When they disembarked in Cuba what they saw first was a great number of Indians; men and women having a small lit smut in the hand to light some grasses, with which they smoked themselves according to their habit. Possibly, Columbus ignored that he had discovered tobacco, one hundred years were necessary so that tobacco circulated in some Spanish ports like Seville, Cádiz, Moguer, Cartagena. The rest of Europe would not take a long time in knowing the excellences of the new plant.

Tobacco has been sacred in America and magic in Europe. In South America, it was considered as miraculous medicine, indispensable element of the religious and military ceremonies, hallucinogenic and even dietary complement. For Brazilians, it is a myth where it is said that tobacco is an attribute of God that is God's representative in the Earth. For the Mayan from Yucatan, the shooting stars are the incandescent ashes of their enormous cigars, the thunder is the noise of two thick rocks that collide and the lightings are the sparks; the clouds are the smoke of the cigars of the god of the rain, for that reason they offered their first crops to the gods. The Indians from the Caribbean used tobacco to be drugged, the Indians lived wrapped in smoke. The first conquest of the cigar, out of its original area, was Burma. Since the introduction of tobacco this people were captivated because of its excellences in such a way that they holed the lobe of their ears, to introduce in it, the cigar.

For the first smokers of Europe, tobacco was a source of pleasure; they had reasons to be opposed to the detractors of tobacco and the big ones that wanted to make of it a medication. Rodrigo de Jerez, discoverer next to Columbus of the America, succumbed to the pleasures of tobacco and when returning to Spain he wanted to enjoy the pleasure of smoking the new plant before his family and friends and when they saw him throwing smoke for the mouth he was confused with the devil and was sent to prison by the Santo Oficio. This way tobacco had its first victim. The Spaniards were the first people in enjoying the pleasure of smoking tobacco and in suffering the punishments and prohibitions. In the Church, it didn't have good acceptance and the inquisitorial outrages unable to recognize more smoke than that of the incense opened the doors to the regal prohibitions sometimes propitiated due to superstition and others, because of conventional and economic interests.

Its origin in Mayan lands and later development in Mexico

Undoubtedly and for the surprise of many people, tobacco has its origin in the lands of the Mayan culture. Observe that they existed from the year 2000 B.C. To 987 A.C. and they were located in the states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras; they were excellent marines, since they traded for the whole Gulf of Mexico, including the islands of the Caribbean, like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica etc. carrying among other products, Cacao-nut, Henequen and Tobacco, which they smoked, and thanks to them, all these islands have in common Mexican tobacco, what the Mayan denominated as " CIKAR " that means to SMOKE in Mayan language. As the Mayan also traded with the Olmecan ones, tobacco was diffused to the whole north of America and Canada.

Of the islands of the Caribbean, La Española was the first in receiving seeds of a Mexican variety (nicotiana tabacum), from Yucatan, with an aroma and softness very superior to those of the Rustic one that until then was cultivated in the islands; Cuba would wait 40 years to be adopted.

With the passing of time, and with the arrival of the Spaniards to the islands in 1492, and then to the continent in 1517 through Champotón costs (Mayan lands), was when tobacco called the attention of Spain and of all Europe, accepting the "CIKAR or cigar with enough pleasure. This habit, sign of wealth, went all over France thanks to the French ambassador in Portugal, Jean Nicot (who gave the name to the Nicotine), in England Sir Walter Raleigh introduced it, and in USA the habit began after the civil war in 1765.

So much was the habit of smoking that in the trains special boxcars were prepared for smokers, in clubs and hotels were also created the smokers' rooms; the habit even influenced on the clothes, with the introduction of the coat for smoking.

The then monopoly of tobacco that was represented by the Spanish crown, creates one of the first cigar stores of all America in the region of Orizaba, in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, prohibiting by the person of Mr. José Gálvez its cultivation in any other part of the new world.

Tobacco had been then, the detonator of growth and prosperity of that place during the second half of the XVI century, for what the city of Orizaba was called the jewel of the crown, because of the quantity of money that its tobacco contributed to the Spanish crown.

When Morelso occupied Orizaba in time of the independence, in the year 1812, he sold a good part of the tobacco and burned the rest with the objective of depriving the government of its main entrance, its valuable Tobacco.

But with this measure they caused big havocs to the economic life of Orizaba, the destruction of a monopoly had begun which could be an important resource to solve the serious problems that faced the public treasure of the new nation, then during a good part of the century, the fights for the control of tobacco became a source of constant political conflicts.

Later on Spain, when losing the New Spain (Mexico) takes refuge in the islands of the Caribbean for the production of tobacco and April 4, 1817 king Fernando VII revoked the act of freedom of cultivation in Cuba; with the passing of the years and with the independence of Cuba (1898-1901) the war provoked the shortage of seeds, for what was necessary again to import them from Mexico.

Due to all these events the Mexican lands did not stop being the cradle of tobacco in the world, but the Mexican tobacco continued being cultivated in other regions, and an example of it can be seen in the National Valley of Oaxaca, Álamo, San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz, and part of Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima.

