Hemingway, Cuba, Boston, and The Old Man and The Sea

Hemingway, Cuba, Boston and The Old Man and The Sea
Hemingway Museum, "Finca Vigía"
San Francisco de Paula
12 miles from Havana
April 7, 2019

Cuba and Ernest Hemingway. Just about everyone knows the names and has opinions about them. Few know about Finca Vigía, one of the man’s favorite refuges 12 miles outside Havana. 

It had everything that mattered to Papa…it was close to the sea, far enough from Havana for him to relax on his own terms, large enough to host parties with literati and movie stars with names like Ava Gardner, located on a rise that offered a panoramic view of Havana, and close enough to El Floridita , his favorite watering hole in Havana, where Constantino Ribalaigua would be waiting, shaker in hand, ready to mix a "Papa Doble." 

The main home, guest quarters, outdoor pool, his dry-docked yacht “Pilar,” have been an international tourist attraction for years.  Although Hemingway’s home on twelve-acre site is called a museum it’s the only museum I’ve ever been to that you can’t get inside. 

Along with other tourists piling out of tour buses on my visit in 2015, I walked around the back of the sprawling house gawking into windows and felt like an extra on the set of the TV series called  “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”  I don’t know why a bathroom or living room once occupied by a larger than life character becomes a tourist attraction but there I was getting in position to photograph the orderly interior through the windows, closed to keep the interior climate controlled and the public from rummaging through the man's library, closets, and desk drawers.

Ernest Hemingway was a brand way before the term became fashionable. His handsome mustachioed face was on a black and white cover of the September 1, 1952 Life Magazine, the gold standard of the American Dream in the 1940s and 1950s. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He often wintered at Finca Vigía (Lookout Farm). Between 1939 and 1961, Hemingway spent more time in Cuba than in any other place on earth. 

Peering inside those windows, walking around the Pilar and the empty pool, I conjure the magic and mystique of the man whose books I read as a college student. I imagine the musty scent of those books that line the shelves and the hands that leafed through them. The artifacts in the house, all in a state as if he’d just left for an afternoon of banging down his favorite daiquiris at El Floridita, are vaguely connecting with an experience that began after my youthful reading of 'A Farewell To Arms' then later 'The Old Man And The Sea'.

The lookout tower, a few steps from Hemingway’s house, is open to the public. The one room at the top is a perfect Hemingway scene…ancient Corona typewriter, a telescope, bookshelves, and portrait of Hemingway on safari in Africa are juice enough to imagine the man, cigar clenched between teeth, clattering away on the vintage typewriter and taking occasional breaks to peer through that telescope to see the weather in Havana. I'm standing in a tourist attraction that feels more like a shrine. A sense of reverence seems to float over the site like the smoke from one of Papa’s cigars.

Cuba is changing and by Cuban standards, changing fast. The economic reforms begun in 2012 ended the days of everyone being equally poor and have begun an inevitable era in which people with capital can become a class of unequally rich. Tourism, an undeniable change agent, generated over 4.5 million arrivals in 2017, and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island.

I signed onto a Road Scholars trip to Cuba in 2015. Like others on the trip, I wanted to see Cuba before it might end up being gobbled up by Starbucks, Wal-Mart, become a consumer economy, and, for better or worse, lose what we thought to be its unspoiled Buena Vista Social Club ethos. 
(NOTE: as of January 15, 2015, “Educational Activities” is one of the 12 categories in which Americans can visit Cuba without prior permission of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control)

Cuba has a rich cultural history but is not overly sentimental about it. Over the years, the architectural splendor of the homes along Havana’s north facing Malecón have been allowed to slide into elegant decay, unoccupied and crumbling from the effects of the Atlantic Ocean. Time, benign neglect, and tropical conditions took a similar toll on the buildings and grounds that comprise the Hemingway Museum. A recently found letter confirms that Mary Hemingway intended Finca Vigía, which became the property of the Cuban government after the revolution, to be a gift to the people of Cuba in memory of her husband.

In 2001, a near miraculous set of circumstances led to a collaboration between the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation and the Cuban group Consejo Nacional de Patrimnio Cultura. Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern, who forged a positive relationship with Fidel Castro in 2002, facilitated the inter-government restoration that saved the property from ruin. The Finca Vigia Foundation painstakingly and respectfully restored the interior and its contents, and intends to open a paper conservation center on the property to preserve Hemingway’s personal papers, manuscripts, and his 9000 book library. It helped that Fidel was a Hemingway fan, especially after reading 'For Whom The Bell Tolls,' with its sympathy for the loyalists’ failed resistance to Francisco Franco’s fascist Spanish regime. 

Cuban and American preservation specialists, architects, engineers, restored Finca Vigia to look exactly like it did the day Hemingway walked away from it in 1960…and that’s the attraction I saw that day in 2015, totally unaware of its transformation.

Cuba’s history in the 2000s, the revolution that unseated a brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista and the U.S. embargo that followed the Castro years, is complex. Whether the socialist state of the Castro years was a sociological net plus or minus is going to be debated as the future unfolds. Nevertheless, with its mix of Spanish and African roots, Cuba is still the least commercialized island in the Caribbean. 

Hemingway wrote “The Old Man And The Sea” at Finca Vigia. Many believe that Gregorio Fuentes, the first mate on Hemingway’s boat Pilar that was moored in nearby Cojimar was an inspiration for the Old Man. 

