Pego Pita and the turbulent history of Partagás cigars

[El Presidente]

Good article that doesn't quite survive translation......but you will get the gist 

 

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https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/amarina/2021/09/12/pancho-pego-pita-turbulenta-historia-habanos-partagas/0003_202109X12C6991.htm

Pancho Pego Pita and the turbulent history of Partagás cigars

MARTÍN FERNÁNDEZ

 

Born in Ortigueira, he was co-owner of the factory with his friend Ramón Cifuentes, who had three children with a Cuban lover who committed suicide.

Asturians and Galicians from A Mariña and Ortegal appear, in their own right, on the honor roll of the Cuban tobacco industry . Sometimes they were associated and, then, the world was too small for them. An example was the Royal Partagás Tobacco Factory, which obtained the Gold Medal at the world exhibitions in Chile , Vienna , Matanzas , Antwerp and, up to six times, in Paris . A company that suffered great turbulence and lived a great friendship: that of Ramón Cifuentes , from Ribadesella , with Francisco (Pancho) Pego Pita, from Ortigueira, its two greatest emblems.

 

The firm was founded by the Catalan Jaime Partagás Rabell in 1854, a year in which Cuba had 1,250 factories and registered tobacco brands. He was born in Arenys del Mar in 1816 and arrived in Cuba at the age of 14. He was successful and in 1853 he had a great lawsuit with the Asturian González Carvajal when he commercialized both cigars under the same brand, Flor de Cabañas. He lost Catalan and was forced to change his name and establish La Flor de Tabacos Partagás .

 

It was the first rung of his irresistible climb to the top. But he did not notice the means or the forms. And in 1868 a shot in the back ended his life on a plantation in Vuelta Abajo. His wife, Catalina Puig , in 1876 sold the factory, the brands and the farms of Pinar del Río to the Asturian banker Juan Antonio Bances , one of the most influential in the Cuban economy in the 19th century.

 

Bances made a partner with his countryman Ramón Cifuentes , who, when it went bankrupt in 1900, ended up selling the factory. Cifuentes, born in 1864, had arrived in Cuba at the age of 17. He started as an apprentice and ended up as a manager of Partagás before becoming its owner and turning it - «Partagás and nobody else» - into an emporium that employed 4,000 employees and was the main supplier of European Royal Houses, clubs and financial trusts and large tobacco distributors in the world.

To do this, he relied on two friends: his countryman Antonio Fernández and the Ortegano Pancho Pego Pita , his manager and trusted man, a cordial, friendly guy, with a gift for people, strong and very brave. It was said that he was his bodyguard and the saying "Pancho Pego, hit hard" became popular ...

 

In 1914, Cifuentes returned to Spain - he was mayor of Ribadesella - and gave 50% to his Galician friend. The two had had parallel lives. Pancho was born in 1868 in Senra (Ortigueira) and arrived in Cuba when he was 14 years old. He was also an apprentice and manager of Partagás since 1906. He died in 1940 in Padrón ( A Coruña ), two years after Cifuentes. And after his death, his wife, Dolores Busto , and their seven children decided to return their shares in Partagás to the Asturian's heirs.

The final point of Partagás was put by Fidel Castro : the company intervened and from April 14, 1962 registered it in the name of Cubatabaco, a company of the Cuban State….

 

The first exporting company of Cuba

Pancho Pego and Cifuentes took Partagás to the top. In the 1934 Cuban Trade Balance, Cifuentes, Pego y Cía is the first company in the ranking of the 110 largest exporters: 7.3 million cigars exported for $ 796,040. In second place is the Asturian Pepín Rodríguez (Romeo y Julieta), with 6.7 and 721,066 dollars and in fifth place, José Fernández Rocha (JF Rocha), from Reinante (Barreiros), with 2.3 million cigars sold for 256,694 Dollars.

Pancho Pego was affable, jovial, populist. His success as co-owner of Partagás and his permanent help to his countrymen catapulted him to the presidency of the Galician Center in 1924 and 1929. He also presided over the Union of Tobacco Manufacturers of Cuba. And in 1930, Alfonso XIII appointed him Commander of the Order of Isabel la Católica. He was an active member of the conservatism and of the Integral Spain of Ramón Canoura , of O Valadouro .

 

As president of the Galician Center, he accompanied Ribadeo to the Board of Trustees of the Pedro Murias Foundation in Havana to begin in 1924 the second phase of the works of the Villaframil Farm School. The first began in 1913 with its constitution by its founder Pedro Murias who endowed it with the income of various buildings he owned in Havana, various shares and 10,000 gold pesos. The Junta functioned regularly until 1961 when the Castro dictatorship expropriated the assets that supported it.

The life and work of Cifuentes were studied by his nephews Manuel Cifuentes Pando ( All aboard ) and Alejandro Llano ( Smell of dry grass ). And that of Pego Pita, especially by JM Suárez Sandomingo from Ortigueire .

 

His friend Ramón Cifuentes had three children with a Cuban lover who committed suicide

Ramón Cifuentes was born in 1864 in San Salvador de Moro (Ribadesella). He grew up watching the Havana brig depart each month for Cuba, which today appears on the town's coat of arms. At each departure, illusion and nostalgia presided over the dance that was always held in the port: "May I never see you again / because I am embarking tomorrow / on a sailing ship / I'm going to Havana." At 17 he fulfilled his dream and got on it.

In Cuba he was married twice. The first, with Dolores Vento in 1884. He met her when she and her foreman, Pego Pita, came to help him after falling off his horse in a race and suffering serious injuries when the gun on his belt was shot. Dolores died shortly after without children. The second, in 1903, with Rosario Toriello , a beautiful woman in whose honor he built Villa Rosario, a sumptuous chalet, now a famous hotel in Ribadesella. With her he had 8 children: Rosario, Isolina, Esmeralda, Estela, Ludivina, Ramón, Rafael and Manuel.

In addition to them, Cifuentes had - according to Juan Alberto Berni - three unrecognized children with the Cuban Josefa Garridowhose parents lived near him, on Egido Street. When they met, she was 22 years old and he was 41. And three children were born from their relationship: Ramón, who died at a young age, Miguel and Eloína. One day, before one of his frequent trips to Spain, Ramón promised Josefa that when he returned, he would recognize the children and they would marry. But he returned married to Rosario and Josefa never recovered. Six years later, when she found out that the cigar maker named Ramón the son he had with Rosario - the same name as the one he had with Josefa, who died at a young age - he committed suicide by setting himself on fire. He was 38 years old. Their two children were left in the care of an aunt. Cifuentes helped them, visited them, gave them gifts ... And they called him godfather ...

The Asturian cigar maker lived on Calle Ferraz 25, in Madrid . He was head of the Conservative Party in Cuba and mayor of Ribadesella between 1914 and 1918. He paid for the Carmen schools and founded the famous El Sella cider factory with the La Santina brands, in Mexico and Covadonga, in Cuba.