Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was welcomed as a head of State when he visited Cuba back in 1946. The National Hotel saved for him the Republic Apartment, the exclusive suite for the most distinguished foreign officials. And among all the perks and attentions he got, he always enjoyed very special gifts, like some habano cases he cherished very dearly.

When he showed up at the hatch of the Boeing 17 aircraft that brought him to Havana, Churchill raised his right hand, made the V-sign with his fingers and greeted the cheering crowd that waited for him at the Rancho Boyeros airport. Sir Winston made repeatedly the V-sign for the residents of Havana, a gesture he coined all through World War II, a period in which the press portrayed his image of goodhearted and implacable grandfather, always with a habano between his fingers as the diehard stogie lover he was. That meant the start of a series of tribulations for Cuba’s protocol officials and the British delegation in Havana because the former prime minister never paid heed to schedules or formalities, sticking exclusively to what the moment called for. He used to wake up every morning at 5:00 am, putting the entire hotel staff on the rack. One rainy day, visibly upset for not being able to take his usual swim in the pool, he ordered his personnel to pack up and leave, only to order the unpacking as soon as the sun came shining through. His spare time was devoted to card games with whoever was willing to sit down with him. “He eats, drinks and smokes without any restrictions whatsoever. And plentifully,” wrote Enrique de la Osa in his report on the visit. Habanos and Rum The press conference he gave at the National Hotel was a complete disaster. Churchill walked in the hall ten minutes before the scheduled time and his half-cocked answers were heard in a room with barely a handful of reporters present. There was a sweltering heat and the former prime minister and the British ambassador to Cuba left the hall in a hurry, surrounded by a jam-packed crowd of refined ladies and high-class gentlemen that had swarmed over the few journalists that had attended that session that had been supposed to be a news conference. Enrique de la Osa wrote on: “It seems that both the prime minister and the British delegation in Cuba –the organizers of such a lousily planned meeting– had taken advantage of that occasion to give their followers the opportunity to take a closer look at Mr. Churchill. The intention of letting reporters do their job was definitely put on the back burner. The main issue here was making those elegant ladies and those righteous gentlemen attending the press conference quench their curiosity by engulfing the former prime minister in that circle of enthusiasm and animal warmth.” Someone asked him whether he liked fishing and he answered that he barely had time for that. When asked about his country’s government, he said he was not used to speaking about that topic outside the UK. He stressed that peace could only be attained through the unity of Russia, the U.S. and UK. And on the Nuremberg Trial that sentenced Hitler’s war criminals, he commented that making sure those horrors would never happen again was more important than the trial itself. In public, he stated his devotion for Cuban cigars and expressed his desire to be a part of its international promotion. Everywhere on the island nation and in Havana, he showered them with praise. It was Churchill’s second visit to Cuba. Way back in 1895, he had celebrated here his 21st birthday. Then, the young officer from the Fourth Hussar Regiment came on a personal visit to watch the Cubans fight for their independence against the Spanish colonial rule and where the future Lord of the British Admiralship received his baptism of fire. At that time, he was also a great drinker of Cuban rum. He wrote that explicitly in his memoirs. Back in Havana in 1946 During his visit to the Cuban capital, Churchill asked for a grand tour around the city in a ragtop automobile. Since the protocol didn’t have such a vehicle in stock, the former owner of the Partagas cigar factory offered his and even acted as his own chauffer. The only thing the proprietor asked in return was a visit by the prime minister to his company. And that visit was carried through. One of the traditional vitolas from the Romeo y Julieta cigar brand is named after the British politician and is one of the 240 formats Habanos, S.A. doles out under its 27 Premium brands. Something that few people know about is that Pinar del Rio, Cuba’s westernmost province and home to the world’s finest black tobacco, recognized Churchill with the title of Favorite Son. One of the traditional vitolas from the Romeo y Julieta cigar brand is named after the British politician and is one of the 240 formats Habanos, S.A. doles out under its 27 Premium brands. Something that few people know about is that Pinar del Rio, Cuba’s westernmost province and home to the world’s finest black tobacco, recognized Churchill with the title of Favorite Son. At the end of the lunch, Mr. San Martin invited Mr. Churchill to walk out to the North Terrace, from where the visitor could wave his hand to a crowd of Havana residents down in the streets. Then Churchill said: “I’m very pleased on this lovely island of Cuba where I have been received so well…” And then said in Spanish: “Aprovecho la oportunidad para decir: ¡Viva la Perla de las Antillas!” (I take this opportunity to say, long live the Pearl of the Antilles!) At the end of his stay, he made just another enthusiastic statement: “If I hadn’t to see President Truman, I’d stay here for a month.” “Cuba is a charming island,” Churchill wrote in My Early Life. Like an old hawk he was, he didn’t hide his sorrow about why his ancestors had let “such a delicious prey” slip through their fingers.”.

Monguito, The Churchill Roller We found Ramon Collazo (a.k.a. Monguito) in 1998 when he was 82 years old by the hand of Cuban journalist and researcher Fernando G. Campoamor, who was writing at the time about tourism and beverages and had been a friend of U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway’s. The late Campoamor used to have a large file full of anecdotes and during one of our meetings he told me about this outstanding cigar roller –he was alive back then– who had played a major role in the kind of habano brand that Winston Churchill used to smoke, especially shipped to him from Cuba: the Julieta No. 2. It had all begun when the former executives at the Romeo y Julieta factory decided to send a gift to the British prime minister for his hands-on engagement in the fight against fascism since the beginning of World War II. The present consisted of a thousand of those habanos. It’s true that this shipment –it was also sent to Joseph Stalin later on by the decision of the factory’s Communist Party members– took several cigar rollers, yet only one of them –Monguito– was nicknamed from the start as “The Churchill Roller.” He had a big family of eight siblings, three boys and five girls. Two of the brothers were cigar rollers like their father and the other one was a tailor. But Monguito –as he was called since he was a kid– excelled in that trade. He began working for the Romeo y Julieta brand –founded in 1885– at the company’s workshops in Artemisa before moving in to Havana back in the 1940s. Mirlo Rodriguez, Jose Soto, Gerardo Rodriguez and Amador Moreno were also commissioned for that job, with outputs of 140 units per eight hours, while his workmates could only produce no more than 50 per working session. That made him the heart and soul of that commitment. It can be said then that in the history of World War II and the defeat of fascism, Monguito and the habano played a small role, let alone the 1,000-cigar shipment sent to Joseph Stalin, who used to smoke his pipe. Ramon Collazo worked as a cigar roller for 48 years from 1928 to 1975. He was an eyewitness and direct participant in the making of Winston Churchill’s private cigar stock, a statesman who all through his long life (1874-1965) became the great promoter of this coveted Cuban product. By Roberto F. Campos