Estelí appears frequently on the sheets of Nicaraguan cigars because it combines a history of cultivation and manufacture. One entry point into that history is the account Joya de Nicaragua publishes about its own factory.

According to the manufacturer, Simón Camacho and Juan Francisco Bermejo, who came from Cuba, launched the Nicaragua Cigar Company, the company’s original name, in 1968. Its account links that beginning with agricultural work in Estelí, Condega and Jalapa and with tobacco-processing facilities in Estelí. The same chronology describes the rebuilding of the factory after the conflicts of the late 1970s.

The episode shows how the experience of a group of manufacturers met the cultivation and work of Estelí. The city appears as a place of processing and production, connected with fields in several regions. For that reason, when studying the Nicaraguan cigar it is worth looking at the workshop and its agricultural network together.