[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 77 (Thursday, May 4, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HEMINGWAY INTERNATIONAL YACHT 
                           CLUB, HAVANA, CUBA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. CHELLIE PINGREE

                                of maine

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 4, 2017

  Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, the Ocean Passages maritime educational 
program and the state of Maine, home port of the schooner Harvey 
Gamage, would like to congratulate Commodore Lic. Jose Miguel Diaz 
Escrich and the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Havana, Cuba, on 
the occasion of its 25th Anniversary, being celebrated this month.
  For 25 years, the Hemingway International Yacht Club has welcomed 
scores of international visitors from around the world--and 
consistently promoted stronger ties between Cuba and the United States 
through cooperative sailing and maritime programs.
  Drawing on the long history of shared Cuban-American nautical 
traditions, symbolized above all by Ernest Hemingway's love of the sea 
and his adoption of Cuba as his second country, the Hemingway 
International Yacht Club has sought to keep alive the importance of 
Cuba's rich marine heritage.
  The schooner Harvey Gamage first sailed into Marina Hemingway in 
Havana in Feburary 2016--and members of the Ocean Passages program have 
worked closely with Commodore Escrich in promoting the participation of 
American sport fishing boats in the annual Hemingway International 
Billfishing Tournament.
  As Ocean Passages grows its educational and training programs in 
Cuban waters, we look forward to deepening that cooperation across the 
ocean we share. As the Maine poet Richard Blanco wrote in Cosas del Mar 
on the occasion of the restoration of bilateral diplomatic relations:

     . . . Today, the sea still telling us,
     the end to all our doubts and fears
     is to gaze into the lucid blues of our shared horizon,
     to breathe together, to heal together.
  Ernest Hemingway donated his 1954 Nobel Literature prize medal to the 
people of Cuba, saying ``this award belongs to the people of Cuba, 
because my works were created and conceived in Cuba, in my village of 
Cojimar, of which I am a citizen.''
  It is in that spirit that Ocean Passages and the state of Maine 
congratulate Commodore Escrich and the Hemingway International Yacht 
Club and look forward to fruitful cooperation for many years to come.

                          ____________________