Cojimar, Cuba 2000
F. Daniel Somrack was introduced to Gregorio Fuentes in 1997 at Fuentes’ home in Cojimar, Cuba. Fuentes was a trusted friend and confidant of American writer Ernest Hemingway. From the 1930s until Hemingway’s death in 1961, Gregorio served as the Captain of Hemingway’s fishing yacht “Pilar.”
It’s rumored that Fuentes was also the literary model for several of Hemingway’s most endearing fictional characters including Santiago in “The Old Man and the Sea” and Antonio in “Island in the Stream.”
As a frequent visitor to Cuba since the early 1990s, Somrack spent a great deal of time with the Old Man listening to his tales about the time and adventures he shared with one of the great writers of the 20th Century. Gregorio Fuentes passed away in 2002 at the age of 104.
F. Daniel Somrack had several profile stories published about the relationship between Papa Hemingway and Gregorio. The first article “Hemingway’s Captain” appeared in the Mar./Apr. 1997 issue of Cigar Aficionado Magazine. A second story entitled “Reeling in the Years with Papa Hemingway” was published in Cigar Magazine Winter Edition / 2000.
Click on the link below to read “Hemingway’s Captain” by F. Daniel Somrack that appeared in the Mar./Apr. 1997 edition of Cigar Aficionado Magazine.
https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/great-moments-hemingways-captain-7542
HemingwaysCaptain-CigarAficionado-1