Hunting One's Heritage

 Family Research Center

My Heritage, My Mother

“History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all.”

–Laurence Overmire

One of the things I strongly advocate is selecting a destination based on research, learning as much as possible about the destination prior to visiting. Vacation choices have been based on interest, activities, cost, ease of travel, and familiarity. I would like to now add to that list heritage travel, a deep dive into who you are and where your origins lie. Researching your roots is becoming increasingly easier and it is an adventure that revolves around you. You should begin where it all began, with your DNA.

Blood typing was the 1920s precursor of modern DNA technology. Austrian scientist Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood typing system, identifying four human blood types that were biologically inherited from your parents. Dr. Charles Drew, an African-American scientist, made revolutionary findings that made blood storage and dispensation possible. DNA, inherited from both parents, was initially genetically tested in the 1980s in a procedure called Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). By the 1990s RFLP was rendered obsolete by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) DNA testing requiring a much smaller sample and having an accuracy rate of 99.999 percent.

Testing your DNA is a good idea for more than just forensics, paternity and travel. In revealing your genetic journey tests will also reveal cultural lifestyle, genetic susceptibilities and attendant health issues. There have been cases of individuals who have traced a genetic disease to a country where it was more prevalent and found that country had developed alternative treatments and therapies. Genealogical DNA testing can also reveal predispositions to certain conditions.

There are numerous Genealogical DNA Test Kits on the market but there can be differences. I chose MyHeritage because it has been rated the best kit in 2017 on Top 10 DNA testing and consistently ranks among the top ten on other sites. It is one of the largest providers of DNA testing kits, has the largest international network of family trees, 8-billion records, and provides a menu of enhancements to facilitate your genealogical research. MyHeritage uses state-of-the-art technology and offers 24/7 customer support. It is cost-effective and is currently one of the least expensive Genealogical DNA Test Kit options. Most significantly tests are submitted using an ID number to protect anonymity.(Myheritage.com)

Once Polymerase Chain Reaction DNA testing was developed a cheek swab, totally noninvasive, became effective for gathering a large enough sample. The sample is sent to a team of technicians who inspect the specimen for possible contamination and, if found to be intact, extract cells from the sample and replicate the DNA to ensure that they have a sufficient amount for analyzation. The DNA is then placed onto a genotyping chip, heated and through hybridization the sample adheres to the chip. A computer yields the DNA information after a thorough computer scan and evaluation of the resulting data. Your DNA profile is sent to you between 4 and 6 weeks after submission.

The Mormon Church has been gathering and maintaining ancestral information since 1894, and began posting it online in 1999. Most genealogy kits and websites are connected to them in some way. You have the option of building you family tree at your genealogical DNA kit site only or using additional resources in your search. The absolute best family archive site is their website Family Search. It is the largest compilation of genealogical records in the world and the archives include birth, census, death, Freedmans’ Bureau, marriage, military, naturalization, probate and voter records. Visitors can create a family tree or booklet on the site and it is free. Online tutorials are also available on the web. They range from 5 to 59-minutes with an adjustable pace and are presented on three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Original records are protected and digitized in the Granite Mountain Record Vault beneath 675-ft. of granite with entrance doors weighing from 9 to 14-tons each. Data has been collected from around the world and is stored at a constant 35 percent humidity, 55-degree temperature. The facility is off limits to everyone except church officials and employees but there are 4,600 centers in 70 countries where heritage hunters can not only access records but also get assistance from volunteers.

Philadelphia has two Family Research Centers. The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Metro Family History Center, located at 2072 Red Lion Road, is open Tuesday 10 AM to 3 PM, 1st Tuesday 5 PM to 9 PM, 1st and 3rd Saturday 10 AM to 3 PM. The last admission is 1 hour before closing. West Philadelphia Pennsylvania Family History Center, 3913 Chestnut Street, is open Wednesday 6:30pm to 8:30pm and the 1st and 3rd Sunday 9 am to 1 pm. Call for information prior to visiting any facility. (www.familysearch.org/locations).

