The tobacco plant found its way to Cuba
somewhere between 3000 and 2000 B.C. and became an integral part of the island's
native Indian lives and culture. Believed to have miraculous medicinal qualities
by the natives, the raw leaves were twisted and smoked for centuries before Columbus
sailed the ocean blue and introduced the Cuban cigar to the rest of the world
in the early 16th century.
Although
cigar smoking was soon to spread and create its own aura and traditions throughout
the western world, its beginnings were anything but auspicious. One legend has
it that Rodrigo de Jerez, a sailor sent forth by Columbus to reconnoitre the island,
found the natives smoking cigars wrapped in corn husks with a ring gauge the size
of a man's forearm and subsequently became the first European cigar smoker. History
puts him in league with another sailor, Luis de Torres and both men were to pay
dearly for enjoying one of the first cigars in Spain. Lighting up the strange
tobacco leaves upon his return from Cuba in 1493, Luis de Torres was condemned
to 10 years imprisonment for sorcery and Rodrigo de Jerez was purportedly jailed
for three years by the Spanish Inquisition for smoking in public. Religious condemnation
notwithstanding, the first tobacco seeds sown in Europe (in Angoulême, France
in 1556) were planted by a monk!
Despite
its ominous beginnings, smoking was to become prevalent throughout Europe by the
mid 16th century and tobacco was both touted for its medicinal qualities and physical
and spiritual pleasures by many and condemned by such illustrious leaders such
as Pope Urban VII and King James I of England. Philip II of Spain joined ranks
with the detractors and denounced it as evil but nothing was to stop the cigar
industry from forming and gaining popularity. First cultivated in Cuba in the
late 16th century, the crops were delivered to Sevilla and distributed throughout
Europe.
Spain was to
play a pivotal role in manufacturing and introducing the Cuban cigar to the world
in the early 18th century. Small factories producing cigars using Cuban tobacco
spread from Spain north to France and Germany and cigar smoking became fashionable
throughout Europe during the 18th century.
As
demand for high quality cigars rose, Europeans discovered that cigars travelled
far better than tobacco and Cuba was the origin of choice. Pure in strain and
grown in an ideal soil under idyllic climatic conditions, the Cuban cigar was
born and was to develop into an national art. Whole families became master cigar
rollers and gained admiration and respect for their craftsmanship.
Cuban
cigars swung into the 19th century as a luxury item in Britain and a status symbol
among cigar smokers in the United States. The future Edward VII, much to exasperation
of his mother Queen Victoria who detested smoking, was to lead the way, turning
the habit into high fashion. During his mother's reign, smoking was forbidden
in public but King Edward's ascension to the throne in 1901 was heralded by his
first words as King: "Gentlemen, you may smoke!" Cigar smoking subsequently
became so popular across Europe that trains added smoking cars to accommodate
their sophisticated travellers and an after-dinner cigar and brandy became tradition.
By 1873, France owned the Cuban cigar trade and sold over a million cigars
a year. By 1890, the industry had become so popular in the United States that
"made in Tampa" (Florida) became synonymous with "made in Cuba",
as American cigar rollers used only 100% Havana leaf.
By
1845, tobacco had replaced coffee as Cuba's main export and by 1859, nearly 10
000 tobacco plantations and around 1300 cigar factories had sprouted in and around
Havana.
In the beginning
of the 20th century, following the Spanish American war, the United States was
to acquire control over much of the cigar industry in Cuba. They turned the art
into a business, modernizing production and creating the cigar-making machine.
Despite the Cuban Warranty Seal, created in 1912 to guarantee the quality and
authenticity of Havanas and regardless of a movement by the Cuban cigar industry
workers to boycott substandard machine production, cheap industrially made cigars
of lesser quality were to invade the international market and set back the hand-rolled
industry for many years.
The
Cuban Revolution in 1959 seized the American owned assets and companies and the
Cuban tobacco business was reborn, baptized CubaTabaco. The number of brands was
drastically reduced and the business reverted to an art, dedicated to quality
production. In 1963, Cohiba, a native Cuban Indian term meaning tobacco or cigars,
became Fidel Castro's favourite cigar and is reserved for the friends of the revolution.
Smoking cigars once again became chic and fashionable among the rich and famous
during the 1990's as popular women such as Linda Evangelista, Sharon Stone and
Demi Moore elevated cigar smoking to an art among the sophisticated. Despite American
attitudes towards smoking having reverted to Victorian standards, King Edward
might well have said today: "Ladies and gentlemen, you may now smoke!"
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history of the cuban cigar
