Press Release available as a PDF here or read below.
Hemingway grandsons John and Patrick sail with US sport fishing boats from Key West to Havana beginning May 22 to participate in the 65th Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tournament in Cuba from May 25-30, 2015
In September 2014, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund coordinated a trip to Cuba with Hemingway grandsons John and Patrick to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Hemingway’s Nobel Prize in Literature, which medal he donated to the people of Cuba, with celebrations in the fishing village of Cojimar and Hemingway’s estate, Finca Vigia.
U.S.-Cuba Hemingway Commemorative Project by the Latin America Working Group Education Fund – Latin America Working Group
Next week, John and Patrick Hemingway will be among a group of 50-60 American sport fishermen traveling on 8 U.S.-flagged sport fishing boats from Key West to Havana to participate in the 65th Hemingway International Billfish Tournament from May 25-30. Under the auspices of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (Washington, DC) and the Florida-Cuba Environmental Coalition (Miami), these boats have secured the necessary licenses and permits from the U.S. Commerce and Treasury departments, and the U.S. Coast Guard, and will be the first U.S. boats in decades to travel legally to Cuba to participate in the Hemingway tournament.
The boats carrying John and Patrick will leave Key West around 8 AM on Friday, May 22 and will arrive at the Hemingway Marina in Havana early to mid-afternoon, to be welcomed by Commodore Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich of the Hemingway International Yacht Club. Our trip across the Florida Straits will replicate Ernest Hemingway’s first voyage to Cuba in his beloved fishing boat Pilar, on July 19, 1934, prior to his taking up residence in Cuba full time in the late 1930s.
Some of the notable aspects of this historic trip include: the shared US-Cuba Hemingway legacy; a new era in US-Cuba relations; the little known story of Hemingway as naturalist, hosting two scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia for marlin research in Cuba in the summer of 1934, a legacy passionately promoted by John and Patrick: US sport fishermen promoting the use of circle hooks in this ‘catch and release’ tournament to help preserve existing marlin and billfish populations; and discussions on US-Cuba cooperation on satellite tagging efforts of marlin and other game fish, and ocean resource conservation measures in general.
We expect to be joined by a camera crew from CBS Evening News, which will shoot footage of the Hemingway grandsons on the opening days of the tournament on Monday and Tuesday, May 25-26, to be aired later that week.
For more information:
Jeffrey Boutwell, Ph.D.
US Pugwash Group and Latin America Working Group Education Fund
Washington, DC
phone: 443-864-4478 (office); 202-468-3440 (mobile)
email:
