We shook hands and walked up the hill. There, our “seconds” were silhouetted against the dark curtain of night. After we reached them, each group went its own way. I didn’t say a word to my friend Alberto...

Photos: Darío Leyva

Illustration: Fabián Muñoz The now-distant year of 1971 was coming to an end in this city of San Cristóbal de La Habana when a strange event happened: a horrible monster appeared in a lagoon in the outlying municipality of San Miguel de Padrón.

During the 1930s, Ernest Miller Hemingway, at the time living in Key West, used to visit Havana and, from its port, organize fishing trips for marlin and casteros, always abundant in the nearby Gulfstream. He generally travelled accompanied by friends, such as “Sloppy” Joe Russell, Charles Thompson, John Dos Passos, or Arnold Samuelson, and on some occasions, by his wife at the time, Pauline Pfeiffer.