Founded on June 29, 1903, the museum is named after Luis Montané Darde – considered the father of Cuban scientific anthropology-, and has pieces that are unique in the region of the Caribbean.

One of the most outstanding pieces is the idol of Tobacco, a figure carved in Guayacán wood, Guayacum sp, dated around 1,110 years ago that belongs to the Taino culture and whose shape remind that on a Cuban cigar.

The carving has been studied by specialists of multiple disciplines in different moments in history. One study made in 1996 by Dr. Roberto Rodríguez and Dr. Alexis Vidal showed that the interior and the bottom of the idol contained rests of hallucinogenic substances and diverse fatty acids present in seeds, which made them presume it was probably used in religious ceremonies.

A curious fact about this carving is that on January 6, 1906, it was given to the President of the Republic Tomás Estrada Palma, and 26 days later he donated it to the Montané Anthropological Museum.

Another emblematic piece treasured in this place is the Idol of Bayamo, one of the biggest stone sculptures found in a state in Bayamo, in the Western region, in 1843.

Doctor in Historical Sciences Armando Rangel Rivero, director of the museum since 2012, told Granma newspapers that this piece has a high scientific, artistic and historic value and it was submitted by Spanish geographer Miguel Rodríguez to the then Felipe Poey Museum of Natural History. It remained there until the University Anthropological Museum opened in 1899, renamed Montané four years later.

From that moment on, the museum became the first and flagship facility within the school.

Built with greenish grey sandstone, there is a figure that is a mix of human and animal thought to be associated to a deity of the rivers and the seas, worshipped by the indigenous community it belonged to.

According to professor Rangel Rivero, the wide spectrum of archaeological pieces kept and displayed in the Montané Antrhopolical Museum is the result of over 115 years of fieldwork by several generations of Cuban and foreign anthropologists and archaeologists, making it the best exhibition on pre-Hispanic heritage available in the country.

The museum also has valuable collections of petaloid axes used by the indigenous people, rests of Taino pottery, stone mortars, percutidores and necklaces beads. Special mention to the Dujo de Santa Fe, a striking and curious carving made of well carved and sanded Guayacán wood, presumably used as a seat by the cacique (chief) and the behique (wizard) in religious ceremonies.

In addition to all the pieces collected in Cuba, the museum also has pre-Hispanic objects brought from Central and South America, Europe and other parts of the world such as shrunk heads and vases with a prodigious complexity in their design, just to mention a few.

SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS

Scientific research has been inherently linked to the Montané Anthropological Museum, which has become the longest-running and uninterrupted archaeological exhibition in Cuba.

Doctor Armando Rangel explained that specialists of the institution took part in the restoration of the age and diet of the fisher-harvester indigenous populations of the East and the center of Cuba, through the use of isotopes and Carbon 14 analysis, and in the description of the different sizes and shapes of the skull in indigenous communities by using geometrical morphometry.

Likewise, while the only Archaeometry Laboratory in Cuba was in operation during the 1980s, several studies on collagen and starch were carried out on different archaeological pieces existing in the country. These studies were later presented in degree thesis in higher education centers countrywide contributing with novel knowledge.

In 2004, researchers at the Montané Anthropological Museum, together with experts in Speleology and Archaeology at the Provincial Heritage Division in Matanzas and of the now Cuban Institute of Anthropology of the Ministry of Sciences, Technology and Environment (CITMA for the Spanish language), resume the studies in the area of Canímar Abajo, site of one of the most interesting precolombine settlements in Cuba.

After a decade of work, the researchers have been able to identify ways of life among those indigenous inhabitants that have never been described before such as the fact that they have small-scale crops and the presence of corn in their diet earlier than what has been previously estimated.

One of the recent discoveries includes the finding, through the use of advanced methods of molecular biology, including mytochondrial DNA test, that the embalmed body kept in the Montané Museum since 1975, has genes characteristic of the Guanche mummies from Canary Islands, ruling out its possible South American or ancient Peru origin.

Although the institution maintains its main functions of teaching, research and preservation of its collections, it has been assigned in the last few years with the task of giving priority to the outreach work of the university, which significantly increases the visibility of the museum beyond the limist of the University of Havana.

