{"id":1300,"date":"2010-04-19T23:19:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T17:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luxuryampersandfrolics.com\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2022-10-29T16:27:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T16:27:31","slug":"in-memoriam-alejandro-robaina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/2010\/04\/19\/in-memoriam-alejandro-robaina\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Alejandro Robaina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Per\u00a0Reuters:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Cuban tobacco legend Alejandro Robaina, known in international cigar circles for producing the best of his country\u2019s famous tobacco leaves, died on Saturday at the age of 91, a family friend said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Robaina, the only Cuban grower with a cigar bearing his name, had been in ill health after being diagnosed with cancer last year and had declined in recent days, said friend Sergio Hernandez, a cigar distributor living in Havana.<\/p>\n

He died at his modest home on his 40-acre (16 hectare) farm near the town of San Luis in Cuba\u2019s Vuelta Abajo tobacco region near the western city of Pinar del Rio.<\/p>\n

A frail Robaina celebrated his 91st birthday at his farm on March 20 surrounded by two dozen friends and family. He sat quietly in a chair smoking one of his famous cigars.<\/p>\n

He told Reuters in a brief interview that the secret to growing the best tobacco was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to love the land and\u00a0care for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As the tobacco grows, he said \u201cit talks to you, it tells you what it needs and you must listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robaina spent his life mostly on his farm, tending to the surrounding tobacco fields. But he also travelled the world as Cuba\u2019s unofficial ambassador for tobacco.<\/p>\n

He once attended a function with King Juan Carlos in Spain where the musician Sting asked for his autograph.<\/p>\n

In recent years, he passed on his knowledge of tobacco growing to his family, and grandson Hiroshi had taken over most of the day-to-day management of the crop.<\/p>\n

As his fame grew, Robaina\u2019s farm became a favourite destination for cigar lovers from all over the world, and until his health failed he would regularly welcome them into his home or for talks on the front porch.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe once told me he was a millionaire because he had a million friends all over the world. He had a big heart and he treated everyone the same,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n

Now, he said, \u201cthe godfather of Cuban tobacco is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funeral arrangements were pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Per\u00a0Reuters: Cuban tobacco legend Alejandro Robaina, known in international cigar circles for producing the best of his country\u2019s famous tobacco leaves, died on Saturday at the age of 91, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,15,59,20,27],"tags":[2,3,5,56,7,8,57,12,13,58,42,16,17,60,19,21,22,25,33,28,61,62],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigars","category-cuban","category-culture","category-home-banner","category-india-cigar-club","category-news","tag-cigars","tag-indiacigarclub","tag-lifestyle","tag-alejandro-robaina","tag-cigar","tag-cigar-club-of-india","tag-cigar-maker","tag-connecticut","tag-cuba","tag-cuban","tag-dominican","tag-excedo-luxuria","tag-honduras","tag-in-memoriam","tag-india","tag-india-cigar-club","tag-india-watch-club","tag-luxury-ampersand-frolics","tag-luxuryampersandfrolics","tag-nicaragua","tag-robaina","tag-tobacco-grower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiacigarclub.com\/journal\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}