The marvelous charm of the Caribbean baroque of one of Cuba's most colonial cities with an ancestry of five centuries is present in a new cigar brand of exceptional quality.

Trinidad, an exceptional city gives its name to a cigar brand

A city touched by the magic of time, the multiracial sap of America, Europe and Africa; Spanish, Indian and Creole; noble and mestizo, forged at the sound of drums, the thrumming of guitars and the hall dances, Santisima Trinidad of Cuba, founded in 1514 by the governor of the Spanish Crown, Don Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, has just added new heraldry to its emblem. A master work, done by hands that have inherited the skill of times, caught up in mystery and witchery, an exclusive cigar brand once only reserved for friendly foreign dignitaries, joins its fate for the sake of its name to an urban temple almost five centuries old. Trinidad the beautiful, the wonderful, the untouched takes possession of the aroma of the world's best tobacco and in turn it bestows upon it the elegant spirit of its palaces, the legend of the imperishable that is visible on its stone-paved streets, the precious wood balconies and the tall windows protected by iron fretwork carefully elaborated by anonymous artists. A new cigar rolled with the best leaves from Vueltabajo (western Cu­ba), whose band shows in black letters upon a golden background the name Trinidad, a symbol of a time that bears indelible glory.

TRINIDAD, CUBA'S MOST COLONIAL CITY Surrounded by green mountains, not far from the Caribbean Sea that cools it with its fresh breeze, Trinidad is located right at the entrance of the Valley of the Sugar Mills, a sugar flourishing region last century which also pioneered in tobacco crops. It is on the south of the Sancti Spiritus Province, near Remedios, a tobacco growing region in central Cuba. Romantic, majestic it shines at every dawn when the sun bathes its light facades of beige, pink or blue colors just like a lady when she wakes up to a new day. Proud, relaxed when the evening shadows takes hold of its century old streets and comes to life under the light of street lamps that bring to mind moments gone by as if recreating the splendor of a time when the Cuban nation was forged. The tireless city historian Carlos Zerquera y Fernandez de Lara, a descendant of one of the founding families, recalls that "in the morning of Friday, December 23, 1513 Spanish Governor Diego Velazquez and the 20 men that accompanied him made a halt on their way to Jagua Bay and heard the Christmas mass Franciscan Fray Juan de Tesin, his chaplain, said on the place where they were going to found a few days later the third of Cuban settlements, the Village of Trinidad". Almost five centuries afterwards, Trinidad of Cuba, just like a lady that has been gifted by the fountain of youth has evaded the marks of time and even its oldest traits confer it with insurmountable beauty you can contemplate in every of its corners. Capital of the island's central mountain ridge, National Monument and Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as UNESCO declared it 1988, Trinidad is Cuba's best preserved colonial city, its only city- museum, but a living museum where the art of generations lives on today in the work of its inhabitants, who endeavor to preserve it with honor and pride.

TRINIDAD, A CIGAR FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM A sublime mix­ture of history and dreams, of work and wealth, of people's feasts, processions, Christ­mas dinners and fights for independence is present on the streets, the facades, the clay-tiled roofs and the decorated walls of a charming city, and all that concentrates on the century old aroma of the cigar that bears its name, Trinidad, a cigar that has been presented on brief occasions in Paris, London and Geneva as Cuban ambassador reaffirming the excellence of the Cuban tobacco industry. The El Laguito Cigar Factory -the same that produces the internationally renowned Cohiba- started to turn out the Trinidad cigars in 1969 at the request of the Council of State to be offered as exquisite gifts to foreign dignitaries. Emilia Tamayo, El Laguito's current director, says that the grading measurement used for the Trinidad is Laguito No.1 that gives it a distinctive appearance. She tells those comparing it with the Cohiba that "it is totally different". When Marvin Shanken, editor of the Cigar Aficionado magazine, had the rare chance of interviewing President Fidel Castro to talk about cigars he asked him if it was true that he had chosen Trinidad as his favorite cigar brand to present it as gifts to other heads of state. The Cuban statesman answered no, that he had always given Cohibas away as gifts, the brand that a humble cigar roller friend of the chief of his body guards had created by chance and was his favorite cigar for many years. However, Fidel Castro admitted that he had advised the officials in charge of the tobacco industry to market new cigar brands, in order to leave behind old conflicts of interest around known Cuban brands that are produced in other countries with the same name that brought them fame decades ago. If we have the best leaves, the best soils and the best experience why not producing new brands, asked the Cuban leader. Then, the Cuban cigar industry came up in 1969 with the Trinidad, though on a limited production scale only for diplomatic and government use, considering that a tobacco region had already developed by the 17th century around that beautiful colonial city of central Cuba, this giving originality to the brand name. According to historian Jacobo de la Pezeula's geographical and historical Dictionary of the Is­land of Cuba, the Spanish authorities encouraged the white immi­gration, main­ly from the Canary Is­land, to further develop the profitable tobacco production. "Tobacco plantations were given to all those who requested them for just an insignificant yearly rent, and many were not even obliged to pay it back just for the sake of having brought life and movement to deserted areas almost neglected until then. That's how the tobacco plantations were fostered as a way, too, to foment the white population and the agricultural wealth as shown by the fact that on October 15, 1659 the Governor of Havana at the petition of Trinidad's authorities ordered all the plain fields in the basin of rivers Agabama, Arimao and Caracusey be used for that purpose". So far, the production of the Trinidad cigars is limited to the exact amount the Council of State uses as gifts, according to Emilia Tamayo. "If we receive an order of 50 Trinidad cigars, the roller is given just the 50 bands, and if one of them gets damaged, he must give it back before receiving a new one". This exclusiveness was the main attraction at the first charitable auctions in which several boxes of Trinidad cigars were offered by the Cigar Aficionado magazine in two international dinners, known as Feasts of the Century held in Paris in 1994 and in London in 1995, where the Trinidad cigars were presented. The first 50-cigar boxes sold for $8,000 USD each and the last ones for $33,000 USD, something that showed the craving of cigar lovers for acquiring this rare piece of the Cuban tobacco industry, which will very soon be in the international market. To celebrate the arrival of the new millennium the Habanos Corp. is organizing a bunch of activities under the name "Habanos en los umbrales del 2000" (Cuban Cigars on the threshold of the year 2000). This program will go on until 1999. The culmination of next year celebrations will take place in Havana on February 16-20 and will close with a Gala Feast, in which the guests will be able to try the new cigar brands and other internationally renowned brands. Business executives of the tobacco industry and trade, retailers, as well as special guests and cigar lovers, among them Hollywood stars, intellectuals and political leaders will be attending the Gala Feast.