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Unidentified woman, Mary Hemingway, Juan “Sinsky” Dunabeitia, Ernest Hemingway, and Gianfranco Ivancich dining at Finca Vigía. Photo courtesy of Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection. John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston.

Zoom In: Hemingway in Cuba

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1932-1961:  We decided to focus on these years because they are paramount in understanding Hemingway’s life in Cuba, and the aftermath that preceded his suicide. We started with his marriage to Martha Gellhorn, their purchase of Finca Vigia, his home for 22 years before his “voluntary exile” back to his autumn home in Ketchum Idaho. 

Three of Hemingway’s novels touch upon his relationship to Cuba, beginning with when he lived in Key West and would frequently make trips to Cuba to experience the local culture, or to fish the waters. Those novels are To Have and Have Not (1937), The Old Man and the Sea (1952) and Islands in the Stream (posthumously published in 1970). 

Looking at Hemingway’s life in comparison to Cuban history will help students to more fully appreciate the influences Cuban history had on his life and work. We appreciate it that this is an ongoing project begun by University of Tampa students, and we hope that others may build upon what we have done here. There remains a lot left to unpack about Hemingway’s time in Cuba; for example, although it is beyond the scope of our current charge for this academic year, other students may dig deeper into Hemingway’s life in Cuba under Batista’s reign, during Castro’s rise to power, and the secrecy that still surrounds much of his life, such as whispers about the Crook Factory and the files that the FBI may have had on this great American author. 

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  • 1932

    • April-June: Hemingway lives in the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Havana to go Marlin fishing with friends​

  • 1933

    • February: Hemingway starts writing To Have and Have Not – part of which takes places in Cuba

    • Autumn 1933: Hemingway writes his first nonfiction piece in Cuba titled “Marlins Off the Morro: A Cuban Letter”

  • 1934 

    • April: Hemingway writes his first short story that takes place in Cuba titled “One Trip Across”

    • July: Hemingway goes on a scientific and fishing expedition of Marlin for one month

  • 1936

    • February: Hemingway publishes “The Tradesman Return” which is set in Cuba

    • October: Hemingway receives information about revolutionary activity in Cuba and uses it in To Have and Have Not

  • 1939

    • February: Hemingway goes to Havana for a month and stays in the Ambos Mundos hotel and starts writing For Whom the Bells Toll

    • March: Hemingway writes “Nobody Ever Dies” a short story that takes place in Cuba

    • April: Writes a nonfiction piece about old Cuban fisherman

    • May: Hemingway first rents Finca Vigia

  • 1940

    • October: “For Whom the Bells Toll” comes out to critical acclaim

    • November: Hemingway married Martha Gellihorn

  • 1942

    • May: Hemingway starts doing counterintelligence in Cuba using his boat to patrol for submarines

      • These end in 1944

    • Hemingway works with the government to help find Nazi sympathizers on Cuba 

      • Ends in 1943

  • 1944

    • April: leaves Cuba to become a war correspondent for the war in Europe 

  • 1945

    • January: Hemingway divorce Martha

    • March: Hemngway returns back to Cuba

  • 1945-1947

    • Hemingway is increasingly focused on his writing while in Cuba – Garden of Eden and Islands in the Stream

    • March 1946: Hemingway married Mary Welsh

  • 1948

  • 1950

    • June: Hemingway finishes Across the River

    • September: Hemingway’s depression worsens while he is in Cuba

    • December: Hemingway finishes The Island and the Stream in Finca Vigna, Starts The Old Man and the Sea

  • 1952

    • September: The Old Man and the Sea is published selling more than five million copies in two days

  • 1953

    • May: Hemingway receives the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea

    • July: Hemingway receives the Order of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Cuba’s highest honor for civilians

  • 1954

  • 1955

    • March: Hemingway starts work on a new book on Africa at Finca Vigia

  • 1957

    • August: Batista Soldiers kill Hemingway’s dog and enter Finca Vigia looking for rebels

    • Fall: Hemingway starts work on Garden at Finca Vigia

    • Hemingway dumps weapons in the sea to disassociate himself with any political activity

  • 1959

    • November: Hemingway calls himself a true Cuban and kisses the flag

  • 1960

    • May: Hemingway meets Fidel Castro after a fishing tournament 

    • July: Hemingway leaves Cuba for the last time

  • 1961

    • Hemingway commits suicide in Kechum, Idaho

Hemingway's bed in the Ambos Mundos 

The entrance to Finca Vigia Hemingway's home in Cuba for twenty years

Hemingway's boat the Pilar

Graves of Hemingway's dogs in Cuba

Hemingway receiving the Nobel Prize in his home in Cuba

The above photographs capture the only time that Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro ever met. It was at a fishing competition in May, 1960, that was held in Hemingway’s honor. Hemingway judged the competition, and Castro competed in it. Upon Castro winning the competition, Hemingway presented Castro with a trophy and several photos were taken to commemorate the occasion. According to an article in Life magazine, the two were recorded as having the following conversation: “I am a novice at fishing,” said Castro. To which Hemingway replied, “You are a lucky novice (Michaud).”

 

While it is remembered as being a brief meeting, throughout which they only discussed fishing, it is often used as proof in Cuba that Hemingway and Castro were on good terms. There is a common mythologization of Hemingway as a sympathizer for the Cuban rebellion, sometimes going so far as to say that Hemingway actively supported the rebels. There is no evidence to suggest anything of that nature, yet this photograph still remains as a symbol of Hemingway’s support. In fact, the photographs can be found on the walls of different bars around the country. It is understandable that Cuba would want to establish a link between two of their greatest heroes, but these photos don’t seem to prove anything more than Hemingway and Castro being in the same place at one time.

 

Many people have speculated about the obscure nature of this meeting. John Updike, an acclaimed writer and poet, wrote a poem about the encounter entitled “Meditation on a News Item.” To him it seemed comical and strange that two such important men would meet in such an unlikely place (Michaud). He wrote,

 

as strange

to me as if there were found,

in a Jacobean archive, an unquestionably authentic

woodcut showing Shakespeare

presenting the blue ribbon for Best Cake Baked

to Queen Elizabeth.

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For more on this topic, see this article in The New Yorker. 

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Group Two Downloadable Timeline
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In a c. 1953 photo, Hemingway stands before a portrait of himself by Waldo Peirce (1884–1970) titled Portrait of Ernest Hemingway (Kid Balzac) (1929). John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Ernest Hemingway Collection; photograph courtesy of the Ernest Hemingway Collection.

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Image found in The Magazine of Antiques 2020 "At Home with Ernest Hemingway." 

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