Tracing your heritage is not only accomplished with technology. Some of the best sources are family members and family documents. You should ask questions, and I suggest that you begin with the elders. They can be a surprising wealth of information. Additionally, church records are often overlooked as sources. Obituaries yield a surprising amount of information and many churches maintain copies of them, as well as baptismal and marriage records.

Fall and winter are optimal times to research your history and plan trips to visit ancestral sites to enhance your knowledge of the people and places in your near and distant past. Heritage hunting is always worthwhile and often remarkable. (www.familysearch.org).

Vietnam Revisited

Vietnam Revisited

Renée Gordon

“Those who do not remember the lessons of 

the past are condemned to repeat it.”  

George Santayana

Until recently everything I knew about Vietnam I learned from the movies. Just as the times changed and the storytellers varied, so too did my perspective on our participation. Hindsight may not be 20-20 but it does provide a greater sense of clarity and a broader view of events and their aftermath.

This winter, accompanied by five friends, I set out to visit all of the places I had read about. The staging grounds for occurrences that would forever change the lives of millions of Americans and Asians. Once in Vietnam I saw international hotels, gourmet restaurants and designer stores. There were luxurious fabrics, intricate carvings, fine artworks, spa treatments and nightlife, anything and everything to satiate the American appetite and earn our dollars.

I knew there was much more to the story and so I left the beaten path and sought the sites that relate the tales I wanted to hear, the story of the “American War” through their eyes.

In 1975 Americans pulled out of Vietnam, in 1976 the country was reunified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Saigon was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Eighteen years later the US resumed trade with the country and the following year, in 1995, the US reopened diplomatic relations and this January Vietnam was temporarily seated on the Security Council of the United Nations.

There are numerous sites within the country that interpret the American presence and the Vietnamese attitude regarding and response to the conflict, but there are four in particular that best capture a real sense of the times, Ho Chi Minh’s Tomb, the War Remnants Museum, Hoa Lo Prison (The Hanoi Hilton) and the Cu Chi Tunnel System.

Hanoi’s Ho Chi Minh Memorial Complex has achieved the status of a shrine for the Vietnamese and the number of visitors, both foreign and domestic, reflects the significance of his role in the country’s history. The people, ignoring his desire to be cremated and his ashes divided among three urns positioned on three mountains in the middle and northern and southern parts of the country, began construction of an elaborate mausoleum in 1973. The Soviet’s embalmed Ho’s body and it has been on view since 1975.

A short walk takes visitors to the two houses he chose to live in, rather than reside in the more elaborate Presidential Palace, from 1954 to 1969. A smaller house he resided in from 1958 to 1969 was built atop stilts and the tour takes you pass the area beneath the house used for meetings and to the upper level living room, sleeping quarters and working room. In adjacent buildings are the entry to his bomb shelter, car, and the small house in which he died.

The War Remnants Museum, 28 Vo Van Tan, Saigon, opened to the public in the same year as the mausoleum. The museum serves as an exhibition center and a repository for the information and artifacts that interpret the “war crimes and aftermaths foreign aggressive forces caused for the Vietnamese people”. Tours are self-guided and include outdoor displays of captured weapons employed by the US during the conflict, seven additional, thematic galleries and special exhibits. The eight permanent galleries are largely chronological and begin with the history that led to war.

A 30-minute film details the enormous number of children born with birth defects as a result of toxic chemicals as well as citing statistics on the thousands of people more recently killed by unexploded bombs that have never been removed. Over a ten-year period the US dropped more than 7-million tons of napalm on the country and huge amounts of defoliant and herbicide to denude the countryside. This museum, more than any other I visited, presented a documented Vietnamese viewpoint and for that reason I highly recommend it.

Hoa Lo Prison, referred to by Americans as the “Hanoi Hilton,” is considered a of international significance. The majority of the prison was razed in 1993 but a small portion was maintained intact and opened as a “historic vestige.”

