Controversial “cloud of smoke” at Cuba’s XXV Habano Festival
(Editor’s Note: During the Habano Festival, Cuba’s National Capitol hosted the exclusive presentation of the H. Upmann Magnum 50 Gran Reserva Cosecha 2019 vitola. The evening included an exquisite dinner and a musical performance. The Hall of Lost Steps in the National Capitol, one of the city’s most iconic spaces, was transformed into the setting for the event.)
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Beyond the commendable results of this edition of the best cigars in the world, which attracted a record attendance of approximately 3,000 businessmen, specialists, distributors, and producers from 110 nations, an intermediary dinner has sparked significant controversy on social media.
The event occurred in the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos at the Havana Capitol, the headquarters of the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament), with around 600 distinguished guests at a high-profile dinner where the world premiere of the H. Upmann Magnun 50 Gran Reserva Cosecha 2019 vitola took place.
And the criticism on the networks has been very severe. “Tobacco is very important, but we must be careful about what we communicate,” said a prominent university professor, adding, “The place is the headquarters of our Parliament, and now it is used in images that resemble a kind of brothel from the 1950s.” Another colleague remarked, “… in the midst of the harsh reality of the country today, it crushed me. That is not my environment, nor that of many of my fellow countrymen.”
Someone posed a question that likely would remain unanswered: “And who will account for that spectacle?”
The few who consented to the controversial dinner expressed their opinions: “It is not a brothel in a patriotic and refined environment, and the auction of the Habanos Festival raised 17 million 940 thousand euros that will be donated to Cuban public health.”
In the end, I don’t believe the essence of the problem lies in the fact itself — whether they smoked a rare Romeo and Juliet while others are deprived of even that damned machine-made tobacco distributed (when available) by ration card, or whether the singer was on the verge of delighting the unknown Mambi soldier over his grave. Rather, it lies in the multiple events occurring today on the island that provoke discontent among the population, who lack a public space to express their opinions, discuss, or debate them.
And the worst part is that if you criticize, you can be accused of helping the enemies of the revolution, when sometimes we have them right here at home and not just over there in Miami or Washington…
