By Jay Amberg Bloomberg Lifestyles . Fri, 15 Sep 2000, 10:05am EDT.Bloomberg.com
Havana, Sept. 15 -- A short drive from Havana Vieja, (old Havana) through the tunnel that crosses under the entrance to Havana Harbor and on to the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana is where you'll find Jose Cueto.
Cueto, considered by many aficionados to be one of Cuba's most famous torcedores (cigar rollers), has just finished what he considers to be his masterwork, a 36-foot long cigar.
Like other cigar rollers who have officially retired from active service in the Havana factories, Cueto now rolls cigars at the La Casa del Habano in the old fortress across the inlet to Havana Harbor.
Cueto hopes his 36-foot cigar (about 11 meters), now protected in a long plastic case, will be his ticket into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest cigar ever rolled.
"I will try to have this hand-rolled cigar in the Guinness record book,'' Cueto said. "It would be a great honor.''
Cueto, who some credit with rolling the best "figurados'' (odd and large shaped cigars) in all of Cuba, now spends most of his time rolling the Pyramid and Robusto shapes for visiting tourists.
Besides the Pyramids and Robustos, Cueto is perhaps best known for his Diademas, big cigars, at least 8 inches long, with a tapered head (the end you smoke) and foot (the end you light).
For his work he earns $4-$5 per cigar and more for his special Diademas, a good sum considering most of the active cigar rollers in the Havana factories earn about $20 a month.
Cueto said he has been working on his potential Guinness record or about a year, making sure he could obtain the best tobacco from Cuba's premier farms in Pinar del Rio, on the southwest corner of the island.
"Finding the biggest wrapper leaf possible was the most difficult task,'' Cueto said. "Rolling a cigar is what I do best.''
As he finished his cigar, about 100 tourists who watched him apply the last layers of tobacco leaf cheered him on, while others lit smaller cigars that Cueto had rolled to celebrate the event.
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