Episode 4 - Hemingway and Oliva (Part One)

The year 1940 was monumental for Ernest Hemingway. His book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, was published; he married Martha, and together they moved to Cuba and the Finca Vigía, about ten miles southeast of Havana.

Pedro Oliva, Sr. often escorted gringos like Papa Hemingway on quail shoots on his little farm outside Entronque de Herradura, roughly twenty-five miles east of the provincial capital, Pinar del Río. The hunting in the area was excellent. Of the ten children raised by Pedro and his wife, Anita, there were five girls and five boys. The third child, the first boy, loved baseball from the moment he could hold a bat. His name was Pedro Jr., and he was born in July 1938. The next boy, Antonio, came along almost three years later.