I had two dreams. The first, as would be true for almost any cigar lover, was to visit Cuba's cigar factories and the Vuelta Abajo. The second was to meet Fidel Castro and "talk cigars." As this was my fifth visit to Cuba "on assignment," the first dream had already been realized. Tonight, my second dream was now coming true.
:grillman: 🚬
Shanken: For many years, the world saw photographs of you smoking a cigar or holding a cigar in your hand, as you did just a moment ago...as you are now doing. (Castro picks up a Cohiba Esplendido with his right hand.) For the past seven or eight years, you have stopped smoking cigars. Don't you miss them?
Castro: I should explain that. I got used to smoking in my early years. My father was a cigar smoker, and he really appreciated a fine cigar. My father was Spanish, and he originally came from Galicia. He was from the countryside. I remember when I was a teenager in high school. I was about 15 years old. I had lunch with my father when he presented me with a cigar. So he introduced me to cigars and he also taught me to drink wine....
Shanken: So he was a wine lover.
Castro: He used to smoke Cuban cigars and drink Spanish wine. And he taught me about both things. He liked wines from Rioja. I always smoked cigars and, on very few occasions, cigarettes. But I always kept the habit of smoking cigars. So I was always a cigar smoker, as far as I can remember, since I was 15 years old until I was about 59 years old. That's about 44 years of being a cigar smoker. On two occasions in my life I didn't smoke. Once was during the Revolution because there was a great movement against cigars as a result of an uprising of the peasants on the plantations, and tobacco production went down. There was a great spirit against cigars. In order to be in solidarity with them, I quit for some time. But that was the only reason. Soon production recovered, and I started smoking again. Later I did not smoke because of reasons of health. Many people in our country were against smoking. I didn't not smoke because I didn't like cigars. I was very much in the habit. But there was a whole national movement against smoking.
:so-true: 🚬 so whats it like being a communist dictator? i bet you smoke some big cigars
:fidel-salute: (does tobacco-based quitting praxis) Actually i am mostly concerned with the welfare of the people
Shanken: In what year was this?
Castro: I can't remember exactly. It was '84 or '85. No. It was on Aug. 26, 1985. It was when there was a general health issue in Cuba against smoking. At first, I thought that I would simply try not to smoke in public for this campaign against smoking, and I did not make a commitment to it. I used to be with a cigar in my mouth all the time. I always had a cigar. When I was with a foreigner in a meeting like this, I would be smoking my cigars. Pictures would show me smoking cigars, or in an interview on television I was smoking cigars. And then the interview would be shown on television here, and you can imagine what people would think watching me smoke my cigars. Then I came to a decision that to really launch a campaign against smoking, I had to set the example and quit smoking. That was why I quit smoking. As I had a very strong motive, it was easier for me. I not only had a strong commitment; I had a strong motive. So, it was not so hard for me to stop smoking. People used to ask me if I still smoked when I was alone because it seemed impossible to them that I could quit smoking cigars after all those years. I must be smoking at home.
Shanken: I question that, too. It's hard to believe that you've stopped completely.
:angery: 🚬
Castro: I said, look, in order to smoke, you need some accomplices. You need somebody to buy the cigars for you. You need somebody to hide the ashes that are left around. You need at least three, four, five accomplices who know that you are smoking cigars. They would know that you are doing something like that. They would know that you are smoking behind closed doors, and I wouldn't want three, four or five people knowing that I was deceiving others. So I chose not to do that.
Shanken: You are saying that you do not smoke even in the privacy of your home by yourself?
(thinking about using Castle doctrine to defend against wave attacks of authoritarian anti-smoking tankies)
Castro: No.
Shanken: Not even a puff?
Castro: No. No.
Shanken: Not even a little puff?
:wojak-nooo: 🚬
Castro: Not one....A few days ago, I was in a meeting with a large Spanish firm. It was Tabacalera [the Spanish tobacco monopoly]. And they were analyzing different cigars and all that. And I did not try any cigars, even though it might have benefited our economic relations with them. I remember the quality of cigars and how a great cigar should be. (He picks up a Cohiba Esplendido.) They should not be too compact. And they should burn very evenly. Even if you light them in one corner, they soon come to an even burn. With other cigars, if you do that, they continue to burn unevenly throughout the smoke.