World photographer Keith Cardwell’s photo of Gregorio Fuentes was recently gifted to me by a friend of Cardwell’s.  Cardwell’s book Cuba, The Buena Vista Years, 15 years in the making, shows the island, its everyday people, leaders, and way of life in poignant black and white photographs. His photo of Gregorio Fuentes is one of them. Perhaps my parlor is now the northernmost outpost of the Hemingway Museum.

Photo essay...

The main house at Finca Vigía, "Lookout Farm," built on a hill in San Francisco de Paula in 1886 . Hemingway spent time there between 1939 and 1960. The twelve acre property contains a guest house, a lookout tower, swimming pool that Hemingway used daily, and his dry-docked boat Pilar.

The master bedrooom and guest room. Evidence of Hemingway's pride in his hunting is in nearly every room in the  house. With its cream-colored walls, buffed floors, and handsome wood furniture, the low profile, single floor home has an aura of spare elegance and modernity.

 

Hemingway's study and library. The home has 9000 books crammed in shelves in every room including the bathroom...

along with works of art and trophies from his safaris in Africa and the American west.

Hemingway obsessively recorded his weight and blood pressure on the bathroom wall...

and that inspired this photo of me and our extraordinarily knowledgeable Cuban guide, Yohandra (“Jo”) imagining adding our heights to Hemingway's bathroom wall.

A former garage, then guest house and now office; the in-ground pool in which Ava Gardner is said to have skinny-dipped; Hemingway's boat "Pilar" now refurbished, sits in a cradle next to the pool. Pilar is the name of a heroic character in "For Whom The Bell Tolls" ; also the nickname of Pauline, one of Hemingway's four wives.

Here the elegant yacht sits, with varnished brightwork and meticulous detailing, its finely chiseled prow pointing toward the sea, as if waiting for Papa to come aboard for a day of fishing for marlins.Were it not for the Finca Vigía Foundation, Pilar may have been lost to dry rot and decay. Pilar was restored with technical advice from a consultant from Mystic Seaport and lovingly rebuilt by Cuban boat builders who removed plants and termite nests before restoring and added temperature and humidity gauges in the galley to monitor data when they finished.

 

The captain's chair in which Papa fished for marlin. Even when officials arrive for a viewing, NO ONE is allowed to sit in Papa's chair.

The lookout tower was built by Hemingway's fourth wife. On the third top level sits a typewriter, desk, a chaise-lounge, a painting of Hemingway posing cheerfully next to a kill on safari, a telescope, and of course, more  books. It is said that the man had a hard time throwing things away, certainly was the case with books.

He and his guests certainly enjoyed the glorious vista from the top of the "Lookout," with Havana on the horizon.

Tourists of all ages have reasons to visit and arrive by taxi and tour buses ...

and can relax in the shade of banyans, bamboo and celiba trees outside the house.

Next to the entry gate, remnants of a  small baseball diamond on which Papa, his sons, and neighborhood boys played the sport that has captivated Cuban boys for nearly a century...stay tuned for a story about Hemingway pitching to neighborhood kids on this lawn just inside the gate.

Keith Cardwell's photo of Gregorio Fuentes, the first mate on El Pilar, who is said to be the man who inspired Hemingway's "Old Man And The Sea." When Hemingway left, he entrusted Pilar to Gregorio. When Gregorio Fuentes died he left the boat to the people of Cuba. The vessel was lovingly restored as part of the Finca Vigía Foundation.

Photos,with the exception of the photo of the three-story lookout, by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2015/11/cuba-chronicles-cigars-and-rum.html

 

Comments

[Keith Cardwell]

FAB

[Keith Cardwell]

GREGORIO IS LOOKING AT THE CIGAR TO CHECK HOW LONG HE HAS GOT TO SPEAK BEFORE PULLING ONCE MORE ... If the ash goes too white it will go out and a cuban was never meant to be relit.

[Carol Williamson]

Thanks, Paul, for the update on Finca Vigia. Our visit to Hemingway’s home was one of the highlights of a very special Road Scholar adventure, and your message brought back lots of wonderful memories.

Carol (and Mike) Williamson

[Mary Moore]

Thank you so much for this email. Brings back many fond memories of this trip.

[Jay Grant]

Thanks for keeping in touch…Jay

[Keith Cardwell]

I adored the old man and thought it a priviledge to sit with him for 2 hours ..... HE SMOKED A ROBANA CIGGY

[Eva Benz]

what a nice surprise, it brings back very good memories ready to go again. Just came back from Tanzania and Kenya if anybody would like to go, go it is unbelievable.
Thank You
Eva

[Pat Whitfield]

Lovely to hear from a fellow traveler from our lovely trip to Cuba. Can you believe it' s been 3 1/2/ years? Thank you so much.

[Bobbie Asano]

Hello Paul!
I was just thinking that we hadn’t heard from you in a while and wondered how you’re doing, then your email arrived! I didn’t have a chance to read all the articles yet but will try to get to it this weekend.
The restoration work sounds like a labor of love but I don’t remember it being mentioned while we were at Finca Vigia. What a beautiful, peaceful house. No wonder Hemingway spent so much time here.
Looking back at my pictures, I found this one of you in Cojimar. Can’t wait to get your post.

[Megan Bates]

Hi PT!
Well, I learned more about Finca from your write up than I did while I was there!

-Megan

[KB Jones]

Paul,
Exceptional! Maybe I can finally get to Cuba by volunteering at this museum. In any case, you took me there through this story. It reminded me in a small way of my first visit to the Gropius House years ago, seeing the desk of the great man. Your story though describes the essence of Hemingway through one of his houses.You paint the picture for me with your words.