Lost in the smoke of time
Reina María Rodríguez, Cuban poet and novelist, author of La Foto del Invernadero (Casa de las Americas prize, 1998) and Te daré de comer como a los pájaros
(La Habana, Letras Cubanas 2000).
(Source: UNESCO.org)
The Viñales Valley, near the western tip of Cuba, is a magical landscape of hills and
caves where life centres on growing tobacco. A Cuban writer recalls discovering this
World Heritage site through books well before setting foot there.
In the west side of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico, at the foot of the Sierra de los
Órganos, lies a region of limestone outcrops known as mogotes. These huge round-
topped hummocks rising out of the ground emerged from the sea more than two million
years ago and were formed during the Jurassic period. Born in the vicissitudes of history,
the land still bears the marks of precipices, chasms and seams carved out by erosion.
Tobacco grows in the valley—strange red leaves almost starved by the salty soil but
brought to life by permanent sunshine.
I always dreamed of the Viñales Valley but never ventured there. In school I could
touch the lush tobacco leaves pictured in textbooks and see the caterpillars that live
off them, slowly and avidly taking on the aroma of tobacco before devouring the plant.
