CubaPLUS Magazine

The American writer Ernest Hemingway enjoyed many places in Cuba, among them a small fishing village called Cojímar, which he even immortalized in his work The Old Man and the Sea. Color, versatility, and a constant gaze toward the sea are some of the traits that define the town and its people.

Gregorio Fuentes lived there until his death (Lanzarote, Canary Islands, July 11, 1897, Cojímar, Cuba, January 13, 2002). He had been the captain of the Pilar, the yacht that belonged to the American author.

Cojímar is a locality in Cuba located about seven kilometers from Havana. Its name comes from the indigenous Taíno language and means “an inlet of water in fertile land.”

It was never officially founded, yet the completion of a watchtower on July 15, 1649 is considered its origin, marking the birth of the urban settlement. The commemoration, however, is celebrated on July 16, the Day of the Virgin of Carmen, star of the sea and patron saint of sailors according to Catholic tradition.

The stable presence of Spanish settlers in the area dates back to 1554. In 1633 there is record of a donation of one thousand ducats from local residents for the construction of the small military fortress also known as the castillito. When it was completed in 1649, the settlement consisted of 137 inhabitants distributed among 37 homes. The local council later issued an edict on November 3, 1837 granting Cojímar the official name of Nuestra Señora del Rosario.

When seaside resorts became fashionable in Europe and North America in the mid nineteenth century, the Cuban Creole bourgeoisie changed its habit of resting in sugar mills, coffee plantations, or country estates and began gathering along the coast of Baracoa beach. At that time Cojímar was known for the richness of its mineral medicinal waters.

On March 10, 1907 the Hotel Campoamor was inaugurated with the presence of Carmen Zayas Bazán, widow of the man who is now Cuba’s National Hero José Martí, along with her son Captain José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán, among other personalities. Four languages were spoken there and it became a favorite place for the upper middle and upper classes to spend their honeymoons. The hotel, together with the exclusive Residencial Loma and La Quinta Pedralves, represented attempts to turn Cojímar beach into an elegant seaside resort known as the “Golden Cup of the Northern Coast.”

The century old restaurant La Terraza de Cojímar, famous for its seafood cuisine, recalls the times when Hemingway would sit there to talk with Gregorio Fuentes or share moments with his well known guests.

The town is also full of curiosities. In June 1945, about three kilometers off the coast near the castillito, the largest great white shark ever photographed in Cuba was caught.

It weighed more than 7,000 pounds and measured 21 feet in length, earning the nickname “The Monster of Cojímar” from the French newspaper Le Monde.

Hemingway’s presence there remains essential. The town features a gazebo and a bust dedicated to the writer, created in bronze by the prominent Cuban sculptor Fernando Boada using remains of navigation materials such as propellers, screws, and other ship parts collected by local fishermen who were his friends.

Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea, inspired precisely by Cojímar, where his yacht Pilar was anchored and where he shared stories from more than twenty years of life in Cuba, even saying that he was “a Cuban mutt.”