The Cigar Roller Read online

  Acknowledgments

  For help in researching and understanding the cigar industry and the community of Ibor City, I am indebted to Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, “The Fight Doctor,” the late Adela Gonzmart of the Columbia Restaurant, and the late Tony Pizzo, the official historian of Tampa. My special thanks also go to the staff of the Special Collections of the University of South Florida, where I spent many fascinating hours looking over unpublished materials dating back to the early history of Tampa.

  I have been employed by New School University and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College for several years now. Institutions are made of people and the people at both these institutions—students, faculty, and staff—continually grace me with their support and help make the practice of writing a little less solitary, a little less daunting.

  Among the people who read this manuscript and offered valuable suggestions are my father, Pablo, who reads everything I write and tells me, honestly, or as we say in Cuban, sin pelos en la lengua, whether he likes it or not, that other Pablo, my son, and my sister Silvia. My former editor Karen Braziller and my agent Elaine Markson, too, encouraged me in the usual ways and in ways I am just now beginning to understand. There are few people in the book business who love good literature as much as they do.

  I am especially fortunate to be working with Elisabeth Schmitz, my editor at Grove/Atlantic. People know of her talents as an editor, but not everyone is aware of the generosity, intelligence, and care that inform her editorial suggestions. Elisabeth knows, and she knows that she knows. That makes her a wisewoman in the realm of fiction.

  Finally, I must thank my wife, Beth. She did all of the above. She also had to tolerate the moods, the quirks, the frustrations, the panic and manic attacks, and all the other byproducts that come with writing a novel. She is next to me always and that makes all the difference.