Our next visit on day 2 was to the National Union for Artists and Writers of Cuba. The mission of the institute is to recognize and encourage the art and literature of Cuban artists. Membership is by invitation and new members are inducted every 4 years after a selection process.Not everyone who applies is accepted. It is clearly a big deal to be a member. There are currently about 9,000 members, roughly 50% women. The closest thing that I could think of in our culture is the National Academy of Science or perhaps becoming a Fellow of the American Physical Society. We had an interesting presentation, but it was not a highlight of the trip.
That was followed by another great lunch in a very nice restaurant. The room we were in must have originally been the wine cellar of a very nice house. It was quite nice as you can see from picture. Every place we went were given a welcome drink (with or with rum), the option of beer, wine, water, soft drinks, etc, and then coffee at the end of the meal. The food at lunch always included black beans and rice, a red meat dish (beef or once lamb), fish, a chicken dish, and some kind of vegetable. The food was very good, and not at all spicy hot.
At the end of this meal we were all given a complimentary cigar and a glass of aged rum. After showing a couple of the woman which end of the cigar went in the mouth we took a great picture.
Our next stop was at Ernest Hemingway’s house. Hemingway came to Cuba as a part of a trip in 1929 and fell in love with Havana. For about 10 years he visited for long periods staying in hotels and frequenting various bars. In that time he wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and the "Old Man and the Sea.” Paramount paid him $150,000 for the rights to For Whom the Bell Tolls, a huge sum in that time. In 1939, he wife visited the house and wanted to buy it and he said he didn’t like it. His wife persisted and bought the house. He fell in love with the house and lived there until 1960. It is about 30 minutes outside Havana. The picture on the right is our excellent tour guide (who was director of the museum) standing outside the house.
It is not possible to visit the house inside because it is being restored, but you can walk around and look in the opened windows. That seems odd to me since that lets in lots of warm humid air which can’t be good for the contents of the house which includes Hemingway’s extensive library. Below are a couple of pictures taken through the windows. I included the bathroom picture because it shows an example of Hemingway’s personality. Above the toilet to the left of the door you can some dark marks. That is where Hemingway frequently recorded his weight.
The ground of the house were beautiful. Hemingway’s boat is preserved on the site. At one point he apparently had it armored and was hunting German submarines during WWII in the coastal waters. Luckily, he never encountered one or the world would have been deprived of his later works.
Hemingway left in 1960, under pressure from his family (according to our guide). It was not deemed proper for an American Nobel Prize winner to be living in Communist Cuba (once again according to our guide). While in America he was treated for several health issues including receiving electro-shock treatment for depressions. Between treatments they lived at their house in Ketchum, Idaho where Hemingway would come to hunt every year. On July 2, 1961 he shot himself with a shotgun.
In an earlier post we mentioned that one of our fellow tour members was a Hemingway look-a-like. There was picture of Hemingway and it seemed a perfect time to demonstrate how similar they did look.
On the way to the hotel we stopped in the Floridita, one of Hemingway’s haunts in Havana. We had a Daiquiri, Hemingway’s drink of choice. And we got treated to some great salsa dancing by Lazaro and his trainee, Marisol.
After a short rest at the hotel, we had another nice dinner. Then we headed off to an old disco for salsa lessons. We had some energetic and fun instructors. At first we learned the steps—front/back, sideways, and diagonal. They counted for us all the time—one, two, three, five six seven. There is no movement of the feet on counts 4 and eight so they didn’t count them out loud. BTW, there is always movement in salsa in the hips and body. During this phase I was a bit of trouble (due to my inherent trouble with right and left and my basic lack of rhythm). One of the instructors came over, grabbed my hands, and slowed me down until I got it right. After a while the men’s steps and the woman’s steps were defined and finally we partnered up. Caroline came over to me to be my partner. The main instructor asked her, “Is this your husband?” When Caroline replied yes, the instructor told her, “No, no, no” and shooed her off to dance with an instructor, apparently they realized I needed professional assistance. The woman who helped me earlier came to be my partner. We danced to some music putting it all together. Then the group of dancers did a number for us. Unfortunately I have no good pictures because of the low lighting. So, you will have to take my word for it. It was fun evening.