[ROAD PHEROMONE] FOR WHOM DO YOU DRINK MOJITO

'El Floridita' is the most famous bar in Havana. I sit on a bench facing the door of El Floridita. Hemingway stayed at the nearby Ambos Mundos Hotel and enjoyed drinking Daikiri in 'El Floridita'. Looking at customers entering and leaving the bar, a white young man sits down beside the bench and talks.

"Are you waiting to go in there?"
"Well… "
"Do you think how many of those bar guests are the readers Hemingway? Most of them have never read a single Hemingway book. they just watched [Farewell to arms]’, [For Whom the Bell Tolls] in the movie, and they are just following the trail of a star. they do not even know how Hemingway has became a brilliant star and why he shines. I'd rather read a Hemingway novel than take a picture with Hemingway statue and drink Dikiri.

With a cynical face, the young man pulled out a book from his bag. [THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA] The cover of English version flapped.

Michael Sandel mentions two unpleasant characteristics of American culture in [Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics] One tends to become overly obsessed with celebrities, and the other tends to make everything a target for trading. In fact, Americans buy and sell whatever socks, panties, bra, or whatever celebrities used. For example, Kennedy's belongings were put up for Auction around 1990, A rocking chair was sold for $ 300,000 and a leather bag was sold for $ 700,000. Even a underwear that Kennedy wore was sold for $ 3,000. It is a dreadful obsession for celebrities.

If the characteristics of these Americans cross over the sea to Cuba, it becomes 'Hemingway pilgrims'. Not to mention the house Hemingway lived in and the hotel where he wrote novels, a bar where he drank Daikiri, a bar where he drank mojito and so on. If a Cuban older man says "I peed at that toilet and I saw a man standing next to me, he was Hemingway!", they are ready to put the public toilet in the pilgrimage place. Maybe somebody will buy the urinal which Hemingway used at that day, saying, “I want to feel Hemingway's scent!". If only it could attract or sell, it does not matter whether it is true or not.

Actually, there was such a thing. There are two famous bars in Havana because of Hemingway. "El Floridita" mentioned above and "La Bodegita del Medio" Hemingway is said to have drunk ‘Daikiri in El Floridita and Mohito in La Bodegita’. By the way, Hemingway was never a customer of "La Bodegita del Medio".

This is the situation. Old Havana, 1942. Mr. and Mrs. Martinez bought a grocery store and then started selling drinks with the sign "Casa Martinez". While they were making and selling cocktails, they decided to change their name to “La Bordegita del Medio” in 1950 and thought about attracting more customers. One of the regular customers intervenes. "Do you know that El Floridita is doing great business because of Hemingway? So why don't you write ‘My Mojito in La BordejI, My Dikiri in El Floridita – Ernest Hemingway’ and put it on the wall.”

"Well, That sounds fun!" So they did. they even fake the Hemingway sign. What they did for fun became a documentary. Leaning on a fake sentence, The authors who write about celebrities wrote "Mojito was Heminway’s favorite cocktail. He drank a mojito while writing [FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS] and [THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA] and blah...blah...blah....” If Hemingway was alive, it would have turned out to be unfounded, but Hemingway committed suicide in two years after returning to the United States. At a time when nuclear war is happen, there would be no reporter who dig up the sentence attached to a bar.

I do not know whether it was a joke or no, but the three Cushion that leads to "Hemingway-Mojito-La Bodegita" has gone around the world again and again, Mojito became a world-class cocktail, La Bodegita opens its branches to various countries.

The truth is revealed in 2012. Now Martinez, who left the "La Bodegita", made a declaration of conscience. But books and articles linking 'Hemingway – Mohito - La Bodegita' were piled up in bookstores and libraries in all of the world, even if burn all of books and articles, I can imagine it would take more than three years. Today, tourists still drink mojito at La Bodegita, shouting "Like Hemingway! " at a price twice as high as other bars. Making a traveler an easy touch is the easiest scam in the world.

Instead of drinking a cocktails at the bar famous for Hemingway, i went to a fishing village, Kohimar, which was the background of [THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA]. It takes about 30 minutes by bus from Havana. Bus fare is 20 cents. The town of Kohimar has fewer tourists than Havana's bar selling Hemingway. Anyway Kohimar has also one restaurant Hemingway was regular there. the restaurant do business with foreign tourists and sell everything several times more expensive than other restaurant. There are no competitions, so the employees are unfriendly.

I suddenly wonder. there is a restaurant where Hemingway's regular but now only used by foreign tourists, Cuba's atmosphere at that time can not be found at all. and there is the other restaurant which has no trace of Hemingway, but the place where Cuba’s atmosphere remains that Hemingway felt at that time, where can I feel Hemingway more realistic? there is no answer. It's a matter of taste.

Anyway, I would like to answer this. After reading ‘The Little Prince’, I want to go to the desert where the little prince will come to talk rather than to go the restaurant that Saint Exupery used as a regular.