The neighborhood of Cojímar, which today belongs to the municipality of Habana del Este, served as a source of inspiration for the American writer Ernest Hemingway to create his novel entitled "The Old Man and the Sea", with which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

El Viejo y el Mar is inspired by the fishermen of this area of ​​the Cuban capital that was well known by the writer since there anchored his yacht Pilar with which he went out to make fisheries in the Gulf Stream.

The novel is based on the life of a Cuban fisherman whom he identifies as Santiago, who after several days without being able to do his work, goes out to sea and manages to capture a giant marlin. Soon the sharks appear that devour their prey.

The fisherman confronts the sharks with the few instruments he carries on the ship, but only the skeleton of the huge fish remains. He arrives on earth very faint and goes home to rest and dream. The fisherman shows that, despite the years and circumstances, man can and must fight and persist even if he feels almost defeated.

Ernest Hemingway, born on July 21, 1899 in the area of ​​Illinois, United States. From a very young age, he demonstrates the great love he felt for literature and journalism as well as his adventurous spirit that leads him to participate in wars and other significant actions, such as bullfights, expeditions through jungle areas and fisheries.

In 1928 he arrived in Havana for the first time accompanied by his wife. From that first and brief stay in Cuba he would not leave a record in his works, but it is certain that something captivated him, because later he began to cross the so-called Corriente del Gofo and it is then that he turns Havana into the seat of his temporary residence . Initially he lived in the

Ambos Mundos hotel, located in the historic urban center of Havana. There habitually occupies a room without number located in the fifth floor. Through the windows of this 16 square meter room I could see the Plaza de Armas, other areas of Old Havana, the entrance to the bay and in the distance the immensity of the sea. Precisely in one of the chronicles that he wrote and that he titled "Agujas a la altura del Morro" he referred to what he could appreciate from this place.

Since 1939 it has been installed in the Vigía estate, located in one of the two elevations of the San Francisco de Paula neighborhood in Havana.