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Cuba &
Cigars
History
The
History of tobacco: Christopher Columbus
To talk about tobacco, and about the cigar, is to
talk about history. The exact date when this plant began to be cultivated
is ignored; certain investigations estimate that the entrance of
the Nicotiana Tabacum in Cuba was because of the Aravacas and they
date it between two or three thousand years before Christ. Nevertheless,
this cultivation for Europe was ignored until the year 1492 that
Christopher Columbus discovered the cigar.
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.
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