Hemingway’s Havana: Reflections of an Era by Raul Villarreal

Today’s post is part one of a two-part feature on Raul Villarreal and his father Rene, who lived and worked with Ernest Hemingway for over 20 years in Cuba.  Raul Villarrreal helped his father write a memoir of his friendship with Hemingway and recently gave a lecture at Santa Fe College in Gainsville, Florida. Raul is also an artist, whose work has been featured in shows around the world.  I am delighted to share Raul’s lecture with you, along with a postscript from Mike Curry, who coordinated the event. 

The second part of this feature is an interview with Rene and Raul, coming soon.  ~ Allie

Introduction by Mike Curry – Mike writes: 

René Villerreal (b.1929) first met Ernest Hemingway in 1939 near the front gate of the Finca Vigía in San Francisco de Paula, Havana, Cuba. In 1939, René started to run errands for the household and tend to the Hemingway pets.  In 1946, Hemingway appointed René the Finca’s Majordomo, or, head of the household staff. René worked for Hemingway at Finca Vigía for over 20 years. He lived in the house during much of that time, and had a very close friendship with Hemingway. After Hemingway’s death in 1961, René became the first director and administrator of the Hemingway Museum (“Museo Hemingway”) at Finca Vigia in San Francisco de Paula, Havana, Cuba.

With his son Raúl, René co-authored Hemingway’s Cuban Son, published by the Kent State University Press in 2009. This memoir has many detailed recollections of life at the Finca Vigía with Hemingway, his family, friends, and guests.

René is mentioned in numerous Hemingway biographies, newspaper and magazine articles. In 1999, he was featured in the CBS Sunday Morning special “Papa’s Place.” He has appeared in several Hemingway documentaries, including the American Masters Series “Rivers to the Sea” (PBS 2005) and in the film “Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba 1964).

Raúl Villarreal was born in 1964 in San Francisco de Paula Havana, Cuba and lives & works today in Verona, New Jersey.  Like so many families before and so many since, The Villarreal family left Cuba in 1972 for Spain and ultimately the United States.  Raul was a young boy at the time but his connection to his homeland has never dimmed and he has visited on several occasions.  His is the common Cuban experience as culture and family have overcome the separation from homeland.

With the completion of the book Hemingway’s Cuban Son published in 2009, Raúl fulfilled a promise to himself and his father to honor his father’s legacy.

While René Villarreal’s story has added immeasurable insight into the life of his mentor, employer and friend Earnest Hemingway, Raúl’s careful telling of his father’s story is revealing not only of Hemingway’s life but also of the indomitable Cuban spirit and pride, further demonstrating all Cubans’ connection to their heritage.

Here is Raul’s account of his lecture:

Last Wednesday I had the privilege  to present “Havana’s Hemingway: Reflection on an Era.” For the presentation I referenced photographs from the Villarreal Collection and accompanied them with anecdotes based on René Villarreal’s accounts of his 21 year relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Some of the stories appear in Hemingway’s Cuban Son (Kent State University Press, 2009) and others do not. I wanted to make the event interesting for those who had already read the book and those who haven’t.  The presentation was accompanied by Ambos Mundos, an art exhibit of 10 large paintings. Both events took place at the Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall, Santa Fe College in Gainesville Florida.

I co-authored Hemingway’s Cuban Son with my father, who knew Ernest Hemingway for over twenty years in Cuba. It was through this great Cuban storytelling tradition that I first heard about my father’s friendship and working relationship with Hemingway.

During the presentation, I cited mostly from our book, as well as Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream (Scribner Classics) and Mark P. Ott’s A Sea of Change: Hemingway and the Gulf Stream, a Contextual Biography (Kent State University Press, 2008).

Ernest Hemingway first set foot on Cuban soil in 1928 on a two-day layover and later in 1932 on a two-week fishing expedition which turned into a two-month adventure. During the 1930s, Hemingway traveled to Cuba from Key West and intensely studied the Gulf Stream (Ott 3).  However, it was not until 1939 that Hemingway eventually settled in Cuba.  Perhaps it was his continued interest in the Gulf Stream, “the last wild country there is left,” as Heminway referred to it in an article entitled “ On the blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter.” (Ott 4), or perhaps it was also the land and its people. Cuba, a carribbean island with an ethnically diverse population consisting of people of Spanish, African and Chinese descent, or at times a mixture of these, among others.  The richly syncretic and eclectic Cuban culture of the 1930s, the accessibility to the Gulf Stream, along with usual haunts in la Habana Vieja (Old Havana), must have been enough to convince Hemingway to consider the Finca Vigía, after Matha Gellhorn found an advertisement for the property in a Havana newspaper.  A reluctant Hemingway twice went to inspect the property and speak with the owner, the Frenchman Roger Joseph D’orn Duchamp. It was during one of those visits when the chance encounter with René Villarreal and some other boys from San Francisco de Paula occurred in front of the large gate of the property.

Even though Hemingway spent many happy and productive years at the Finca Vigía, his early days there were ushered in with a series of macrabre incidents. Sometime after Hemingway settled into the property, René Hidalgo Ramos—a former medical student, turned policeman, killed and dismembered his mistress Celia Margarita Mena in a jealous rage, wrapped the body parts in brown paper and scattered her remains around Havana’s suburbs.  The gruesome story made sensational headlines and also found its way into Islands in the Stream.  The brutal crime must have made a notable impression on Hemingway as it did on the pueblo of Cuba.  Not long after Hidalgo’s horrific crime, Don Pedro, the Finca’s gardener, who had been originally employed by Joseph D’orn, drowned himself in the Finca’s water well a couple days after resigning his postion over a disagreement with Hemingway.  And within a year came the tragic accidental death of René’s youngest brother Rodolfo, known as Popito and called el secretario by Hemingway and his youngest son Gregory.  Hemingway alludes to el secretario in Islands in the Stream, as Thomas Hudson rides in the car with Pedro, the chauffer and a young boy closes the large gate of the property, “he is a younger brother of Mario,” Pedro says to Thomas Hudson, who simply replies “I know.” (Hemingway 238)

These tragic events serve as examples of how Hemingway used his real life experiences to invent his fiction.

