John Hemingway, grandson of the famous writer Ernest Hemingway, recognized the wise decision of President Barack Obama to normalize relations with Cuba, especially due to the cultural ties and economic potential offered by the island.
In an article published this week on the Huffington Post Hemingway said that “Cuba changes everything”, referring to the current US administration. “If the eight-year rule of President Obama is remembered for something positive, this could be his stance toward Cuba,” stressed the grandson of the novelist that in 1956 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
John, also a journalist and writer, spoke on the dash to investment opportunities isolationist policies on Cuba have led to, particularly in the tourism sector.
“The Castro brothers have not been overthrown and the rest of the world has long been raising money from tourism companies and other investments. Only American businessmen, with some exceptions, have had to pretend it’s not an island 90 miles from Key West with a population of 11 million, which used to buy almost everything they needed from the United States. ”
He also recalled “how good was the Cuban market for US companies before the Revolution and the trade embargo”, since here “you could find the latest models of Buick and Cadillac before that in the United States.”
The grandson of the writer concluded his article recalling the memory of his grandfather, especially for the affection felt by the writer for Cuba. “No doubt he would be happy to know that the United States and Cuba are finally moving forward and speaking again to each other. The Cuban people and the US can only benefit economically and culturally especially from this new relationship. ”
This is not the first time the Hemingway family advocates of rapprochement between the two countries. Last November, when further negotiations between the two governments were kept in absolute secrecy, the author of the article in The Huffington Post called a press conference in Washington for the normalization of relations.
“I think it is important that diplomatic relations are restored. I think the two countries must finally recognize each other, and have to do things in a normal way, “said that time.
The event took place two months after the first visit to Cuba by John Hemingway, in September 2014. For the occasion, he was accompanied by his brother Patrick, also a grandson of Hemingway. Both visited Finca Vigia, owned by his grandfather between 1939 and 1960 and visited their grandfather´s regular spaces such as La Bodeguita del Medio and the Ambos Mundos hotel.
Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba one of the most fruitful periods of his literary creation. Here he wrote his most famous novel, The Old Man and the Sea, and much of the well known For Whom the Bell Tolls.