Originally constructed by the French for the incarceration of Vietnamese dissidents, it was a place of extreme torture and abuse under their regime. In 1954, under the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, it functioned as a state prison and beginning in 1964 it was also used for the internment of captured American pilots. Its most famous prisoner was presidential candidate John McCain.

Self-guided tours cover nineteen areas including cells, interrogation rooms, bathrooms and an authentic guillotine. Many of the rooms are populated with replicas of prisoners recreating conditions in the prison and adding an aura of realism. The “Detained American Pilots Exhibition Room” exhibits personal possessions belonging to the downed pilots. The highlight of these displays is McCain’s flight suit. The Memorial Courtyard, near the end of the tour, showcases a sculpted mural dedicated to the Vietnamese patriots who were imprisoned here.

Approximately 30-miles north of Saigon visitors can access the Cu Chi Tunnel System and the Liberated Area of Cu Chi. The 125-mile, four-layer tunnel was begun by the Viet Minh and the villagers in 1940. They secretly dug at night and hid the displaced dirt in the rice paddies. In 1959 the Viet Cong entered the area and expanded them.
The top has been removed, steps have been added and the tunnel has been enlarged in the areas open to visitors. Several rooms recreate the underground activities and local, surviving, Viet Cong soldiers lead the tours.

The first stop is a former meeting room in which a grainy orientation film is aired. The film is, as it should be, told from the point of view of the Viet Cong.  Tourists are invited to climb into a (non-enlarged) tunnel entrance and later to walk a short distance through the system. Other accessible rooms are a shoemaker, hospital, kitchen, uniform maker and sleeping quarters and demonstrations are given of the various types of traps constructed by the soldiers. The walking tour concludes with at a typical encampment and a traditional  “snack” of pineapple tea and casaba melon.

Visitors can buy items in the gift shop, eat in the café or purchase bullets and test their skills by shooting an AK47.

More than fifty percent of the population of Vietnam was not born during the conflict but the legacy lingers and there are valuable lessons to be learned by revisiting that legacy. Lives were lost and we are left with monuments and memories on both sides of the world.

Vietnam is filled with unique history and culture and currently is an outstanding travel bargain. The flight is long but on the upside it is historic, lovely, exotic and unlike any other destination.

Reprinted from 2015

Baldwn's "Individual Journey" in NY and Paris

       James Baldwin’s roles as author and political activist uniquely fitted him to be both a voice for and shaper of African American political culture specifically and American culture in a broader sense. All of his childhood experiences honed him for his “individual journey” and for the remainder of his life he spoke out against injustice and advocated radical change and neither his influence nor his significance has diminished in the years since his death. His eloquent prose continues to spur us to speak truth to power. On August 2, 1924 Emma Berdis gave birth to James Arthur Baldwin in Harlem Hospital. Three years later she wed the strict and morally rigid Reverend David Baldwin. He adopted James and they went on to have eight additional children. 

         James attended PS 24 in Harlem, located on 128th St. between Fifth and Madison Avenues. In 2014, in commemoration of his 90th birthday, New York City designated the street James Baldwin Way. At Frederic Douglass Junior High he found a mentor in poet Countee Cullen who introduced him to literature through participation in the literary club and the editing of the school’s magazine, The Douglass Pilot. 

         In 1938 Baldwin experienced an epiphany and was called to the ministry. It was as a minister at Fireside Pentecostal Assembly that he developed his oratorical skills. He preached until 1941 at which time he left the church because of philosophical differences and became an atheist. 

         Ironically DeWitt Clinton High School opened on the same day the stock market crashed. The all male facility was built at a cost of $3.5-million and drew its population of the best and brightest from throughout the city. Cullen encouraged Baldwin to apply for admission, he was accepted and graduated in 1942. While there he worked on the school’s newspaper, The Magpie. A list of outstanding alumni includes Nate Archibald, Ralph Lauren, Stan Lee and Tracy Morgan. 

