I stepped onto Calle Ocho Street, in the heart of
"Little Havana" Miami, ah the smells, colors and the distant sounds of hustle & bustle of this cultural little burg. As I negotiated my fine big city parallel parking skills right in front of the
El Rey de los Habanos Inc., the little shop is all of 4500 square feet at the most, and serves as the American corporate headquarters for one of the most influential families in the cigar industry. It started over a half a century ago, the man was just eleven years old and h$e couldn't think of anything else but tobacco, he would to onto become the best cigar roller ever. As i walked up the street I recognized this young, slender, and smiling women talking to a friend, which probably happens often in this community where everyone knows and looks out for one another, me walking around like a "gringo" like a lost tourist in a strange land, I definitely caught some suspicious stares. She looked at me the very same way but then I saw the look on her face, she being: the beloved daughter of
Jose "Pepin" Garcia, and the being half of the namesake of
"JJ" cigar line, She being Janny Garcia, the moment she recognizes me her warm Latin smile got even wider. Now let me set this up; The only contact that
Janny and I had up until now we had some mixed words that I had reported on facebook about the amount of surplus and production of her father's cigar Co.
El Rey el los Habanos Inc., man did she let me have it, but it was done with a sincerity and a kind gesture to tour the larger and more impressive Nicaraguan facilities.
She gave
Nikki (my girlfriend) and I, the ten cent tour of
El Rey de los Habanos Inc. all the while telling me that we should really go and see the operation in Nicaragua, thinking maybe I was not impressed. I can tell you right now everything I saw that day was impressive, the loyal workers, who many of them have been working with
Pepin for decades. I also was impressed while the three of us sat at the board room table and smoking "My Father", robusto cigars and drinking the best Cuban coffee or cafe leche that I have ever had,
Janny, right again as she was the one who touted it to be. I was also impressed. I can tell you right now everything I saw that day was impressive like her charismatic style, her beauty and her easy nature, not hard to see why she's the public relations for her fathers company and the apple of his eye. As we sat and talked she kidded me on my feud with her families beloved quasi adopted son "
Pete Johnson,"
(Tatuaje Cigars), my reply, "he does not like the fact I call him
"Rock Star", and having only met him once, he probably does not even know who I am. She dismisses that comment and threatened to call and tell him I'm there... We laugh! and I proceed to prod her of questions like: "tell me about the guy they call the "drug lord", she looked concerned at first, and then opened up and said" Your talking about a man named
Luis Montesino." Ah, I finally have the name! A name I have been trying to get for months, I had from previous interviews "drug lord", and on big name in the industry actually gave me "Luis", but until now everybody seemed to be tight lipped. For the reading public, this man is someone who drives tobacco prices coming out of Nicaragua, most of the cigars you've smoked have been sold or brokered from
"The Drug Lord", now I have people making cigars vehemently deny this, but they are lying.
Janny knowing the rumors that have circled about the connection between
Luis Montesino and the good name of the
Garcia's were probably one of the reason she agreed to set down with me for this interview.
I said there was a report that Jose Garcia borrowed two million U.S. dollars to build the Nicaraguan facility, she laughed and said "I heard it was four million," I started to ask another question and she stopped me and said "let me say this,
Luis Montesino who's Cuban and lived in Nicaragua for a while now, and when my father started to go there he met Luis, only natural right?" "Yes", I replied, and she went on to say, "they're both in strange lands, both cigar guys from Cuba and had a lot in common but my father quickly severed ties with him, after an agreement to find a good quality tobacco farm went sour". I shot a question at her and putting her on the spot a couple of times, I asked her if she ever met
Marvin Shanken? "Oh yes", she replied, how about... and I preemptively knew the answer of this question but had to ask it: how about
James Suckling? This is where the interview got powerful and emotional, knowing Suckling as a huge supporter of anything Cuban, and
Janny being from the depressed island. "He is so pro-Cuba, and he did a seminar in Las Vegas last year for the Big Smoke". She then told me "he has no idea how the people live", now I see the tears in her eyes start to well up! My experience with the Cuban culture steeped in rich tradition, heritage, pride and always so respectful to the human race, that a man like Fidel Castro has ripped the heart and heritage of these people. She told me with those brown eye's still moistened with sorrow that her people don't live lives of humans in Cuba, they are more than oppressed, and they live in such poverty. In the same breathe she tells me that her family is not rich, she's quick to point out they are workers.
She is endearing, and I would defy anyone not to like her, and even though I have met her father at an event in Tampa, we spoke through an interpreter.
Janny and I spoke to one another like we had known each other for years, and I got the impression this is a quality directly inherited from her father and if I had spoken Spanish he and I might still be talking. I get the impression they are a beautiful, graceful family that sit around a big table full of laughter, food, wine and great cigars. Maybe
Janny in terms of total capital your family is not the wealthiest, I do think your are one of the richest,
Viva la Garcia!
I would like to point out: after the interview I posted a promo on facebook with the name of Luis Montesino, Janny contacted me right away to let me know it could be very dangerous to mention his name.
