Cuban cigar pioneer Alejandro Robaina dies

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Alejandro Robaina, a tobacco grower who became a symbol of Cuba’s cigar-making prowess, died Saturday. He was 91.

Cuban state television announced his death, and the state tobacco concern Habanos SA, which produces the Robaina brand cigar, said on its website that he was the ‘victim of a somber illness.’

The only Cuban grower with a cigar brand named after him, Robaina traveled for decades as an unofficial global ambassador.

He worked the fields in Vuelta Abajo, Cuba’s most famous cigar-producing region, where Habanos — a joint venture between the communist government and Britain’s Imperial Tobacco Group PLC — manufactured Robainas.

Born in the town of Alquizar on March 20, 1919, Robaina began working his family’s fields when he was 10.

‘He left an indelible mark on the history of Cuban tobacco,’ Havana’s Radio Reloj said.

-- Associated Press