{"id":1979,"date":"2015-04-17T11:37:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T18:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=1979"},"modified":"2017-01-13T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T23:43:10","slug":"hemingway-in-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/hemingway-in-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Hemingway In Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two weeks in Havana, I have many stories about Ernest Hemingway<\/a> in Cuba. There are tours to all of the Nobel prize-winning author’s haunts: the bars that he frequented, the hotel room where he wrote, and his home outside of Havana. Not surprisingly, he’s revered by Cubans. He wrote about their life and their people.<\/p>\n

The Old Man And The Sea<\/h3>\n

\"Hemingway<\/a>He loved the country. When he won the Nobel prize for his novel, The Old Man And The Sea<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, he gave his award to the Cuban people for inspiring\u00a0his\u00a0 story.<\/p>\n

Essentially, this book is\u00a0about an old fisherman, a young boy and a fish. But it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s about the power of the human spirit to keep going despite all odds. It’s also about the\u00a0dignity of nature and old age.<\/p>\n

\"Hemingway

\u00a9 Bar Floridita<\/p><\/div>\n

To honour the writer, the fishermen of Cojimar raised money for a bronze sculpture of him. It sits in the bar, Floridita<\/strong>, where he liked to drink\u00a0daiquiris.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hemingway was a man, larger than life itself. He bravely re-imagined how to tell a story by trimming<\/a> unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. He was a master at getting inside his character\u2019s heads and writing their inner dialogue.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 was surprised to discover that there were no chapters in The Old Man And The Sea. <\/em><\/strong>The story moved well. I was quickly drawn in. That\u2019s because the subject matter is about life itself, through the mind of an unlikely hero\u2014a fisherman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stopping at a Hemingway Bar<\/h3>\n
\"Hemingway

\u00a9 La Bodeguita Del Medio<\/p><\/div>\n

Another stop on our walks through Havana was La Bodeguito del Medio<\/strong>, a\u00a0tiny bar overwhelmed by\u00a0tourists waiting for to taste a mojito.<\/p>\n

The crowd wasn’t there so much for the drink as it was for the fact that Hemingway used to stop there to drink\u00a0that rum cocktail.\u00a0 The bar’s walls are covered with\u00a0signatures, paying homage to the writer; and\u00a0on one wall facing the street,\u00a0is hung a rendering\u00a0of the actor, Morgan Freeman. I suppose he was a fan as well.<\/p>\n

Where Hemingway Wrote<\/h3>\n
\"Hemingway

\u00a9 Hemingway’s Typewriter<\/p><\/div>\n

While Hemingway was in Havana, he liked to write in room 511 in the Hotel Ambos Mundos. It was where he wrote some of For Whom The Bell Tolls<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em> It’s a small room, now preserved as a museum. It boasts a fine view of the city, a twin bed, a bookcase, various memorabilia, and his typewriter (protected by plexiglass).<\/p>\n

In Hotel Mercure \"HemingwaySevilla, where we stayed,\u00a0management claims that Hemingway wrote some of For Whom The Bell Tolls<\/strong> <\/em>on their premises, and displays a letter\u00a0from the author, attesting to that fact.<\/p>\n

Although we didn’t visit his house outside of Havana, it’s listed\u00a0in guide books as containing 4,000-6,000 books, which were appropriated by Fidel Castro when he took over running the country. As they say, if you want to be a good writer, you also have to be an avid reader.<\/p>\n

Though I elected not to drink at any of the bars he frequented as the prices of dauqiris and mojitos were twice what they were elsewhere, I appreciated how many fans Hemingway still has. The museum guide at\u00a0the Hotel Ambos Mundos mentioned that even the award-winning Canadian author, Margaret Atwood<\/a>, had\u00a0visited\u00a0his room. And for a writer, whose occupation is often to sit alone in front of a computer, typewriter or notepad, that\u2019s really something, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After two weeks in Havana, I have many stories about Ernest Hemingway in Cuba. There are tours to all of the Nobel prize-winning author’s haunts: the bars that he frequented,… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[744,753,4],"tags":[25,699,78,702,224,700,703,9,7,701,33],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-travel","category-writing","tag-author","tag-cuba","tag-diana-stevan","tag-for-whom-the-bell-tolls","tag-hemingway","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-nobel","tag-novel","tag-story","tag-the-old-man-and-the-sea","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Oldmansea.jpg?fit=200%2C292&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-vV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2033,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/finding-graham-greene-and-the-mob-in-a-havana-hotel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":0},"title":"Finding Graham Greene And The Mob In A Havana Hotel","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"1 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Hotel Mercure Sevilla, where we recently stayed in 2015, is where Hemingway wrote some of Farewell To Arms,\u00a0but it's also known as the place \u00a0Graham Greene chose to write one of his many prize-winning novels. Hotel Mercure Sevilla Typically when we went on holidays to some other country, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Our Man In Havana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/819.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/819.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/819.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/819.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/819.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2557,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2016\/writing\/writers-gold-found-memories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":1},"title":"Writers’ Gold Found In Memories","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"31 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Drawing On Memories With Easter come and gone, I'm struck by how memories, of what once was, hit me during this time. A few tears were shed as I recalled generations sitting around the table feasting on my mother's delicious cooking, followed by the cracking of coloured eggs and Ukrainian\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Memories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_6384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_6384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_6384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_6384.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":774,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/hemingway-a-master-of-less-is-more-more-or-less\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":2},"title":"Hemingway, A Master of Less Is More, More or Less","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"3 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ernest Hemingway was the master of saying a lot with less.\u00a0 Everything I read suggests novice writers\u2014and some published writers\u2014use too many words to get their point across. They use \u00a0too many explanations; they do too much telling rather than showing. Not for Hemingway, the use of unnecessary adjectives and\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/hemingway.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/why-do-writers-write-what-they-write\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":3},"title":"Why Do Writers Write What They Write?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"18 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The question of why\u00a0writers write what they write came up a while back,\u00a0when I caught an interview that Stephen Colbert did with author, Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer\u00a0and Nobel Prize winner, who started writing at age 39. Stephen asked Toni Morrison if she was undergoing a mid-life crisis at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"180px-Beloved_by_Toni_Morrison","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/180px-Beloved_by_Toni_Morrison.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1313,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/unsung-writers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":4},"title":"Unsung Writers","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"8 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that I\u2019ve immersed myself in all manner of writerly pursuits, I\u2019m discovering wonderful writers who have no fame. They\u2019re a mixture of talents\u2014some who\u2019ve been at the game for decades, others who are just starting. And yet, they all have something to say and they say it well.\u00a0 Their\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Random House","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Random-House-288x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6847,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2025\/writing\/folding-memories-into-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":1979,"position":5},"title":"Folding Memories into Story","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing What You Know Ernest Hemingway, the wonderful author of great works such as\u00a0The Sun Also Rises\u00a0and\u00a0For Whom the Bell Tolls,\u00a0was a master of folding memories into story. After he had received another bout of shock treatments, he said to a friend, \u201cWhat is the sense of ruining my head\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Folding memories into story","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}