EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, December 11, 2023 — The United States approved a $25,000 fund to restore the former home of the American writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, the Finca Vigía Foundation reported on Monday, the entity that works with the authorities in Havana to preserve the current house-museum.
The money will also be allocated to the creation of a restoration center as well as to the maintenance and rescue of “thousands of documents, manuscripts, letters and photos along with a bookstore with 9,000 copies,” the agency adds in a statement.
For the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy on the Island, Benjamin Ziff, the fund approved by the U.S. Government highlights the historical and cultural value that the house represents for both Washington and Havana.
“Supporting Finca Vigía represents our commitment to preserving the incalculable history and shared cultural heritage that links the United States to Cuba,” Ziff said.
Supporting Finca Vigía represents our commitment to preserve the incalculable history and shared cultural heritage that links the United States with Cuba
For his part, Frank Phillips, co-president of the Finca Vigía Foundation, stressed that this fund is the first “financial support of the U.S. Government” and that, therefore, it is “incredibly significant.”
“Our hope is that the embassy’s support will inspire others to contribute,” Phillips added.
The Finca Vigía mansion, located about nine miles from Havana, was the residence of the American writer for more than 20 years and became the Ernest Hemingway Museum after his death on July 2, 1961, when he committed suicide with a shotgun in Idaho (USA).
Ernest Hemingway spent long periods between 1939 and until shortly before his death at Finca Vigía, where he even wrote part of some of his most famous novels, including The Old Man and the Sea, which was cited in his award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
The museum preserves a collection of more than 20,000 personal objects and documents that belonged to the novelist, including books, hunting trophies, records, weapons, stationery, photos, a typewriter, where he used to write standing, and the yacht El Pilar, with which he went fishing and sailing in the Caribbean Sea.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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