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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nFormer UN Translator and our Cuba Expert, Ana Elena, introduced to the Cuban customs when building statues of their heroes. If the statue is mounted on a reared horse, the hero died during battle; however, if their horse is standing properly, the hero died of natural causes. Additionally, if the statue is oriented towards the sea, the hero was either a foreigner or was a Cuban who died abroad. In the case of Maximo Gomez, his statue is on a horse which is standing properly, but is also oriented towards the sea, because he was a foreign-born Dominican, who died in his old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We arrived at our first destination. The residence of the\nlegendary author, Ernest Hemmingway, who lived in Cuba for 27 years. At his\nresidence, there has been a long tradition of children in the area playing\nbaseball in the yard, so today we joined the children to a game of ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started with the \u2018jefe\u2019 or boss, creating the two teams,\nevenly split between us college students and the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThe game started between our two teams, for several minutes, a stalemate occurred where neither team could get the edge on the other. We struggled to score runs, but neither team was successful with the score 15 minutes in remaining at 0-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, there were a total of 3 runs scored, with two of them being home runs, one of which scored by our UML student Scott, the other by an older Cuban gentleman who had a passion for baseball. The final tally being 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nAfter our fun game of baseball, we\ncontinued into the rest of the Hemmingway Estate, where we were able to get a\npeek into his home, which has been virtually untouched since he left in 1960. We\nwere able to see into his living room which were watched over by the heads of\nthe game which he caught during his trips to Southeastern Africa. Antelopes and\nWildebeest heads lined the walls with chairs and tables in the center of the\nroom for seating in the 1900s style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nIn his bedroom we were able to see\nhis favorite books which were in a bookshelf on the left to his bed. On his\nnightstand were his glasses neatly sat out of their case, as if he had woken up\nand walked out. One thing I found interesting was the map of British East\nAfrica, which was a colony under the British Empire and is composed of the\nmodern-day nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. This map is peak into\nhistory as whilst Ernest Hemmingway was living in Cuba, these nations were\nstill under British colonial rule. In Hemmingway\u2019s closet, we were able to see his\nhats, boots, and his war correspondent jacket from his time in with Time\nmagazine. The greenish-brown colors of the jacket are reminiscent of the U.S.\nmilitary uniform during the Second World War. In his personal restroom, we saw\nhis toilet and his shower complete with (the thing that goes above toilets),\nall in 1920s technology, allowing us to take a peek into the past. The most\nintriguing thing about Ernest Hemmingway is that he kept track of his height\nand weight on his wall for several years. We can see that between 1954 and 1960\nhis weight hovered between 198 and 235lbs. In Hemmingway\u2019s study, we can see\nhis desk which is the home several books and perhaps his prized possession, the\nhead of a hunted leopard. In Hemmingway\u2019s backyard, his four dogs, Black,\nNegrita, Neron, and Linda. Interestingly enough, two of the dogs were named\nblack in two different languages, English, and Negrita, being the feminine\nadjective for black in Spanish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nOnce we left Hemmingway\u2019s house, we went to Cojimar, the place of origin of Santiago, the protagonist in Hemmingway\u2019s novel, Old Man and the Sea<\/em>, where we ate authentic Cuban taros, which are fried battered fish poppers. Additionally, we met the grandson of Santiago who still lives in Cojimar. He took us on a tour and showed us the area including the one of the first monuments of Ernest Hemmingway ever built worldwide, which is next to the Torreon which is a castle on the shore of a sea. The statue looks out towards the sea, which I believe is a play on the statue Cuban customs; as Hemmingway was a foreigner and left the country, his statue looks out towards the ocean, north, which is where he was from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January 4th was an eventful day for us students in Cuba. We started with a scenic route around Havana, the capital, which included Cuba\u2019s National Hotel, Cuba\u2019s capitol building, and the statue of Maximo Gomez, a Cuban war hero. Former … Continue reading