HEMINGWAY IN CUBA

            A few miles from Havana is San Francisco de Paula, a small town.  Heminglway and his wife Martha purchased a small home there and dubbed it “Finca Vigía” or “Lookout Farm.”  He loved Cuba, especially Havana, and lived there for 20 years.  He is a revered figure in Cuba, honored alongside José Martí, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.  He spent a lot of time fishing and writing.

           Sloppy Joe’s was a fixture there at the time.  The original restaurant was located in Key West site of another famous Hemingway home.  The Bar/restaurant fell on hard times during prohibition and its owners opened another one in Havana. 

After the Revolution, the bar there fell on hard times since 90% of its patrons were American.  It closed in the 60s and reopened in 2013.

It was in Cuba that he got the inspiration for one of his most famous and endearing stories, “The Old Man and the Sea.”  The book received both the Nobel prize for Literature and a Pulitzer prize.  The old man was a real person, Gregoria Fuentes. 

 The story was actually written while Hemingway was in Bimini, another of his favorite haunts.  He stayed at the famous Compleat Angler Hotel there from 1935 to 1937.  It burned in 2006.

            Hemingway loved Havana but his wife wanted to be away from the frenzy of urban living so they bought Finca Vigía.  She had a tower built so he could look out over Havana while he wrote.  He never used the tower though, preferring to stand at a typewriter in a quiet room of the house.

            He was an avid big game hunter and took trophies while on African safari.  Many of them can be seen throughout the house.