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Raúl Valladares

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RAUL VALLADARES FOUND INSPIRATION IN THE HABANO MEN TO COME UP WITH THE MOST SIGNIFICANT AWARD GIVEN IN THE UNIVERSE OF PREMIUM CIGARS

Cigar roller. According to his father, he had to be a cigar roller just like him and his grandpa. But Raul Valladares turned to a different artistry; one that relies on metal, rather than on the mystical plant, to create masterpieces. However, this sculptor and silversmith managed to somehow please his father’s wishes. Over the past couple of decades, he uses his hands to build the Habano of the Year Award statuette.
“When Habanos S.A. launched the call in 1995 to build the award prize, all participants presented the sketches for their entries. I took all the chances and presented the sculpture. It was worth the risk,” Valladares recalls as he wallows in a Romeo y Julieta in a workshop, teeming with steel, brass, titanium, silver and good Cuban music.
What inspired you to build this statuette?
“The men from the habano world were my main reference. The statuette represents one of them. It’s an elegant, sleek gentleman whose figure resembles a cigar. The man is smoking, but not in an explicit way, because I like to be more suggestive. Putting a cigar in his hands would have been way too figurative, so I wanted it to be more abstract.”
Three trophies are doled out during each Habano Festival and Valladares has created many of them. However, the artist says he enjoys putting more life into this “man” with each passing year.
“I see it prettier each season. Maybe in the past the statuette had a few naïf parts I’ve improved as years have rolled on. Even though the essence remains the same, the Habano Man has grown up with me. I’m a better sculptor now.”
The all-silver statuette has also become taller. Its height now is way above the initial 35 centimeters and is currently propped on a more sophisticated pedestal. “The former granite base was replaced by one made of marble and wood, two materials that add more beauty and elegance,” Valladares explains.
The artist, who always has a box of Cuban cigars in his workshop, also builds humidors. “I love making them, especially those who can sport a more contemporary style.”
The creator of the Habanos “Oscar” –as some people call the coveted award- is a good case in point that human beings are born with the gift to create rather than with the need to acquire it by force.
How did you start in the realm of the arts?
“I’m a self-taught artist. I studied Metal Technology, meaning I got a specialty degree in metal forging, cutting and machining. After I graduated, I started working in the metallurgical industry. The sculptor I carried within began to show up every now and then. I built my first art-related tridimensional objects in that industry. I had no formation or training whatsoever. I’d just gotten the hang of the trade a little bit.”
When Valladares found out that was the real road he wanted to take, he decided to become a full-time sculptor and silversmith, though he admits he leans more to the former. “Once I had my mind made up to work in the realm of art, I started studying all by myself. Later on, time brought along both experience and professionalism.”
And this music enthusiast is so professional that he has let young talents asking for help into his workshop, and he does it with great pleasure. “I always have students here. They come to me looking for guidance and eager to learn. They stay with me for two or three years. Some of them have become brilliant professionals. During their stay here, they help me in my work, chip in their own ideas and I give them mine too. Oh, and they help chase away the solitude of this workshop.”
Being a good sculptor, silversmith and professor, a lover of habanos –especially Cohiba Espléndidos- are some of the virtues of this humble and hospitable man; a man who has whipped into shape the recognition that year after year goes to the best men and women from the universe of Cuban cigars.