CUBAN TRANSITIONS

I  could not find a way to contain my excitement when I learned  that I would be visiting the home (Finca Vigia) of one of the greatest American writers of all time, Ernest Hemingway, one whom I have admired for quite some time. As the small group of us pulled up to his beautiful country house in San Francisco de Paula, I could feel the weight of the moment sinking in. This is where Hemingway wrote great classics like, The Old Man and the Sea, and where he went to escape the rest of his crazy hectic life to simply relax. However, visiting the gift shop on my way out of this writer’s paradise and spotting a photo of Hemingway and Fidel in a friendly embrace got me pondering Hemingway’s feelings towards the new regime and more curious about the history of Finca Vigia. What I learned through further investigation is that Hemingway moved to Vigia in 1939 and was pleased with Fidel’s overthrowing of Batista in 1959 and life in Cuba until in 1960 when Fidel wanted to nationalize the property owned by all Americans and foreigners. This major dispute tied with Hemingway’s ongoing struggle with depression signaled that it was time to move back to the states and so in 1960 Hemingway and his then wife Mary decided to relocate themselves to Idaho. Hemingway left behind numerous pieces of art and manuscripts in his home and due to the recent American embargo, he was not allowed to retrieve many of his personal belongings.

One of the various rooms in Finca Vigia covered with book shelves.

Hemingway would go on to take his life in 1961 to a brutal suicide, much like his father, with a single bullet to the mouth blowing out his brains. In the same year, after the Bay of Pigs invasion, Finca Vigia was expropiated by the Cuban government complete with Hemingway’s collection of four to six thousand books. Cuba has stated that Hemingway’s wife agreed to deed the home complete with furnishing and library to the Cuban government but Mary has stated that the Cuban government contacted her saying that they planned to just expropiate the house along with all real property in Cuba. Mary was able to negotiate the return of Hemingway’s manuscripts that were secured in a safe in the home, but the majority of the belongings were abandoned.

Over the last two decades there has been worry over Cuba’s ability to respectfully preserve Finca Vigia. The house has been listed as one of the 11 most endangered historic sites as well as a site on the list for the fund of biennial world monuments that are endangered. The most obvious reason behind these claims are Cuba’s  inefficiencies and lack of  resources that developed during the special period. In an article that was published in the New York Times in 2008, the Irish writer, Adrian Mckinty alleged that during a visit to the home, a Cuban policeman offered him any book in Hemingway’s library for only $200. The reality of this may seem frightening but people have not lost all hope. There are a couple of American based preservation groups that have been working with the Cuban government in equipping the staff of the museum on ways to effectively preserve. These groups have also help to strengthen US-Cuba relations on some levels. It is estimated that there are 9,000 books in Hemingway’ library, approximately 20% with writing in the margins. There are several thousand letter and telegrams, with more than 2,000 photographs, scrapbooks, manuscripts, and galley proofs. Hemingway may be gone, but he left behind a lot for us to remember him by.