International Symposium "Habanos 2005" Begins
Historian of the City of Havana, Eusebio Leal, addressed 200 researchers of eight nations attending the International Symposium on Tobacco and said the plant contributed to the creation of Cuban identity.

During the inaugural ceremony of the meeting Habanos 2005, at the Center of Hispanoamerican Culture of this city, the expert added that many of the facts known about the leaf come from the learned Cuban writer Fernando Ortiz.

The discovery of tobacco dates back to 1492, with the arrival of Christopher Colombus to the Americas, said Leal and referred to the social struggles accompanying the product and the relationship between Canary Islands (Spain) and Cuba, based on cigars.

He highlighted the indisputable link between family and land as factor of tobacco quality and asserted that "tobacco helped to model the spirit in culture and civilization".

This first Symposium "Tobacco, nature, culture and identity" will be in session through Friday, June 24, when it will end with a tour of the western province of Pinar del Rio, home to the best plantations.

History, migration, culture and other topics are related to the meeting which includes an exhibition of cigar brands, paintings and photographs and a third sample of handicraft works.

Attending is British professor Jeanne Stubb of the Center for Caribbean Studies of the Metropolitan London University, who published in 1980 her book "Tobacco and periphery". She visited Cuba for the first time back in 1968.

The final day there will be a meeting with the best tobacco harvester of the country, Alejandro Robaina, inspirer of the habanos brand Vegas Robaina.

The habano is the best cigar the world over for its quality. This meeting, according to organizers, does not aim to promote the smoking habit, but the culture and history behind the leaf, tradition of Cuban society.