In the Cuba chapter of Islands in the Stream, Hemingway’s affection for his “old farm house” is evident in the rich descriptions of the surroundings, details of the house and interaction between Thomas Hudson and Bosie, his favorite cat.  The character of Mario is based on René, whose father was named Mario.  The amusing exchange between Thomas Hudson and Mario, regarding the whiskey and bananas for breakfast actually took place during the time when Hemingway patrolled the Gulf Stream searching for German submarines. It was late into the night when the writer had returned from a long extended period at sea.  The only one at the house was René, who was fourteen years old at the time.  He was also the first one to arrive at the house the next morning. Interactions such as that one and others between the young man and the writer transpired for years, sometimes in the mornings before a day’s work or in the late afternoons as the writer observed the young man feed his cats and both took pleasure comparing the cats to the top prize fighters of the day.

The Finca chapter in Hemingway’s Cuban Son provides a detailed tour and description by René of the estate in its glory days when Hemingway was still alive.  This is sample of the opening paragraphs.

When I close my eyes, I clearly see the grounds, the house, the rooms—details no matter how insignificant. Five long concrete steps lead to the main entrance of the house. The majestic ceiba tree shades the front of the house and menaces the roof with its branches. That ceiba was Hemingway’s favorite tree. He did not allow anybody to trim, prune, or damage the tree while he lived there.

One can enter the living room from the main entrance.  This high-ceilinged, spacious room is about 44 feet long by 16 feet wide and painted white.  The walls are filled with safari trophies and artwork.  The large oil canvas on the east wall was painted by Roberto Domingo, a French artist of Spanish descent whose work was strictly on or about bullfighting.  This particular painting was used on the cover of an edition of Death in the Afternoon. The head of an impala gazelle hangs to the left of the painting, a trophy from Papa’s 1934 African safari. The oryx to the right he shot that same year in Kenya.

Hemingway’s life at the Finca Vigía allowed him to peacefully work in the mornings, fish and study the Gulf Stream whenever he pleased.  During the 20 years that Hemingway lived in Cuba, he contributed money to the construction of a better road and water supply for the pueblo of San Francisco de Paula, as well as providing a yearly contribution on April 2nd for the proccession of the pueblo’s patron Saint.

The Finca Vigía was where Hemingway passed his leisure time entertaining guests from around the world such as Gary Cooper, Luis Miguel Dominguin, Antonio Ordoñes, Rocky Marciano, Winston Guest, Ava Gardner, and many others.  It was also where he spent hours reading by the pool, or taking walks around the pueblo, picking up small rocks along the way and batting them with his walking stick as if he were playing baseball. And it was also where he tried his luck as a lion tamer…BUT, well that is another story.

About a year after Hemingway’s death and by request from Fidel Castro, René Villarreal returned to the Finca Vigía to oversee the restoration of the property. For another six years, Villarreal diligently worked to restore and maintain La Finca Vigía: El Museo Ernest Hemingway.

It didn’t matter where Ernest Hemingway traveled to around the world, because he was always happy to return to the Finca Vigía—his Cuban paradise—where he lived the longest and felt at ease with the land and its people.  As a young boy the Finca became René’s paradise, too.  It was a place so different and unique from anything he had ever known.  It is a place so unique and different from anything I have ever known. The Finca Vigía WAS and WILL always be OUR Cuban Paradise.

I want to thank Dr. Jackson Sasser, the President of the College, Chuck Clemons, Vice-President for Development and Michael Curry, Assistant Vice-President for Development for initially proposing the idea for the exhibit and the presentation. I also want to thank Alora Haynes, Chair of the Fine Arts Department, Kathryn Lehman and Kyle Novak for doing such a wonderful job installing the art. Finally, I want to thank the faculty I met during my stay and all the wonderful Santa Fe College students. Their hospitality and generosity were simply amazing.

Muchas gracias.  Thank you very much.  Raul Villarreal

You can visit Raul’s website to see more of his artwork at:

And a post script from Mike Curry, who coordinated the event:

I love my job at Santa Fe College and when I can combine my job with one of my passions, life becomes very good.  Raúl Villarreal’s visit to Santa Fe College this past October was a watershed event for me personally and for the College.  Having grown up around men just like Raúl’s father René, I felt an immediate connection with their book Hemingway’s Cuban Son and the “voice” Raúl used to tell the story.  As if having Raúl here to lecture on the book wasn’t enough, he was also kind enough to bring a collection of his artwork for the enjoyment of our students and faculty.  It was a beautiful experience for our college and our community.

If there was a highlight of his visit, it had to be his lecture on Wednesday evening to an audience of close to 200 people made up of college students, faculty and the community at large.  Raúl charmed and delighted them with stories of his father’s time with Hemingway and the photos that are part of the Villarreal family collection.  I am still hearing from attendees about what a tremendous evening it was.

While Raúl is both an accomplished artist and author, having spent some time with him I think he may perhaps be proudest of being René Villarreal’s son.  The bond between these two men is unmistakable and Raul’s respect and admiration for his father and his family knows no bounds.

I just described Ernest Hemingway as being René Villarreal’s mentor.  I’m not sure that on many quiet, bright Cuban mornings it wasn’t the other way around.  I have no doubt that while it might have been the Gulf Stream and the climate that first lured Hemingway to Cuba, it was the Cuban people and culture he fell in love with and that sustained his 20 year love affair with the island.