         After Reverend Baldwin’s death in 1943 James tried to support the family but eventually moved out and began to live in Greenwich Village and interact with artists and musicians. At this time he met writer Richard Wright and became his protégée. Wright was instrumental in his securing a Eugene F. Saxon Foundation Fellowship in 1945. 

         In 1947 he published his first professional work and the following year he was granted a Rosenwald fellowship. He used the fellowship to go to Paris where he stayed and later traveled internationally but always returning to America and France. He never relinquished his American citizenship and wrote that he considered himself a “commuter”. He never ceased to be politically active and speak out against racial inequality and advocating social change. 

          The city of Paris is divided into 20 districts referred to as arrondissements that spiral around the oldest portion of the city. Each neighborhood has a unique history and culture and most tourists agree that the real must-sees are districts 1 through 8. Districts 1-4 and 8 are situated on the Right Bank and 5-7 on the Left Bank. African Americans were in Paris before 1900 including William Wells Brown, Norbert Rilleux, Frederick Douglass, Mary C. Terrell and James Hemings. WWI brought black soldiers and, most importantly, jazz to France. 

          After the introduction of African American culture entertainers and artists followed and a community thrived. The end of WWII caused another influx of African Americans who sought more opportunity and greater racial equality. Baldwin stepped into this world in November of 1948 with hopes, dreams and $40.00. 

           He went from the airport to the 2nd floor of Café Deux Magots, in St.-Germain-des-Prés where he met with editors from Zero Magazine and Richard Wright. Baldwin’s essay Everybody’s Protest Novel was shortly to be published and Wright felt some of the criticism was aimed at him. A minor feud began between the two. The café is still there. 

           In his first Parisian years Baldwin lived in a series of minor hotels on Rue de Verneuil. Later he would rent a cold water apartment at #48 Rue Jacob. The offices of Zero Magazine are located at #29 and #56 is where Benjamin Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris that granted the United States independence from Britain in 1783. Baldwin’s living spaces were often unheated and poorly lit causing him to write in nearby cafés.               On Café de Flore’s second floor Baldwin rewrote  Go Tell it on the Mountain. Tourists can order Cognac or coffee, his drinks of preference here in his honor. Alfred Knopf wanted to publish the book in NY and Baldwin borrowed plane fare from Marlon Brando to return to America in the Beaux Arts Hotel at Rue de Beaux Arts #13. The Art-Deco Le Select Café was where much of Giovanni’s Room was penned in 1955.                 Baldwin did gain international literary acclaim and was awarded the French Legion of Honor. His favorite hotel became the Hotel Port Royal and its restaurant Les Antiquaires on Rue Montalembert. He purchased a home in the south of France in St. Paul-de-Vence and it was there he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and died on November 30, 1987. 

             A memorial service was held for him at the American Cathedral on Avenue Georges V #23. Baldwin was returned to Harlem where more than 4,000 people attended his 3-hour funeral services held at St. John the Divine, Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street,  on December 8, 1987. His 40 car funeral cortege drove pass the sites of his youth and continued to Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale. Baldwin rests in Hillcrest A, #1203. 

            The Fire Next Time began as a letter, published in The Progressive, to his nephew on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. His Letter to My Nephew continues to resonate and has a message for us all. “This is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”

Patsy Cline Walking After Midnight

Searching for Patsy Cline

“I go out walkin' after midnight, Out in the starlight, just hoping you may be  Somewhere a-walkin' after midnight, Searchin' for me.” 

It has been said that the loneliest time of the day is the hours between midnight and dawn. In 1957 Patsy Cline performed “Walkin After Midnight” on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show, the American Idol of its day. Cline wowed audiences with her performance of "Walkin' After Midnight," winning the program's competition and $10,000. Although she was not the writer, she molded the song into a heart-wrenching ballad that is palpable in its pathos. She burst onto the national stage at that point and people have sought to honor her legend and learn her backstory since that time. Fortunately you can now follow her trail in the light of day and Winchester, Virginia is the ideal place to do it. www.visitwinchesterva.com

Virginia “Ginny” Patterson Hensley was born in Winchester in 1932. Her father worked at Washington and Lee University and while living on campus she was exposed to big band music and later stated that that was where her love of pop music began. Her parents, Samuel and Hilda, later parted and her mother, a seamstress, moved with her three children to Winchester. 

