«The Exodus»
Morgen treffe ich in Basel die Tabaklegende Hendrik Kelner. Bei den Vorbereitungen für das Interview bin ich auf den schon älteren Cigar Aficionado-Artikel «The Exodus» gestossen. Der spannende, umfangreiche Artikel schildert die Emigration der kubanischen Zigarrenhersteller nach der Revolution, erzählt vom Schock der amerikanischen Zigarrenindustrie, die vor dem Wirtschaftsembargo fast ausschliesslich mit kubanischem Tabak arbeitete, und vom Aufblühen einer neuen Zigarrenindustrie in den Karibikstaaten rund um Kuba. Hier der dramatische Auftakt der Geschichte:
Twenty soldiers stood at the entrance to Carlos Toraño Sr.’s tobacco farm in Pinar del Río, Cuba. They were the army of the revolution, the vanguard of Fidel Castro. It was 1960, doomsday for Cuba’s cigar industry. The head soldier told Toraño that his property and tobacco warehouses were no longer his. It was time to step aside. Toraño was an imposing man, 6 feet tall and some 215 pounds. An opera singer, a tenor, he spoke in a loud, booming voice. Five hundred of his workers stood behind him as he made his stand on the farm called Esperanza, Spanish for hope. «This is a private farm,» he shouted. «You cannot come in.» The standoff at the gate lasted three days, but ended when the soldiers threatened Toraño’s workers, telling him their blood would be on his hands. «People will die,» they said. «My father,» says Carlos Toraño Jr., who was 17 at the time, «decided to go.»
