Three weeks ago my wife and I were in Tampa, Florida and hopped on the trolley to Ybor City, Florida. I had heard much about the cigar capital of the world and really wanted to visit this historic spot!
Ybor City was founded in the 1880's and was home to a diverse population of immigrants from all over the world who co-existed by making cigars. They were the forerunners of the HMO.
Each worker paid about 25 cents a month for health care. They had rich cultural and social opportunities from their diverse population and standard of living. For more information on this amazing cultural visit http://www.ybormuseum.org/
My main interest, being a Cigar Box Guitar builder, was cigar boxes.
I had always wondered how that beautiful artwork made its way on to the cigar boxes. Well here is the answer! It is very much a process of layering. I had no idea there was so much work involved! I am even more impressed than before.The cigar rollers spent many hours in the factories producing the fine cigars. They needed to be comfortable and used these chairs at the rolling tables. These are actually handmade reproductions and in the Ybor City museum on display.
Many of the processes of cigar rolling have gone to the machine these days. We did, however, come across Wallace Reyes. A member of the Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co. He is going for the Guinness World Book Record for the longest hand rolled cigar. It will be 185 feet. Guinness will witness the event at the annual Ybor City festival on Nov. 21, 2009.
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