There’s something that clearly binds together the entire province of Pinar del Rio and Viñales with the rest of the territories. That glue is the humble and simple locals, especially the tobacco harvesters whose hands pluck out the leaves they roll into Habanos, the world’s finest cigars.

They can be made out in the early break of the morning, caught up in the green sea of leaves that surround the hills, or in the San Juan y Martinez Valley, plowing the soil with oxen just like their grandfathers did, or sitting in the verandas of their homes, in rustic chairs leaning on the walls, holding a jar of sweetened coffee and a burning cigar hanging from their lips.

Tobacco planters are the perfect complements to this rural and natural scenery where time seems to be standing still. That’s a commonplace scene in many parts of Pinar del Rio, a place that looks virtually the same when watched from the air, with green plantations that run endlessly into the horizon and are dotted by a few two-gable houses where tobacco leaves are dried, or just a thatch-roofed hut where the plantation owner lives.

Tobacco is indeed a creature that requires great care, fine and able hands. The plant tolerates no haughtiness and demands the presence of its parents day in and day out.

That’s why hicks like Antonio Maria Paz Romero, 88, –he doesn’t remember who gave him the nickname of Lin Pa- has lived all his life next to his tobacco plantation. “I came to the world of tobacco, I’ve lived all my life next it and I’ll die close to it,” he says.

This grandchild of Canary descendants –or islanders, as he puts it- tells us that his grandfather settled down in this neck of the woods called San Juan y Martinez and never ever returned to Spain. “I’m 88 years old and I used to hang out with my dad since I was 10, working in the fields. This has been the only business I’ve known and there’s nothing else I can do. Tobacco is my life,” he comments humbly.

This simple man, who’s immensely proud of having been able to send his children to school to become good people, is penciled in as one of San Juan’s best tobacco planters, which means to saying one of the finest across Cuba and, therefore, on the face of the earth.

He was named the 2006 Habano Man of the Year in the Production Category during the 8th Habano Festival in Havana.

He’s been growing covered tobacco for nearly 70 years. This tobacco variety grows under a thin netted cloth in a bid to protect it from the sunshine and make it the most exquisite of all. Its leaves are used to make binders, the outer layers of Habanos. These leaves call for absolute perfection because top quality is the name of the game.

“I’ve got no secrets. My secret is to live in the tobacco, to take care of it every single day. In addition to that, my lands are good and grateful. Covered tobacco takes a lot of care. A little crack here or a dent over there, and the binder is snookered. A tobacco plantation is a daily battlefield.”