What I used to smoke was the Cohiba, which was the one that was developed in the last 23 years. It was the 23 years that I smoked after the victory of the Revolution. It was the Cohiba that I preferred.
:very-intelligent: 🚬Yet you participate in Cuban society with tobacco as its fifth largest export revenue. Curious!
Shanken: This brand today is considered by many cigar lovers to be the finest brand of cigars in the world.
Castro [holds a Cohiba Esplendido]: This particular cigar is too tight in my opinion. The Cohiba should be easy to smoke. And it should burn very evenly, almost like a cigarette. I don't know much about the new Cohibas, but that was how the old ones were.
Shanken: I accept that you don't smoke cigars now, but do you ever dream about cigars?
:cia: Gateway program ass question
Castro [laughs loudly]: Well, I have had dreams about cigars. Sometimes I used to dream that I was smoking a cigar. The funny thing is that it doesn't happen to me anymore. I think it happened to me in the first five years. Even in my dreams I used to think that I was doing something wrong. I was conscious that I had not permitted myself to smoke anymore, but I was still enjoying it in my sleep.
:Fidel-deke: (Nice try imperialist)
Shanken: I think tonight you may again dream about cigars. Medical research is inconclusive regarding the health hazard of smoking cigars, if they are not inhaled. Why does the Cuban government take such a hard-line position against smoking cigars? I understand cigarettes, which are inhaled and may cause lung cancer, but why cigars? Many intelligent people around the world, including doctors, smoke cigars. They understand that there are risks. And many doctors say that the risks of smoking a cigar are no greater than riding a motorcycle or speeding down a mountain on skis. So why are cigars lumped together with cigarettes?
:libertarian-approaching: 🚬Hard line authoritarian Stalinist-medicalist regimes like yours prevent brilliant Doctors from puffing (never inhaling) huge cigars while motorcycle skiing, in violation of NAP
Castro: It seems that we are having a real conversation here. We have the publisher of a magazine on cigars and a citizen of a country whose economy depends on the production of cigars. [Everyone laughs.] I think that we based the decision on the conviction that cigars are bad for your health. That was when we launched our campaign. I think that cigarettes are more harmful than cigars. Even if a cigarette has a filter or not, people inhale them. I have never in my life inhaled a cigarette or a cigar. I simply enjoyed a cigar after lunch. You have to improve your digestion. I enjoy a cigar because of its aroma, its taste and watching the smoke. Of course, don't forget that my lung capacity was always good because I always exercise and I never inhaled smoke. I have preserved my health. Cigars are less harmful to your health, but according to doctors, many people who don't smoke are affected by smokers who sit nearby to them over a period of time. Anyway, we couldn't make a different policy for cigars or cigarettes, and I think that it is proof of the ethics of our country because from an economic point of view we want people to smoke cigars. Also, I couldn't be seen in magazines or anywhere else smoking cigars.
:castro-stuff: Listen i understand some people smoke "for the health benefits" i get it but its actually bad for you and in fact you are violation of NAP
Shanken: It's a noble sacrifice.
Castro: I did it for reasons of health, even though my health was OK. It was a moral duty to contribute to the campaign against smoking. The World Health Organization had a campaign against smoking, and we were the first ones to support it. One day, in the same place that we are sitting now, a representative of the WHO came here to present me with two medals—one for not smoking and the other one for the government programs after the Revolution, which have turned Cuba into one of the countries with the best health ratings of Third World countries in the world. So, you see, I can't smoke anymore. My commitment is very strong. It is final. It is a kind of commitment that I can't change. Anyway, I may not smoke. I agree with you that there are many things that endanger men's lives such as traffic accidents or diseases. And many things can be done for health that are unrelated to cigars.
Shanken: There are many educated people who are willing to take whatever the calculated risk is because they love cigars so much.
Castro: It's a person's right. They know how they feel about it—not to drink, not to smoke, whatever.
:fidel-peace: please just stop