Gregorio Fuentes

He was a Cuban fisherman, first mate of the Pilar, the boat belonging to American writer Ernest Hemingway. An inseparable friend of Ernest Hemingway and the source of inspiration for the writer when he created The Old Man and the Sea.

He was born in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, on July 11, 1897. In 1903 he embarked toward Cuba on the Bergantín, where his father worked as a cook, and disembarked at the port of La Habana at six years old.

During the voyage his father died in an accident and Gregorio grew up alone in Casablanca.

Through sheer willpower he obtained his captain's license and, when he had saved enough money, he returned to Lanzarote to bring the rest of his family to Cuba. There he met his cousin Dolores, whom he fell in love with, they married, lived 70 years of marriage in Cojímar and had three daughters.

In 1938, Fuentes replaced the original first mate of the Pilar, Carlos Gutiérrez, after Hemingway's lover, Jane Mason, fired him out of jealousy over the writer's relationship with Martha Gellhorn.

Gregorio Fuentes lived in Cojímar, a fishing village east of La Habana.

Gregorio Fuentes and Carlos Guttiérez served as the model for the old Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea.

He was a hardened smoker of cigars and received several decorations, among them that of Captain of the International Association of Sport Fishing.

Fuentes died of cancer in Cojímar in 2002 at the age of 104. Since he could neither read nor write, he never read The Old Man and the Sea.