(Source: Granma)

The only guerilla group of such significance which has not had a specific institution, of this type, will have the ideal headquarters: Santiago de Cuba’s City Hall, directly on centrally located Céspedes Park, from where Fidel announced the Rebel Army’s victory over the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, to Cubans and the world, January 1, 1959.

Maylín Santos Suárez, a sociocultural expert with a Masters in Museology and director of the institution, told Granma that the focus on the Rebel Army’s original front serves as a dignified tribute to all those who launched or joined Cuba’s definitive struggle in the mountains, under the undisputed leadership of the Comandante en Jefe.

“The museum,” she said, “will have 12 halls for permanent exhibitions and one for temporary displays, with those located on the first level chronologically covering the history, featuring the Granma expeditionaries’ preparations in Mexico, the crossing, the landing, Alegría de Pío , the first victorious battles in the Sierra, and the contribution of the underground in the cities.

“The seven rooms on the second level will be dedicated to the development and consolidation of the (revolutionary) process through the active participation of women and campesinos, in justice, education, health, religion, workshops, and armories, propaganda; and, of course, the transcendence of the Front in the victory and the subsequent integration of combatants into the work of the Revolution.”

Historical objects to be displayed range from weapons, uniforms, and other equipment of the guerrillas, to fighters’ personal items, belongings of women who joined the Marianas, original documents, and rare photographs, with the main events revisited via advanced technology.”Surely,” emphasized Santos Suárez, “We will be in the presence of a new type of museum, characterized by a balance between the traditional and new technology that such facilities use in the world today, with screens, models, and smart tables featuring sound, colors, and smells that give visitors the sensation of being in the Sierra Maestra’s natural environment.”Participating in the project are specialists from the design team at the City of Havana Historian’s Office, while under the direction of the Santiago de Cuba Curator’s Office (OCC), numerous forces led by the Restoration and Conservation of Monuments Enterprise are in charge of re-conditioning the property and its surroundings.Ramon Cobas Avivar, deputy director of the OCC, explained, “Until a few months ago, the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power occupied this building, which as opposed to what many may think, given its colonial appearance, it is a solid, reinforced concrete building, constructed in 1954, which we must adapt to its new function ».

According to plans, the building will not cease to serve other traditional purposes, with the mayor’s office remaining here, with its Flag Room to receive distinguished guests, the council hall for the awarding of honors, etc, and the formal City Hall where special events are held, while the building will always be the site of Santiago’s traditional flag-raising to welcome in the New Year.

Among the actions projected in other areas, Cobas Avivar referred to the disassembly, treatment, and remounting of the huge Spanish door, of precious wood and metalwork; installation of glass doors and shutters needed to maintain the centralized air conditioning system to be installed; and renovation of sanitary, water, and electrical systems.

Likewise, the decorative Creole tiles on the concrete roof will be restored; an ornamental lighting system installed; and everything repainted. To enhance its surroundings, similar treatment will be afforded the Cathedral, the Diego Velázquez home, the Casa Granda Hotel, the old San Carlos Club, and other buildings on the park.

Intense work is now focused on Cespedes Park and adjacent streets, which have been closed to vehicles, to become pedestrian walkways. On the square, paved areas and sidewalks are being repaired; electrical and telephone cables placed underground; trees replanted; and benches, planters, and lamp posts refurbished, to be ready for the city’s celebrated Caribbean Festival, coming soon.

The estate, today the Hemingway Museum, has that mysterious attraction of places where great artists have been able to create, that I discovered in Klin, where Tchaikovsky composed; in Yasnaia Polyana, Tolstoy’s home; and more recently in Granada, at San Vicente farm, so special to García Lorca.

I have returned many times to the home of the author who penned works of universal appeal – The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), The Old Man and the Sea (1952) – located in San Francisco de Paula, 15 kilometers from the center of Havana, not only because of its beauty, but for the fascination that emanates from a place that still seems to be waiting for the writer to reappear.

