Hemingway bar opens in DC

Havana has two Hemingway bars. Now Washington DC has one too.

The Cuban Interests Section opened an invite-only bar in the U.S. capital last week to honor U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway, who spent the better part of the 1940s and 1950s in Cuba.

“Very little has been said or written in the United States about the close relationship of this important literary figure with Cuba,” Cuban representative Jorge Bolanos said, reported MercoPress.

Hemingway kept an estate in Cuba for two decades before returning to the U.S. when Fidel Castro took power. There were "pals from Hollywood … Spanish grandees, soldiers, sailors, Cuban politicians, prizefighters, barkeeps, painters and even fellow authors," says a 1954 profile in Time.

The United States and Cuba haven't had diplomatic relations in years, but the Cuban Interests Section in DC operates out of the Swiss Embassy.

Read more: Preserving Hemingway's legacy in Cuba

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