By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer
SAN LUIS, Cuba – Hundreds of friends and relatives bid farewell to the godfather of Cuban tobacco, who was buried Sunday in a casket adorned with a half-smoked cigar bearing his name and a yellow tobacco flower.
Alejandro Robaina, a 91-year-old legend who was the only Cuban to have a cigar brand named after him, died Saturday from cancer after doctors discovered inoperable tumors on his lungs and kidney, his grandson Hirochi Robaina said.
Wreaths of flowers filled his modest, ramshackle home and engulfed much of the surrounding porch. Four generations of family and neighbors choked back tears while greeting friends, communist officials and business associates who made the two-and-half hour drive from Havana west to San Luis in Vuelta Abajo, the region where Cuba’s finest tobacco is grown.