Writer, John Hemingway, is awarded the “Guiri Del Año” 2011

20/06/2011. Creative director at Kukuxumusu, Mikel Urmeneta, handed over the award at an event celebrated at the home-museum of Ernest Hemingway in Key West (Florida)

North-American writer, John Patrick Hemingway received the VIII Kukuxumusu Guiri del Año Award yesterday, Sunday, at Key West (Florida). This award is bestowed each year on a foreigner in acknowledgement of his passion and fervor for Sanfermin fiestas and his connection with the popular fiestas in Iruñea/Pamplona. It so happens that this year, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernest Hemingway, the paternal grandfather of the award winner.

Mikel Urmeneta, founder-member and creative director of Kukuxumusu, went down to Key West (Florida-USA) to personally hand over the award at an event which took place yesterday, Sunday, in what was once the house of Ernest Hemingway himself, in Key West. Mister Testis, the Kukuxumusu blue bull, did not wish to miss the party and he also managed to make his way there for the award ceremony which was held in the very same office -now closed to the public- where Hemingway wrote his Taurino book - Death in the Afternoon (1932), inspired by the bullfights he had first seen in the Pamplona bullring during Sanfermin.

John Patrick Hemingway stated that he was extremely excited to receive the award and he expressed his appreciation to Kukuxumusu for the award: "I feel that the Guiri del Año award is a great honor not so much for me but rather my family, and above all, for my granddad. I would like to think that I represent my grandfather in receiving this award and I know that he too would be grateful for being given the award".
For his part, Urmeneta explained why the decision had been taken to bestow the award on John: "The award has been given to him for having recovered the tradition and the devotion that his grandfather felt for Sanfermin and because this year's Sanfermin coincides with the 50th anniversary of the death of the Nobel prize winner. It seemed the perfect year to pay homage to both of them, although the award is really for John, who has merited getting it".

John Hemingway has been twice to the Sanfermin fiestas and he has a large group of friends from there. In 2009 he received a red necktie from the City of Pamplona at an event organized by the City hall, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the last visit paid by Ernest Hemingway to Sanfermin. That year John Patrick Hemingway participated along with the chef, José Andrés and with Mikel Urmeneta in a special event when the chef launched his unique recipe for making a Kulumutxu cocktail.