The History of Tobacco and Tobacco Areas in Cuba

Tobacco, common name of two plants of the Solanaceous family that are cultivated for their leaves that, once cured, are smoked, chewed or aspired in snuff way. The most cultivated species reaches between 1 and 3 m of height and produces from 10 to 20 alternating wide leaves that bud from a central stem. It contains an alkaloid, the nicotine. It is toxic and it can produce alterations in the circulatory apparatus and in the lungs of the human being. In occasions, it has been used as insecticide.

History
Tobacco is a plant that comes from the American continent. As Christopher Columbus observed, the natives from the Caribbean smoked tobacco using a cane as pipe called Tobago, from where is derived the name of the plant. Apparently they attributed it medicinal properties and they used it in their ceremonies.

In 1510, Francisco Hernández de Toledo took the seed to Spain, fifty years later was introduced in France by the diplomatic Jean Nicot, who gave the generic name to the plant (Nicotiana). In 1585 was taken to England by the navigator Sir Francis Drake; the English explorator Sir Walter Raleigh began in Isabel's court the habit of smoking tobacco in pipe. The new product spread quickly all over Europe and Russia, and in the XVII century it arrived to China, Japan and the western coast of África.

Spain monopolized the trade of tobacco, for what it established in 1634 the cigar store for Castilla and León, régime that in 1707 was extended to all the territories of the crown, accompanied by the prohibition of cultivating the plant in the peninsula to facilitate customs office control. The extension of the cigar store to Cuba, where took place great part of the production, caused numerous revolts and, in 1735, Spain gave the exploitation to the Company of Havana.

The English speaking colonial America became the first world producer of tobacco; the cultivation began in the establishment of Jamestown, where in 1615 the plant grew in gardens, fields and even in the streets; in short it became the basic agricultural product and the main means of exchange of the colony.

In 1776, the cultivation extended toward North Carolina and it arrived for the west to Missouri. In 1864, a farmer from Ohio obtained by chance a stump with a deficit of chlorophyll that received the name of White Burley and finally became the main ingredient of the mixtures of American cut tobacco, mainly starting from the invention in 1881 of the machine for elaborating cigarettes.

Production
Although tobacco is cultivated in about 120 countries of diverse climatological conditions that in the north are located up to 50º of latitude, the best commercial works are manufactured with the product obtained in certain regions that dedicate a lot of attention and work to its cultivation.

The plants of the different stumps -like those dedicated to the production of Maryland or Burley cut tobacco for cigarettes, fillers, cloak and wrapper for cigars - are transplanted from the cold boxes in which they are obtained to the field; each type demands a special régime of watering and fertilizer application.

For obtaining the big and thin leaves with which are elaborated the wrappers for the cigars they extend on the fields big covers of sack cloth with the purpose of favoring the growth of the biggest leaves, the plants are cut off before flowering. The leaves are usually collected by hand and when they are ripe.

Afterwards they are spread in large huts and they are air curing with fire or with heat, so that the leaf acquire when withering the wanted color and aroma. The air curing process that is applied to many tobaccos dedicated to the production of cigarettes and cigars lasts from six to seven weeks. For curing with fire they light a bonfire in the floor of the large hut so that the leaves acquire the smoke.

The curing with heat is carried out applying heat through some flues carefully, so that the leaves ferment and dry off in a correct way. The leaves cured this way are classified, in general in function of the position that hey occupied in the plant, color, size and other characteristics; they are packed and taken to the warehouses where they are auctioned.

The use of tobacco
Numerous medical studies have linked the consumption of tobacco with lung cancer, vascular affections of the heart, emphysema and other illnesses; it has provoked that many countries finance intense campaigns guided to restrict the use and sale of tobacco. In general, consumption has diminished in occident, although it has increased among certain social groups, as it is the case of the women of the countries of the south of Europe. A regulation of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) authorizes the signatory countries "to consider the human health more important than the liberalization of trade", but the international trade of tobacco continues increasing. In the countries in development, the consumption increases yearly in a 2%.

Scientific classification: tobacco belongs to the Solanaceous family. The most cultivated species, called bigger tobacco, is Nicotiana tabacum; the smallest tobacco is the species rustic Nicotiana.

There are five tobacco regions in Cuba:
Oriente, Remedios, Partido, Semi Vuelta and Vuelta Abajo.

Exclusively Partido and Vuelt Abajo, the Burgundy and the Bordeaux of Cuba, can cultivate tobacco of the required quality for the Great Marks of Cigars.

Vuelta Abajo, with its climate and unique lands, produces all the necessary leaves for the elaboration of a cigar.
It is here that we find "The cradle of the Habano"

Myths and legends

Numerous myths and legends related to smoke and tobacco, characteristic of the cultures before Columbus, have come to us like part of the ingrained traditions in numerous current indigenous communities.

This way, the natives that inhabit the banks of the inferior bed of the Dirty River, in Colombia, next to the Isthmus of Panama believe that there was the legendary country of Dabeida, where a temple existed in which an idol of solid gold that represented the goddess of tempest got up. This legendary place was a cold earth, covered by snow and ice, until a chamán or witchdoctor blew on it a puff of smoke of tobacco transforming it this way into a warm earth full with life.

