CUBA: SCULPTURE HONOURING US WRITER ERNEST HEMINGWAY PLACED IN HIS FAVOURITE BAR IN HAVANA

Record ID: 452135

  • Title: CUBA: SCULPTURE HONOURING US WRITER ERNEST HEMINGWAY PLACED IN HIS FAVOURITE BAR IN HAVANA
  • Date: 26th October 2003
  • Summary: (L!1) HAVANA, CUBA, (OCTOBER 26, 2003) (REUTERS) STATUE OF U.S. AUTHOR ERNEST HEMINGWAY IN " EL FLORIDITA," BAR BARTENDER SERVING A DRINK PHOTO OF CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO AND HEMINGWAY BARTENDER MAKING THE FAMOUS DRINK DAIQUIRI (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ROLANDO QUINONES, BARTENDER, SAYING: "He said hi to everybody, he was a normal guy, just like anyone else." WOMAN NEXT TO MONUMENT HEMINGWAY'S EYES VARIOUS OF BARTENDER MAKING DAIQUIRIS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JOSE VILLA SOBERON, CUBAN SCULPTOR, SAYING: "Probably Hemingway would've preferred that this statue of him would be in his bar drinking his favourite drink rather than in some plaza in some theatrical pose." VARIOUS OF EYES AND HANDS OF THE MONUMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JOSE VILLA SOBERON, CUBAN SCULPTOR, SAYING: "To obtain the originality, to have exactly in the precise place where the person was in place." PHOTOGRAPHER BARTENDER VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF THE BAR VARIOUS OF TOURISTS ARRIVING TO BAR
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVAN, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVA79XPUGEVZY2ZNJZSPUUPJ8YJX
  • Story Text: A sculpture honouring U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway has been placed in his favourite bar in Havana.
    U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway is back at one of his favourite watering holes in Cuba, leaning at the bar in front of his usual cocktail, a frozen daiquiri.
    In memory of the countless hours the Nobel-Prize winning novelist and legendary drinker spent at the Floridita (flor-ee-DEE-tah) bar, a life-sized statue was unveiled on Friday (October 24) at the corner of the bar where "Papa Hemingway" always stood for a few drinks.
    The bronze statue was made by Cuban sculptor Jose Villa based on photos of the writer, who fished and wrote in Cuba from 1940 to 1960, the year before his suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
    The bartenders at the Floridita will pay tribute to the writer every day by placing a daiquiri by the statue served just the way he liked it: white rum, lime juice, sugar, crushed ice and a drop of maraschino, whipped up in the blender.
    One veteran bartender at the Floridita, Rolando Quinones, never served Hemingway a drink but remembers him from the streets of Old Havana.
    "He was a regular guy. He would say hello to everyone,"
    Quinones said.
    During his long stays on the Caribbean island, the author of such novels as "The Sun Also Rises" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" would often go to the Floridita for his daiquiris and to the nearby Bodeguita del Medio for his other favourite, the mojito, a mint rum julep with rum, lime and soda.
    After drinking Hemingway's cocktails at his favourite bars, the writer's fans can visit his estate outside Havana, Finca Vigia, where he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" and hosted friends such as actors Ava Gardner and Gary Cooper.
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