R.I.P. “Old Man” Gregorio Fuentes
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.16.02 | 1:23 AM ET
Travelers to Cuba have long made pilgrimages to the home of Gregorio Fuentes, Ernest Hemingway’s boat captain and the inspiration for “The Old Man and the Sea.”
For a small fee, Fuentes welcomed any and all into his living room in Cojimar, a salty fishing village near Havana, and regaled them with tales of his time with the writer. But the visits have come to an end. On Sunday, the 104-year-old Fuentes died in his home. The Los Angeles Times reports.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Dr Glenn R Morales 09.21.05 | 4:48 PM ET
In Jan 1997 we shaked our hands, Gregorio Fuentes and me at the Hemingway s marina,Havana, Cuba. I was in my intelectual property right conference organized with the law school from Havana University.
After the conference we enjoyed few mulata daikiris at the Floridita.
One week later I was with others sailors friends in Key West and Marathon Island…......
Jim 12.02.05 | 12:43 AM ET
That’s a touching story, Glenn. Thanks for sharing.
Joe Furlong 03.04.08 | 11:15 AM ET
I was in Cuba twice, in 2001 and 2002, as a recent retiree. On my first trip, in May 2001, I visited Cojimar, and being a big Hemingway fan, I had to see the town where Gregorio Fuentes and he fished from so often, and where Gregorio lived. I took a cab there from my hotel in Havana, with a Cuban friend. It was a bright, very hot, sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky. I then realized why they sold so many umbrellas in Cuba. It wasn’t to fend off the rain for sure. I asked the manager at the only real hotel in town where Mr Fuesntes lived. He told us, but cautioned not to knock on the door, as Gregorio was very ill and most likely didn’t have much time left. We walked up the little hill, turned right on the street he lived on and saw the small, plain, green painted wooden house with the modest front porch on our right, - Gregorio’s home for so long. I imagined him leaving in the early morning 50 years prior, to meet up with Hemingway, for a day out in the Gulf Stream on the Pilar. I drank in the scene, still vividly recalling the moment. No noise anywhere,..just a still day in the warm Cuban sun. We both silently walked past the home in quiet reverence. Seven months later I heard of Gregorio’s passing. The last thread of an exciting era in Cuban history gone.