Monday, March 02 2009
By Tim Elfrink in The Miami New Times
The Judge
Tendrils of earthy smoke snake through a room on the edge of Little Havana, past old men in guayaberas slapping dominoes on a folding table and a long counter where a wrinkled 80-year-old brews espresso.
Near the front window facing NW Seventh Street, Dionisio Gonzalez gently peels a cured deep-brown leaf from his table and expertly layers it atop a growing pile of tobacco.
Before he fled to Miami last year, Gonzalez spent 53 years honing his cigar-rolling technique at Havana's legendary H. Upmann factory, where he landed his first job at age 14.
Like thousands of others across South Florida, he now earns a living in the heart of America's cigar industry, where some experts estimate 75 percent of the nation's 272 million hand-rolled cigars originate every year.
Enjoy it while it lasts. Miami's cigar-makers are scrambling to survive past April 1, when President Obama's new State Children's Health Insurance Plan takes effect -- and brings with it a 900 percent tax increase on every single cigar made or imported to the States.
Obama's New Cigar Tax Might Just Kill Miami's Torcedores continues...