THE HILL

In a 1952 letter to his friend Karl Wilson, Hemingway wrote, “I’ve always had good luck writing in Cuba. I moved here from Key West in 1938 and rented this estate. I bought it when I sold For Whom the Bell Tolls(1940). It’s a good place to work because it’s outside the city and sitting on a hill.”

The home has become a museum devoted to a key figure in modern literature, with a personal style of brief, clear dialogue: Ernest Hemingway (Oak Park, Illinois; July 21, 1899 – Ketchum, Idaho; July 2, 1961). Photo: Mireya Castañeda
The Vigía is in fact located on a rise that was once the site of a Spanish colonial army observation station. Thus its name, which means sentry. In 1887, it became the property of Miguel Pascual Baguer, a Catalonian architect, who built the spacious, breezy house, in which he lived until 1903. Among the subsequent owners was the Frenchman Joseph D’Orn Duchamp, who rented it as a vacation home.

In 1939, Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third spouse, discovered the Vigía in a Havana newspaper’s classified ads and convinced Hemingway to leave the Ambos Mundos Hotel, and move to the city’s outskirts. In 1940, they bought it for $12,500, but it would be Mary Welsh, who married the author in 1946 to become his fourth and last wife, who made the Vigía the splendid place we know today.

THE MUSEUM-HOME

Visitors are not permitted to enter the house, but it is surrounded by a veranda, allowing a full view into Hemingway’s personal, private world through the many windows and doors. You can see the different rooms, first the main living room where the bull-fight paintings by Spanish artist Roberto Domingo hang; Hemingway’s favorite chair beside a small bar; his collection of more than 900 records; and the dining room in the style of a Spanish tavern, with rustic furniture designed by Mary Welsh and constructed by carpenters in San Francisco de Paula.

On the library’s shelves are more than 9,000 books, magazines, and other publications – 2,000 of which are underlined, with notes in the margins – placed according to Hemingway’s taste, regardless of author, subject, or genre.
Taking center stage in the author’s office is his Royal Arrow typewriter. This is where, standing up as he liked, he wrote Islands in the Stream, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old man and the Sea, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1954 and was dedicated to the Cuban people. He left the medal in the Santiago Sanctuary of Cuba’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre.
The indiscreet can peek into the bathroom and see a bookshelf, a magazine rack, and the scale on which he weighed himself every day.
The observation tower, on the left side of the back of the house, was added in 1947. It has three floors, and on the third is a typewriter, a chaise lounge, a rug, and a telescope, to enjoy the panoramic view of the city.

On the estate’s four hectares of grounds is a pool, where Hemingway would swim at the end of his workday –and where Hollywood star Ava Gardner once took a dip –a cock-fighting ring, a tennis court, and even a baseball field.

A must-see is the replica of his yacht, the Pilar, which he took deep-sea fishing into the Gulf Stream, and into legend, since they say he pursued a German submarine aboard this boat during WWII. (Hemingway now has an international fishing tournament to his name.)

THE END

Hemingway left the house in 1960, with the clear intention of returning. He put his desk in order, placing the typewriter on a copy of Who’s Who in America; and left a couple of sharpened pencils at the ready, plus a dozen sheets of “superior quality” carbon paper, still in the box.

He traveled to Spain to see the running of the bulls, but feeling sick, went to the United States where he was hospitalized. He killed himself with a gunshot in Ketchum, Idaho, in 1961.

A few weeks after the author’s death, his widow Mary Welsh came to Havana to collect a few items of value and donate the house to the Cuban people with the majority of its contents, in accordance with Hemingway’s final wishes. Since 1962, it has functioned as the Museo Finca Vigía.

Ernest Hemingway made his first trip to Cuba in 1932, and left his mark at the Ambos Mundo Hotel, where his room remains intact, and at the Floridita and Bodeguita del Medio bars. He is always quoted as saying, “My daiquiri at the Floridita, and my mojito at the Bodeguita.”

Clearly the most important stop for those following the footsteps of the great novelist in Havana is the Vigía estate, where he lived from 1939 until 1960, to feel the mystery of creation that emanates from his home. A special adventure that brings us a little closer to the life of Ernest Hemingway and sends us back to read his work again.

(Granma)