved in Cuba, where he was known
simply as "Ernesto" (his rather self-conscious attempts
to spread his own preferred nickname of "Papa" were
not quite as successful). In his turn, he donated his own
Nobel prize for Literature to the Cuban people, and when the
dictatorship of Fulgencio
Batista was overthrown by Castro in 1959 he was
reported to have been delighted.
Hemingway
met Castro
in 1960, when Fidel awarded him several prizes for big
game fishing. As narcissists obsessed with their own
macho images, the two men had a lot in common. He described
the revolution as 'an honest' one but it also has to
be remembered that he died before Castro
had declared himself to be a Communist.
All
his haunts have now, predictably, become tourist meccas
in Cuba. Starting with the Floridita
bar he used to frequent in Havana, to his farm Finca
Vigia which now lies on the edge of the expanding city,
to the little fishing village of Cojimar 10 km east
of Havana where he kept his yacht. Finca Vigia is now
a museum with Hemingway's library of 9,000 books, stuffed
heads and the typewriter he used to compose many of
his masterpieces all laid out just as they were. One
thing which might alarm Castro
supporters and revolutionaries the world over is that
the Cuban leader was reported to have taken Hemingway's
'For Whom the Bell Tolls' - an account of the Spanish
civil war - into the Sierra with him in the 1950s to
read as an example of guerrilla war. Master wordsmith
Hemingway certainly was but history has shown him to
be a rather less reliable historian or journalist! |
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| Cojimar |
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Ernest's
fishing boat 'El Pilar' is on display here. Cojimar
is used as the setting for Hemingway's Nobel prize
winning novel, 'The Old Man and the Sea'.
In
1962 a huge neo-clasical monument was built in
Cojimar to honor Hemingway, and in its center
is featured a guilded bust of the great American
author and international sportsman.
Favorite
spots of Ernest Hemingway:
"La
Bodeguita del Medio", the bar in
Habana Vieja where he used to drink his Mojitos.
"La
Floridita" In Habana
Vieja as well for drinking his Daiquiries. Both
bars are today very touristic and expensive places.
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The
Museo Hemingway
Monday
to Saturday: Open from 9 am till 4 pm
Sunday: Open from 9 am till 12.30 pm
Admisson about $3
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Gregorio
Fuentes |
Born
July 11 1897, Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Hemingway's
captain was probably the role model for the main character
in the 'Old Man and the Sea'. He had lived at Calle
98 #209 till January 2002. He immigrated to Cuba as
a 6-year-old boy onboard a ship in which his father
was the cook. Tragically, his father died during the
voyage. Another Canary Island immigrant took care of
him. Around 1930 Hemingway hired Fuentes to captain
his boat, 'El
Pilar', named after his wife at the time. After Hemingway
left Cuba Fuentes donated the boat to the Cuban government.
January
13, 2002
HAVANA,
Cuba (AP) --
Gregorio Fuentes, who was boat captain to Ernest Hemingway
when the late American writer lived in Cuba, died early
Sunday at age 104, his family said. Fuentes had suffered
from cancer.
For
nearly 30 years, Fuentes was captain, cook and friend
to the American writer.
Many say he was the inspiration for the protagonist
in Hemingway's classic 'The
Old Man and the Sea'."He died in the house he had
always lived in," his grandson Rafael Fuentes,
48, told The Associated Press. He has buried Sunday
afternoon.
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Ernest
Hemingways ...
The Old Man and the Sea
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NOW >> |
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