Ginny was a self-taught pianist by the age of nine and soon added singing to her repertoire. She dropped out of school at age sixteen and performed in local establishments but her professional career began in 1952 when she performed with Bill Peer and his band. He convinced her to change her stage name to Patsy but her friends and family always referred to her as Ginny. In 1953 she wed Gerald Cline and it was as Patsy Cline that she made her first, unsuccessful, recordings the following year.

After her 1957 breakthrough performance she divorced Cline and married Charles Dick the same year and they relocated to Nashville. Charles and Patsy were the parents of two children, Julie and Randy. In the 1960s she became a cast member of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN, toured with Johnny Cash and repeatedly released songs that topped the country music charts.

On March 5, 1963 Patsy was killed in a plane crash along with Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas while flying from Kansas City, MO. Her manager, Randy Hughes, a relatively new pilot, flew the Piper Comanche. He was flying by sight not instrumentation and, caught in a rainstorm, became disoriented. They crashed 2-miles outside Camden, TN, 90-miles from their destination. Visitors to the Crash Site Memorial will see an interpretive collage in a gazebo and further along an etched boulder placed there in 1996. 

The first stops on your quest should be the exhibition on Patsy Cline in the Winchester-Frederick County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the 2004 Patsy Cline Murals painted by high school students at Indian Alley & Cork St. The exhibition, Becoming Patsy Cline, is free and was returned to the site by popular demand.

By the time Patsy was sixteen she had moved nineteen times. The tin-roofed Patsy Cline Historic House was her 19th move and the home she lived in the longest, from 1948 to 1953. The house is located at 608 Kent Street in Old Town Winchester. The house consists of two rooms and a kitchen on the first floor and one large L-shaped room on the second. A tiny bathroom was added beneath the stairs off the parlor and it is hard to imagine her preparing for performances in the miniscule space.

The parlor is filled with photographs and memorabilia as well as a white piano, record player and early television set. The dining area has an exhibit of her salt and peppershaker collection, her costumes, her mother’s sewing machine and facsimiles of her hand drawn stage outfit designs. The outfits displayed are western ensembles. After her appearance on the talent show she was advised by a female producer to alter her style. She adopted a more sophisticated style and began wearing her signature red lipstick. 

          The room on the second floor served as bedrooms for Patsy, her mother, sister and brother. Curtains hung from a clothesline provided privacy. The house is listed on National Register of Historic Places. Nearby, at 720 S. Kent Street, Patsy married Charlie Dick in 1957. www.celebratingpatsycline.org

Money was always an issue for the family so she left school to work. She had many jobs including housecleaning and slaughtering chickens. She worked the longest at Gaunt’s Drugstore as a popular waitress and soda jerk. Replicas of some items she used at Gaunt’s are on display in the Cline House.

Patsy was industrious and even while working at a series of jobs she made the time to perform. One of her favorite venues, and the site of her debut, was WINC Radio Station. She walked into the station at 14 and expressed her desire to sing on the station’s 30-minute country music program. 

Patsy Cline died as a result of the plane crash and more than 25,000 people attended her funeral. Her gravesite is in Shenandoah Memorial Park near the North Gate and a 55-ft. bell tower in the southeast section of the cemetery serves as a memorial to the singer. Visitors should take along a penny to place on her grave. It is said to bring good luck.

Patsy forged her own path and went against convention by wearing pants, much to the consternation of the music community, and being a divorcée. She was also known for being supportive of other female artists and offering help and advice when needed. 

In her brief lifetime she recorded 102 songs and a trio of albums. Patsy Cline’s legacy is widespread, lasting and extends beyond her music. She is credited with helping to create the Nashville Sound and in 1973 she posthumously became the first female solo artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, is depicted on a U.S. postage stamp, has a star on Hollywood Boulevard and is in the Guinness Book of Records.

