 Hemingway and
the sea
Por
Omar Pérez Santiago
(Translated by: Fernanda Manzano and
Claudia Pérez)
Ernest Hemingway presence in La
Havana, Cuba, is irrefutable for any
wanderer. In La Bodeguita del Medio you
can drink mojitos (rum with mint and
sugar) that Hemingway would drink. In El
Floridita the tourist should drink a
"Daiquiri", the drink Hemingway
liked. Moreover, I’m aware nowadays
there is a special Hemingway drink: a big
measure of rum, a finger of Toronja
juice, a half green lemon squeezed,
stirred and served very cold. While you
drink the special you can watch on the
wall some photographs of the writer with
the actors Errol Flynn and Spencer Tracy.
The places where Hemingway drank, ate
or slept are a tourist station. For
example Hemingway stayed from 1932 to
1939 in the room 511 in La Havana Vieja
in the Ambos Mundos Hotel. That room is a
museum.
The cultural visitor, looking for
something else than a spot on the beach
where to put his towel, will also go to
the Hemingway museum in the Vigia Ranch
15 kilometers away from La Havana, in the
neighbourhood of San Francisco de Paula.
Hemingway bought the estate in 1940 and
shared it with her 4th wife,
Mary Welsh, his 4 dogs and with his 57
cats. Hemingway’s museum is in the
same condition he left in 1960. Includes,
apart from the descendants from the cats,
9000 books, 500 vinyl records, personal
belongings, hunting trophies and his
famous yacht "El Pilar".
In 1932 a hurricane left the
Hemingway’s yacht isolated. Gregorio
Fuentes, a fisher born in The Canary
Islands, rescued him. In 1936, he asked
him to get in charge of his yacht and
become his fishing guide.
During 2nd world war German
submarines operated in the Cuba keys with
the mission to torpedo down American
merchant ships, which carried raw
material to make armament in the United
States. Hemingway and Gregorio Fuentes
painted the yacht in black, then armed it
with a machine gun and sailed away to
hunt submarines. In the yacht, among
others, was a radio operator from the
North American embassy. From the El
Pilar, they warned the American air force
when they spotted a submarine.
Finally, the visitor will take a short
trip to Cojimar, sailors’ village,
15 kilometres away from La Havana, the
pier where they left El Pilar.
Here the writer met fishers that used
to fish with bottles of water, sugar and
cookies, they would venture to the sea to
fish with lines, and bare handed, some
fish bigger than their boats. Gregorio
Fuentes and Ernest Hemingway would sit in
the bar La Terraza to observe the sea and
drink mojitos. If you are a lucky tourist
you may find Gregorio Fuentes at the bar
smoking a Habano. Gregorio Fuentes is
today 104 years old and he is part of the
national asset as the Dike of La Havana
the place where lovers kiss and where
there are lots of Cadillac of the
50’s.
The legend says that Gregorio Fuentes
is the alter ego of the old Santiago,
from the novel "The Old Man and The
Sea", he himself has delivered
version-myths: once they were navigating
through Pinar del Río and they saw an
old boat with an elder and a boy. The
elder was fighting with a swordfish
bigger than his boat. They approached to
help him. As they approached the old man
started yelling: "American, son of a
bitch, get out here". Hemingway told
him:" don’t mind him".
When they were away, he said: "I am
going to write a book about this
story".
Everything could be doubted. But, what
we cannot doubt in is that there in
Cojimar, between fishers, was spawned
"The Old Man and The Sea". We
must also believe in the legend, that he
wrote it, as usual, standing up and in
his portable Royal typewriter.
Gregorio Fuentes has said too that he
named the novel. Hemingway would have
asked him: "What title should I give
it, Gregorio?" And he answered:
"haven’t we met an elder? And
wasn’t he in the middle of the sea?
So, there you have the name".
Everything could be doubted, but I
don’t have any doubt that the old
Gregorio knew Hemingway better than his 4
wives.
50’s. Hemingway was a star. But
his works were suffering the sourness of
the critic. His editor returned him some
manuscript because it was not publishable.
But he liked the story about
an old Cuban man and his dramatic story,
84 days in the sea obsessed with catching
a swordfish.
In 1952 in Life magazine, The Old Man
and The Sea was published. It was a
success. Critics were talking about a
classic then. The Old Man and The Sea won
Pulitzer Prize. In 1954, Hemingway won
Nobel Prize. That distinction was
dedicated to the fishers and he deposited
the medal before the Virgin of Charity of
The Copper, Catholic Patron of Cuba.
The last time Gregorio saw Hemingway
in 1960 he told him: "take care of
Pilar as you have been doing."
Then he came back to his country and
the next year he committed suicide.
Of this suicide, for respect to the
dead, we cannot doubt.
Neither I hesitate to believe that the
writer left the yacht El Pilar to
Gregorio in his will. I think it was an
act of brotherhood
But Gregorio could not guarantee the
yacht security. He says that he talked to
Fidel Castro when he went to visit it.
The truth is that shortly the Comandante
sent a crane and a van, took it away.
The ship where he caught needlefish and
"hunted" German submarines
along with Gregorio Fuentes sits now at
the Vigia Ranch, in its yard, between
ferns, mango trees, and the sons of his
cats.
That is the truth.
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