Gregorio Fuentes (Arrecife July 11, 1897 - Cojimar January 13, 2002) was a fisherman and the first mate of the Pilar - the boat belonging to the American writer Ernest Hemingway.
Fuentes was born on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, and migrated to Cuba when he was ten years old. In 1938, Fuentes replaced the Pilar's original first mate, Carlos Gutierrez, after Hemingway's mistress, Jane Mason, hired him away to be the first mate of her boat after becoming jealous of Hemingway's relationship with Martha Gellhorn.
Fuentes, a lifelong cigar smoker, died from cancer in Cojimar in 2002, never having read The Old Man and the Sea. He was 104 years old.
Read more about Gregorio Fuentes: The Old Man and The Sea, Sources
Famous quotes containing the word fuentes:
“I don’t think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.”
—Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928)