You need not search far to find Patsy Cline in Winchester, Virginia.

Ernest Hemingway in Cuba

Ernest Hemingway, A Cubano Sato 

Renée S. Gordon

Cuba is a hot travel destination in every sense of the word. “Discovered” on Columbus first voyage in 1492, it gained almost immediate importance for its location between North and South America. The largest island in the Greater Antilles, Cuba is actually an archipelago with more than 4,000 small islands. The main island is 776-miles long and is made up of beaches, marshes, mountains, plains and tropical forests.

Baracoa, the first settlement was established in 1511 after nearly all the indigenous people were wiped out. There followed an influx of Europeans, Africans, at one point exceeding the white population, and Chinese. Each ethnic group added a layer to the culture of the country that can be seen in its art, architecture, cuisine, religion and music. Travelers are rapidly discovering that Cuba is totally unique.

Ernest Hemingway initially discovered the natural beauty, bounty and warmth of the Cuban people for three days in 1928 while on route to Spain. He and his family booked a room in the Havana Hotel Ambos Mundos. Four years later he returned to fish for marlin and two years after that he purchased a boat he named after his wife, El Pilar, that he docked in the tiny fishing village of Cojimar and he boarded in the Hotel Ambos Mundos. Eventually Hemingway purchased a hilltop home and lived there until he left Cuba after the revolution. He referred to himself as a Cubano Sato, an ordinary Cuban. There are five major sites on the Ernest Hemingway Trail that provide insight into what he most loved about Cuba. All are accessible, tours are self-guided and there is no language barrier.

Hotel Ambos Mundos, Hemingway’s first home in Cuba, is located in the heart of Old Havana. The 5-story, colonial-style hotel was constructed in 1923 and restored 73 years later. During his 1932-39 residence he occupied room 511, now preserved as a museum, that features several personal items including the Remington typewriter upon which he started For Whom the Bell Tolls and one of his rifles. Looking around the room and out of the windows allows you an interesting look into his world.

The lobby is complete with piano bar, comfortable seating and is a mini-museum. Adorning the walls are pictures of the author at various stages. A large open-grilled elevator is the one he would have ridden to his room and guests may take it to the rooftop terrace for cocktails and a view of the city below. Reservations can be made through Cuba Travel Network. www.hotelambosmundos

Both of Hemingway’s two favorite Havana bars still exist, are little changed physically and continue to serve his signature drinks. They are tourist draws but are also essential sites on the trail.

La Bodeguita del Medio is a local establishment that is noted for not only its drinks but also its Cuban cuisine. Here Hemingway was known to favor the Cuban highball, a mojito. One of the most famous displays in the bar is a, supposedly, autographed, framed, statement, “My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita”. The walls are filled with photographs of the author, inscriptions and graffiti.

La Floridita is possibly the most famous of Hemingway’s haunts and is considered "la cuna del daiquiri", “the cradle of the daiquiri”. The Silver Pineapple opened in 1817 and was renamed in 1914 because of the large number of North Americans who frequented the establishment. An ascantinero, a bartender and the owner, is believed to have created the frozen daiquiri. 

       The atmosphere in the bar is fantastic and tourists are ever present, but no Hemingway tour is complete without a daiquiri from La Floridita. The daiquiri was reportedly his favorite drink and he is said to have drunk 13 doubles in one sitting. They do offer drinks without the rum and live music is offered. Photographs and a bust of the writer decorate the venue and, best of all, Hemingway himself is present. A life-sized statue of the author, by José Villa Soberón, stands behind a red velvet rope near his favorite bar stool. 

           In 1940 Hemingway purchased an 1886 hilltop home for $12,500 in San Francisco de Paula 10-miles from Havana. The home, Finca Vigia, Lookout Farm, was his residence until he left Cuba forever in 1960. During his years there he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. Upon his death in 1961 the government took over the estate.