In turn, a legend of the Warao Indians from Venezuela relates tobacco to the origin of the world. When the "Bird of the Dawn" (the Sun) rose for the first time in the sky, imagined a house located between the earth and the sky, white and round as a cloud of smoke. The thought was enough so that the image became reality. Next, the "Bird of the Dawn" creates the four Bahanas (the name of tobacco in the region) that constitute the four elements of the smoke that give the character to tobacco.

The four elements of the smoke are the "Black Bee" that bites strong when the smoker aspires the first puff, the "Red Bee", the "Yellow Bee" and the "Fly of Blue Honey" whose spirits pass over the bodies and infuse them with their force.

The “Calumet” or Pipe of peace

The rite of the “Calumet " or Pipe of Peace was practiced by the tribes of the Great American Prairie before the settlers of the Distant West got in contact with these cultures.

The ceremony had a magic-religious ritual; it could also have a social, economic or political interest... In these acts the leaves of a tobacco belonging to the species Rustic Nicotiana were smoked (the only one that was in wild state in the region). When all the representatives of the communities or the parts were together, they lit a pipe, with which the conductor of the ceremony rushed to the four cardinal points puffs of smoke to request the help of the "God of the Prairie", also known as the "Bird of the Thunder."

Then, the pipe passed among the people gathered there one by one. Once shared the puff of smoke, the problems that had summoned them were discussed. Sometimes it was to reach peace among the tribes, others a wedding, a commercial pact or the initiation of adolescents in the world of the adults. The rites were different according to the cases; but in none of them tobacco was absent neither the puff of smoke.

Other uses of tobacco

When we hear the word tobacco, the first image that comes to our minds is a cigarette, perhaps a cigar or a pipe, and rarely the Baroque boxes of powder of tobacco to aspire. Sometimes we also remember the warnings of the sanitary authorities, since a world scientific consent exists on the evidence that the fact of smoking affects health. However, the plant of tobacco makes honor to the denomination that it received at its arrival to the Old Continent and it has multiple and unsuspected applications.

At the beginning of its history, the natives considered it as divine and its smoke or its leaves, blended with lime of milled marine shells were always present in the rituals and religious ceremonies. They also used it as stimulant, medicine and source of pleasure. These uses continued in Europe during the XVI and XVII centuries, when it was known as the grass for all wrongs, sacred grass.... Also, for that time it had another new application: the ornamental one.

In our days (and in our western society), the plants of tobacco are not plentiful in gardens or balconies. Nobody uses it to calm headaches or puts on a cataplasm of tobacco leaves to cure a wound. But tobacco continues being a gift of nature with many possible applications, as those that we can read next:

Insecticide: The nicotine contained in the powder or the agricultural or industrial remains of leaves and plants of tobacco, are used with success like agricultural insecticide. These remains applied to the cultivated plants and the agricultural lands act as an effective exterminator of germs without secondary negative effects on the environment and health that can have the insecticides of chemical synthesis.

Citric acid: Tobacco is rich in citric acid, especially some varieties like the Makhorka whose content in this acid is from 6 to 8% (the lemon, considered as the richest fruit in citric acid, doesn't reach 6%). The integral extraction of citric acid as later phase to the extraction of nicotine was proven with success, at semi-industrial scale, in the institute of Krasnodar in the Soviet Union in the thirties.

Paper: The stems of the tobacco plant are usually discarded as worthless product. However, Bulgarian investigators rehearsed and practiced a technique of extraction of the cellulose contained in the stem of the plant and its industrial whiten for transforming it into paper to print and to write.

Industrial Oil: Several experiences have achieved a technique in the extraction of the oils contained in the seeds of tobacco. Non eatable oils but with an important range of industrial applications as it can be the production of paintings.

Eatable proteins: It has been possible to extract proteins of a high nutritious and dietary value for man from the leaves or from the complete plants of tobacco. These proteins can be used to feed people with difficulties in their nutrition. Several semi-industrial and experimental plants in United States, Japan, Canada, etc., have applied procedures with technical and economic yields that could serve like base to a new tobacco-alimentary industry with important dietary and pharmacist applications.

Chimó (Chewing tobacco): Is a paste of soft consistency obtained from watery extracts, fluids of the waste of the harvest, the curing process and transformation of tobacco (dry) for smoking, which are treated with heat in big metallic recipients exposed at fire successively until the evaporation of the liquid. The resulting pasta is dried acquiring a semi-solid consistency. This is the "Chimó in branch" from which the "Chimó Embojotado" or "Seasoned Chimó" are packed, ready for sale and consumption. People take small portions, (like two grains of rice) that adhere behind the teeth producing a strong salivation and causing certain euphoria, diminishing appetite and increasing the work capacity (similar to what the chewers of coca in Bolivia and Peru experience). It is usually used by the Natives and Creoles of the Venezuelan Plains.

Liquor: Its national alternative use par excellence. Tobaquito is its name and its flavor delicious... it is typical from Almendralejo (Badajoz).

Condiment: The chef of one of the most emblematic hotels of Madrid, David Millet, uses tobacco like "secret" condiment in one of his most successful foods.

Links & Sources:

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