Little Havana (Spanish: La Pequeña Habana) is an ethnic enclave in Miami, Florida, with many Cuban immigrant residents. Little Havana is named after Havana,the capital and largest city in Cuba. The high number of Cuban refugeesin Miami is due to its proximity to Cuba. Little Havana is famous asthe cultural and political capital of Cuban Americans, and the neighborhood is a center of the Cuban exile community.

Little Havana Padron Cigar History
Excerpts BY DANIEL SHOER-ROTH | Miami Herald

Jose Orlando Padron’s memories are still fresh from the turbulent days more than two decades ago when his Little Havana cigar factory, Padron Cigars, was bombed four times. 

Company founder Padron had just returned from a trip to Cuba where he was part of a group that negotiated with Fidel Castro for the release of hundreds of political prisoners. A photographer captured him handing the Cuban leader one of his cigars, and after the photo was published in Miami, anti-Castro extremists called for a boycott of his business,defaced his building with tar and bombed his factory....

But Padron Cigars has survived the bombings, the ups and downs of the tobacco industry, hurricanes that flattened crops and more through its 40-year history......

‘’I came to Miami and I couldn’t find good cigars,’’ acknowledges Padron. “So I got the idea that I could make a cigar for Cubans in Miami so that they might miss the island—but not its cigars.’’

Forty years ago, the elder Padron launched his company with $600 in savings.  Padron has sold close to 150 million cigars since 1964, by maintaining a unique taste, and the quality of the cigars. Its long tradition; a nostalgic carry-over from the old days - Devoted fans of Padron’s products include Jack McKeon, the Florida Marlins manager, "who is often seen with a couple of Anniversary and Millennium Padron cigars in his shirt pocket." 

.....As for the encounter in Cuba that brought havoc to his life, Padron said that although Castro was partial to tobacco that he grew, he tried the Padron cigar “and said that it was good. And for that, he congratulated me.’’

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