            Visitors cannot enter the house but are allowed to peer in through doors and windows. Tours are self-guided and include the house, garden, tower, pool and boat. The home looks as if Hemingway just stepped out. It is filled with trophies, personal items, furniture, 9,000 books and his personal typewriter placed atop a bookcase because Hemingway wrote standing due to an old injury.

              His fishing boat El Pilar is on view near the pool. It is painted in dark colors, unlike other Cuban fishing vessels, because Hemingway was the only American allowed to patrol Cuba’s offshore waters hunting for German U-boats. He was equipped with hand grenades, binoculars and a Thompson machine gun. President Roosevelt requested that civilians volunteer to patrol the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico in 1942. The volunteers became known as Hooligan Navy. They were mandated to patrol and if necessary alert the military. Hemingway the adventurer obviously had other military ideas.

               A few miles from Finca Vigia is the tiny fishing village of Cojimar. Hemingway set his 1954 Nobel Prize winning novel, The Old Man and the Sea, there. He docked the Pilar there and it is widely believed that the title character is based on his fishing guide Gregorio Fuentes. In the novel the old man promises to visit the Shrine of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba if he lands his fish. Hemingway gifted his 23kt Nobel Prize Literary Medal to the Virgin of Charity where it was displayed until stolen even though it was rapidly returned. 

               La Terraza de Cojímar is a restaurant and bar that was frequented by Hemingway. In remembrance the bar section is decorated with photographs and paintings of both Hemingway and Fuentas. In the attached restaurant his table is indicated with a historical sign. From his table you obtain one of the views that inspired his book.

               The main street is a bayside promenade and a small stone fortress currently housing the coast guard. Hemingway Park is midway the promenade. Inside a neo-classical pavilion is a bust of Ernest Hemingway created by villagers in his memory in 1962 from donated metal after they learned of his suicide. He gazes contemplatively out to sea.

                Hemingway’s influence on world literature has not diminished.  “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” was the first American movie to be filmed there since 1959. Scenes were shot on actual locations, many of which are on the tour. 

       I highly recommend that the best way to experience all that Cuba offers is to take a cruise and the most affordable and immersive all island tour I found was Celestyal® Cruises - Experience The Real Cuba‎. All of the above sites are part of a Havana tour in conjunction with an accompanying guide, specialty drinks and guaranteed access to sites. All of their cruises immerse you in the culture through more than port excursions. On board activities and events amplify your experience with lectures, classes, folklore shows and Cuban crewmembers. Most impressively, activities are designed to coincide with port visits so that travelers are knowledgeable prior to cultural encounters. Celestyal Cruises vary in length and ports of embarkation. Schedules, general information and pricing is available online.      http://americas.celestyalcruises.com/en, #celestyalcruises

Living the Legends in Richmond, VA

                  Richmond, Virginia, as one of the country’s oldest cities, has been at the nexus of cultural history since its original settlement in 1607 and platting in 1737. It was officially named, because of its similar views to the area of Richmond Hill in England, and incorporated in 1742 and the view remains almost unchanged from today’s Libby Hill. www.visitrichmondva.com

After the American Revolution Richmond thrived as a manufacturing, shipping and slave trading center. Virginia’s population by 1776 was 50% enslaved and in1860 there were more slaves and free blacks in the state than in any other. It is estimated that 40% of the enslaved passed through the city, an estimated 300,000 people. Slave ships docked in the James and York Rivers and Richmond became the second largest hub for the internal slave trade, sending the enslaved “down the river”.

                  Shortly after VA seceded from the US in1861 it was deemed the Confederate capital and the White House of the Confederacy was relocated there from Montgomery, Alabama. The city had many resources but it was a targeted 100-miles from DC and the US Army’s call became “On to Richmond.”  Richmond practiced urban slavery and many blacks were highly skilled, were owned by industrial corporations and some were allowed to hire themselves out for wages. They were made to assist in the war effort and sales continued until one month before the Civil War ended.

