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Coaster with marlin-fishing cartoon, "Cuba"
Object/Artifact
Round pressed-pulpboard coaster printed in red on a cream ground. A line cartoon shows a cheerful boy angler in a hat, striped shirt, and sandals, holding a rod, with a large billfish — a marlin/swordfish (aguja), rendered with its long bill, spiny dorsal and fin rays — beside him; the scene is filled out with a radiant sun, clouds, a small sailboat, and a dock piling. Bold rounded letters at the bottom read "CUBA." 15 identical items.
2025.1.294
In the Arús Caraballo household
The marlin (aguja), rod-and-reel angler, and sailboat evoke big-game billfishing, and most likely allude to the Torneo Internacional de la Aguja — the Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tournament — long associated with the Marina Hemingway west of Havana (the tournament traces back to a competition Hemingway himself inaugurated in 1950 and later carried the marina's name). With no venue, brewery, or printer line, the piece functions as a generic "Cuba" souvenir rather than the branding of one establishment.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Source/publisher: not stated; generic "Cuba" sport-fishing souvenir/barware (plausibly tied to the Marina Hemingway / Torneo de la Aguja milieu — to confirm). Date: undetermined; tentatively 1970s–1980s (cartoon and lettering style). Not closely datable from the object.
"CUBA" in bold rounded red capitals; pictorial cartoon.
9.5 cm
Cardboard
Pressed wood-pulp coaster board; red printing ink.
Good
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use
Open questions: the cartoonist/artist; the publisher or printer; the date; whether it belongs to a series.
Marlin fishing is a deep strand of Cuban–Hemingway lore (The Old Man and the Sea).