Hemingway's Cuban Son: Reflections on the Writer by His Longtime Majordomo

The Tower

75 • the tower Hemingway and Mary returned to the Finca in May of 1949. Juan drove them back from the port, the stationwagon filled with suitcases and boxes. Another trip had to be made with a small truck to pick up the rest of the luggage. That afternoon after settling in, Papa and Mary relaxed in the living room, enjoying a couple of martinis before dinner. Papa congratulated me and Ramón on the work we’d done restoring the matting in the living room. He said it looked as good as new. In their absence Ramón and I kept ourselves busy by repairing the Phillipine matting that had suffered much wear and tear from foot traffic. Ramón suggested we use the long leaves of the pandamor tree. The biggest challenge was trying to get long, uniform strips from each leaf, which had a short stumpy thorn in the middle. I designed a small tool using four evenly spaced single-edge razor blades that spliced a leaf into even strips and at the same time trimmed away the thorn. Pancho, the carpenter, offered to make the jig for me in exchange for a bottle of rum. A fair trade, I thought. Mary and Papa presented the staff with gifts from their trip. Papa gave me a Swiss watch and Mary gave me a fine leather jacket. They often brought gifts to the staff after a long trip. In Venice, Mary had also purchased suitcases, clothing, and fine china bordered in gold and embossed with an interesting emblem. She saw my intrigue as we unpacked the china and explained that she and Papa had designed this Hemingway crest and that it would go on all their possessions from now on. Mary told me that the emblem was made up of a line drawing 76 rené villarreal and raúl villarreal of three overlapping mountains symbolizing the three mountainous places where Hemingway spent the happiest days of his youth: on the left Wyoming, in the middle Montana, and the right Idaho. Under the mountains was a Native American war shield, which represented the ancestry Hemingway believed he had. Under the war shield were the three horizontal stripes of a captain’s rank Papa thought he deserved for his participation in two world wars. Pancho later made a mold of the crest and used a branding iron to brand the new suitcases and many other personal items. Mary asked me why I had not moved the cats to their new home in the tower. I told her that it had been my intention to wait until Eduardo Rivero, the architect, officially handed the tower over to them. I had already fed the cats several times in their new space and told her that I thought they were used to it already. “As of today you have our permission to move los gaticos to their new home,” Papa told me, smiling. “Boise, Princessa, and the new kittens can remain inside the main house.” The cats were then moved to the tower, and the room was cleaned and painted and made into a guest room. Everyone eased back into their routines. Papa worked from early in the morning until about noon. Mary gardened and supervised the never-ending improvements and decorating of the house. The bookcases for the library had been completed while they were in Europe, so now she and I had the task of organizing and shelving the thousands of books scattered throughout the house. The furniture for Hemingway’s new studio in the tower was ready as well and had to be accommodated. Early one morning I helped him move his things from the workroom out to the tower. That morning I went on with my responsibilities around the house, but as I worked I missed the sound of the typewriter. The house felt empty, too quiet. I walked to his bedroom and stared at the corner by the large window where he had worked. His absence saddened me. No more than an hour later, I saw Papa through one of the windows of the living room. He was carrying his typewriter, papers, and pencils. “Open the door,” he said, almost in desperation. I helped him carry his things back to his workroom. “Please bring the rest of my stuff down from the tower,” he said. Pleased, I returned with the items. Back in his workroom, Papa was waiting for me. “Just leave everything on top of the bed. I...