                  I strongly suggest that visitors take a guided tour to get an overview. The 2-hour Richmond Trolley Company tour encompasses more than 12 of the most significant sites and can be reserved online. http://richmondtrolley.com

                  Tredegar Iron Works produced vast quantities of Confederate artillery, heavy ordinance, buttons and armor plating during the Civil War. It employed more than 1,000 white workers, slaves and free blacks and everyone was paid equal wages. Today the complex is home to the American Civil War Center and the National Battlefield Headquarters at Tredegar. The Civil War Museum preserves one of the best collections of Civil War photographs, documents and artifacts. The museum was the first to examine the Civil War from three perspectives, the Union, the Confederacy and African Americans. http://www.tredegar.org

                  Self-guided tours proceed chronologically through the war beginning with a film that asks visitors to vote on what they believe was the cause of the war. Galleries are replete with dioramas, photographs and videos and every aspect of the war is covered. This museum is mandatory for anyone seeking to understand the Civil War in an unbiased manner. https://acwm.org

                  Equally relevant is a visit to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA). Founded in 1981 the museum relocated to its current space, constructed as an armory for African American servicemen, in 2016. The first floor galleries interpret Emancipation, Reconstruction and Civil Rights. A 35-ft. touchscreen timeline provides a visual journey starting with Egypt BCE. Other exhibits include the stories of Victor Green and his creation of the Green Guide and that of Irene Morgan whose Supreme Court case changed segregation laws on commercial passenger travel. A replica of the statue of Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue provides a wonderful photo op. The second floor galleries house temporary exhibits. A huge sculptural depiction of the Emancipation Oak is easily a highlight of the tour. The oak, located in Hampton, VA, was the site of the first public southern reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. www.blackhistorymuseum.org

                  A number of years ago the city established the Richmond Slave Trail that relates the stories and history of the slave trade from Africa to Emancipation and all 17 of the sites have been authenticated. Lumpkin’s Jail is one of the most intriguing sites. The compound functioned as a housing and slave auction operation for 30-years. In 1844 Robert Lumpkin took ownership. Upon his death in 1866 his widow Mary Ann, a former slave, became the owner and rented the facility to a Baptist minister who founded Colver Institute for freedmen in the former jail. Today the school is Virginia Union University, an HBCU. Site excavations began in 2005.

In 2007 in Shockhoe Bottom, midway the trail, a 15-ft. bronze Reconciliation Statue was placed. There are identical statues in the two other locations, Liverpool, England, and Benin in West Africa, recognized as ports in the triangle trade.

Jackson Ward was one of Richmond’s first and largest, African American districts to be established. It was a center of economic and cultural influence and was widely recognized as the 'Wall Street of Black America' and the ‘Harlem of the South.’ Today it is a National Historic Landmark. https://www.virginia.org

Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson lived in Jackson Ward and in 1933 he watched two children attempt to cross at a dangerous intersection. He then paid for the neighborhood’s first traffic light to be placed there. A 9.5-ft. aluminum monument now stands at that intersection in a small plaza. Robinson is depicted dancing down a flight of stairs.

Maggie L. Walker and her family resided there in a home built in 1889. In 1903 she was the first woman to open a bank, St. Luke Penny Savings, in the United States. Richmond’s newest sculpture is the Maggie Walker Memorial dedicated on her 153^rd birthday. She stands on a 4-ft pedestal, bankbook in hand, surrounded by ten marble benches etched with her accomplishments.

                  The Graduate Richmond is one of a collection of ten curated, thematic properties situated in cities with dynamic and historic Universities. The hotel pays homage to past graduates of VCU with a special nod to Richmond native Arthur Ashe. @visitrichmond

                  There are two dining options available to guests on the premises, Brookfield and The Byrd House and 205 guestrooms complete with modern amenities, the latest technology, designer linens and Malin & Goetz bath products.

                  The Graduate Richmond is located within walking distance of shopping, dining and the most significant city sites. @graduaterichmond