"Do and Live," under these two statementsæraised to the category of self-imposing maximsæErnest Hemingway’s life evolved. A vigorous personality "a man of bronze and porcelain," the writer was mostly and above all and, on principle, essentially human. He was a man of action, contradictory; tough, weak and at the same time, brave, fearful, decisive and irresolute and on some occasions had a high sense of humor and in others very tragic; almost ferocious when angry and a passionate lover and friend as well, though solitary in intimacy as the demands posed by the "most lonely trade of the world".

The Nobel Prize of Literature winner in 1954 was singular not only in its unique literary style, easily identifiable even by those who are not so acquainted with his work, it was also singular in his concepts, costumes and forms of life. Perhaps his temperament and personality conditioned his life, or rather life itself as an omnipotent designer imposed its domains and shaped his destiny, that double role of writer-character. Undoubtedly when speaking on Hemingway, it is his rich personality what arises, his vital experiences which come to confirm what has been stated. Since his early youth experimented a paradoxical attraction for adventure, war, violent passions, death. Challenging danger, living with it, was a permanent must, a magnetic force that ruled his life as a writer. Activities such as fishing, hunting, boxing, bull fights are the sports whose practice represented, not only the enjoyment of a given feeling, but also the need for self-assurance, the need to touch the very borders of life. In his life as a journalistæwar reporteræ Hemingway participated in the battlefield during World War I. Later he will also be a protagonist in the Spanish Civil War and a "hunter" of German submarines, among other missions, in the last armed confrontation faced by mankind. The experiences and horrors that he faced in the front, determined its "anti-heroic" war mission, his firm condemnation toward the destructive phenomenon. The ideas, themes, characters and feelings which are present in his novels, reflects the anguish of life and post-war frustrations, no matter how splendid and prosper the future of the nation seemed to be for the "proud US citizen". These feelings which have become a vital philosophy are a common denominator in Hemingway’s works, always present even in those writings where he seems to be more optimistic and expresses more sympathy as For Whom the Bells Toll or The Old Man and the Sea, the latter regarded as the "swan song" of his literary career from which a paradigmatic maxim established: "Man can be destroyed but not defeated". Specialists believe that the writer arrived on the vapor ship Orita, of British flag, and so is written at the entry register of this vessel on the books at Morro Castle, the most emblematic fortress of Havana. He came accompanied by his second wife Pauline Pfaiffer on a trip from France toward Key West that made a call in Havana. She had five months of pregnancy. A year later, the young reporter came again aboard the ship Anita to catch needlefish and since then he deeply loved Cuba. However, some researchers state that he arrived in the island attracted by a tempestuous woman named Jane Mason. According to this version, it was in 1929 when the American multimillionaire George Grant Mason—representative of the Pan American Airways was transferred to Havana with his wife, a lady that was bored in his husband’s new place. Hemingway, 20, appeared in her life and succumbed to her beauty. During the first period he lived in the island, stayed at Ambos Mundos Hotel, located in the old section of the capital, in room 511 that today is shown as a relic. From there, the writer had an interesting image of the capital and concluded some of his writings. It was a good operational place for him. Between 1929 and 1936, Hemingway had an active life in Havana, he frequented bars such as El Floridita. This site was for him like a shelter and he even coined a drink with its name, Double Papa or Hemingway Special, a variety of daiquiri, with Cuban white rum, grapefruit juice, lemon, maraschino and ice, i.e. he eliminated sugar and added more rum. He used to drink until 12 tall glasses of these blends, and carried with him a couple of them to drink them on the way back home, to his Vigía Farm where everything has been left in the same place when he was alive. Rather close to the Havana is Cojímar, a fishermen town located at eastern Havana where he used to moor his boat Pilar. In 1930 Hemingway sailed along the central northern cays of Cuba as Guillermo, Coco, Romano and Maternillos Lighthouse. He also visited Camagüey toward the eastern region of Cuba, especially villages as Palm City, a special town founded by Germans, according to some researchers as Cuban writer Enrique Cirules. These are the years when the myth of Hemingway enrooted, before his definitive establishment in Cuba in 1940. Then he traveled to the cays of Cayo Confites and Cayo Lobo, after two American ships were sunken by German submarines. Cayo Mégano de Casiguas is located on the westernmost tip of the northern zone of Pinar del Río province, baptized by Hemingway as "Paradise," still known by that name. He used to go to rest taken by Gregorio, his master aboard Pilar, he landed and then read, slept or shared his time with his fourth and last wife, Mary Welsh. Following the same route of Hemingway in Cuba, it is relevant to stress that in 1956 at the ball room of Hatuey Brewing Factory located in Havana—in a place that should be recalled every August 13—the novelist handed over Cubans the medal granted as a Nobel-prize winner of Literature in 1954. Ernest Miller Hemingway, the person that shot himself to death with his own hunting rifle on July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho, received in the fifties, merits from the then Cuban Tourism Institute for his contribution to this industry and now his steps resemble a unique trace, followed by experts and even for those who are not acquainted with his work.

Finca Vigía, Hemingway’s house in Cuba

Finca Vigía (Vigía Farm) at the height of San Francisco de Paula, on the south of the capital, was rented in 1939 by his third wife Martha Gellhorn and bought by her in 1940. Today this farm houses Hemingway Museum and has remained exactly the same as when the writer was alive. In fact Havana and Vigía Farm (Finca La Vigía) in particular were the only stable residences that Hemingway had in his entire life. It was there where he thought and wrote his most significant works: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Through the River and among Trees, The Old Man and the Sea, Paris Was a Party, Isles on the Stream and copious articles for the press. La Vigía Farm will be recognized and raised to the level of universal letters since the writer was consistent with his artistic maxims: "Every artist can destroy or perpetuate the place best known by him." It was in La Vigía where he could find the geographic and environment conditions to carry out a number of activities for which he always felt a special attraction: fishing, hunting, navigation, cock fight. In this farm, the famed writer lived until his death in 1961 and still his memory is lively and entirely preserved in many aspects. In 1962, the house was opened to the public as a house-museum, dedicated to research and preservation of Hemingway’s legacy to the Cuban people. Personal articles, hunting trophies, arms and pieces of aboriginal craft...plus the writer’s library. Getting closer to Finca Vigía is to understand that he never left. This is confirmed by the Ceiba tree at the entrance, his typewriter machine, his favorite armchair. Everything there is a part of the charm that proves that the writer may still appear and write a new work.