We all know about Hemingway’s Key West home and its six-toed cats, but it’s his Havana residence that’s making headlines today.  One of the many victims of 20th century politics, Finca Vigia is quickly falling into disrepair.  Hemingway’s boat “Pilar,” for example, has been languishing on the grounds for years and is now ravaged by termites. 

Home to the Nobel Laureate from 1939 until 1960 (one year after the Cuban Revolution), Finca Vigia is the place where Hemingway wrote such seminal works as “The Old Man and the Sea” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

Trade embargos have prevented money, equipment, and preservation materials from reaching Finca Vigia.  Preservationists are hopeful that Obama will ease such trade restrictions, thus ensuring the needed materials reach Finca Vigia, as well as other historic buildings in Havana, before it’s too late. For more information on Finca Vigia, including ways you can help, check out the building’s page on the National Trust for Historic Preservation website, as well as the Finca Vigia Foundation.