(18 Apr 2010)
1. Close of Cuban tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina smoking cigar
2. Robaina at dinner table
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alejandro Robaina, Cuban tobacco grower (1919 - 2010) :
"I''m going to trust in my grandson and my children to continue the cultivation of tobacco, but I''m not retiring, I would never retire."
4. Robaina with a female singer at dinner party
5. Close of Robaina smoking cigar
STORYLINE
Cuban tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina, an international symbol of the island''s cigar-making prowess, died on Saturday aged 91.
Cuban state television announced his death, and the state tobacco company Habanos SA, which produces the Robaina brand cigar, said on its website that he was the "victim of a sombre illness."
The only Cuban grower with a cigar brand named after him, Robaina travelled for decades as an unofficial global ambassador for the island''s stogies, more commonly known as cigars.
Into his final days, he could be found smoking cigars in a rocking chair on his front port in San Luis, in westernmost Pinar de Rio Province.
He worked the fields in Vuelta Abajo, Cuba''s most-famous cigar-growing region, where Habanos, a joint venture between the communist government and Britain''s Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, produced Robainas.
Born in the town of Alquizar on March 20, 1919, Robaina began working in his family''s business from the age of 10.
He remained in Cuba when his family''s land was nationalised after the revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and brought Fidel Castro to power on New Year''s Day 1959.
Robaina became famous for the top-quality tobacco he helped produce and was honoured numerous times by the Castro government.
There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements.
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23 июл 2015
