I slept like a log on Thursday night, and did not feel like getting up on Friday. But eventually I rolled out of bed, had a little breakfast in my room, and met Kevin downstairs on the front porch where he was smoking a cigar before getting in his taxi and heading to the airport. We talked a little about Thursday, and the trip as a whole, and he reiterated how much he regretted leaving early. I tried not to say anything to make him feel even worse, but my mind was already on how I was going to occupy myself for the last two days in Miami.
Of course, a lot depended on Ade and Anthony. If they were going somewhere, I would join them. So after Kevin left, I went back to my room and waited to hear from Ade. I was in no hurry since I was feeling a little tired. The first thing I heard from him was that we would head out around 2:30, and go to Cuenca Cigars in Hollywood. That was fine with me. I was sitting at my desk nibbling on some leftovers, watching tv, not motivated to do anything strenuous, when my phone rings. It's Ade wanting to know if I'm ready to go now. He and Anthony will pick me up. So I scramble, and get downstairs in plenty of time - their hotel was a long distance from mine.
It took us some time to get to Cuenca but we still got there during the afternoon, and met with a very warm reception from Ana and Miguel, the couple who own and run the store. They presented us with cigars to start things off: some Montecristos for Anthony and Ade and an Alec Bradley for me. Mine was really good. We sat down in the comfortable circle of chairs in the front of the shop along with some regulars and we immediately felt right at home. Regulars like Kat and Anthony and John were very friendly towards us. We drank Cuban coffee and smoked and talked. Very nice.
Miguel was busy with all kinds of things so we didn't talk to him much. Ana sat and chatted with us as much as she could, in between helping customers. She told us about her life - how she came to NYC from Cuba as a 27 year old in the early 1990s, lived in NYC for 10 years, learned English, and then moved to Florida right before 9/11/01. She met Miguel in Florida and they've been together ever since.
She made an interesting analogy between relationships and smoking. She had a long-time boyfriend who she came to NYC from Cuba with but eventually they broke up. When she broke up, she felt like she needed a break, and she specifically felt like she didn't want to date a Cuban man again. She didn't want to date a man just because she was feeling lonely, missing her old boyfriend.
At the same time, she had been a cigarette smoker and had quit smoking. She was interested in cigars, but she didn't want to start smoking them as a substitute for cigarettes. She wanted to really get the cigarettes out of her system, so if she started cigars, it would be a new thing.
So eventually a friend introduced her to Miguel. At first she was resistant because he was Cuban. But then she met him and got to know him and it just felt right. And I gather that he is the one who has taught her about cigars. So you see, with relationships as with smoking, in order to be ready for the good new thing, you have to really process and get the previous thing out of your system. Very sensible.
They have a really nice store, you know, a storefront, nothing huge, maybe 15 feet wide with shelves on both walls and I don't know, maybe 40 or so feet deep, with a little room in the back for a desk or two, and a table with a coffee machine and such. There's kind of a room behind there which I guess they could make into an outdoor garden area. But they don't want to expand too fast or do too much. With the economy the way it is, right now they are doing well, but they don't want to get too ambitious and find themselves in a bad spot.
Miguel told us his story as well, although he doesn't speak too much English so Ana had to translate. He was running a company in Cuba, I think it was telecommunications, and had taken it from nothing to like 38 million in revenue. A party boss in his 70s came to visit Miguel and asked him, "how is it a young guy like you, a nobody, can build this company up like this, have all this success, and you're not a member of the party?"
Miguel knew he had to be careful what he said. He said, "well, I was born after the revolution, so all I have known my whole life is the good that has come out of the revolution, not the bad that came before." The old man seemed satisfied. But not long after, Miguel was transferred to run a subsidiary of the company in Mexico which wasn't doing anything.
Once again, Miguel built the company up, so that it was making revenue of like 2 million dollars. So he got a call from Cuba telling him to come home so they could meet with him. He started making preparations to fly back home. But then a friend called him and said "you better not come back to Cuba. If you do, they will take everything away from you, and maybe noone will see anything of you anymore!" So when Miguel went to the airport, right before his plane took off, he left the gate and got on another plane going to Cancun.
He stayed in a little spare room in a hotel with a tv and a bed for like a month, and then after that he found a way to go to the US. And he's been here ever since. Incredible, huh?
So we were getting hungry, and it was time to go to the second event of the day, the Friday night dinner, dominos tournament, music, dancing, etc. at Cuban Crafters. We drive down there, and walk in and we are immediately treated like kings again! Wine, food, Don Kiki sits with us and brings us another Cuban Crafters cigar to try, all these people come by and everyone has to meet us. Tony Borhani of Bahia Cigars stops by with his girlfriend and says hello, and before we know it we are all getting Bahia Cigars to try. Berta and Emilio are there with us, and then Berta's niece Grace shows us wearing a beautiful blue Guayabera dress. We're all eating and drinking and smoking cigars, and then the music starts - a dj with a piano and a guy on the drums. So of course then we start dancing. Emilio and Berta were dancing up a storm. I went out there and danced a bit even though I didn't really know what I was doing. But hey, I gave it a shot. Later, Ade and Anthony did some dancing too.
The evening really flew by. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. We were sad to say goodbye to Berta, Emilio and Grace. Berta said she might come to NY in June with Don Pepin and Janny Garcia. We are keeping our fingers crossed. It would be so killer to see Berta in NYC!
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