Cuba Aliados

Rolando Reyes Sr. began learning the cigar trade at age nine in Zulueta, Cuba, as an apprentice to Silvio Santana at Tabacalera Pequeña. He later worked at factories including José L. Piedra, H. Upmann, José Gener, Partagás, Romeo y Julieta and Batet Cigar Co., mastering both straight-sided parejos and shaped figurados.

In 1945, Reyes established his own factory, Los Aliados, in Placetas before moving it to Havana. The Cuban government confiscated the trademark, factory and his personal belongings in 1968. At the time, Los Aliados was producing six million handmade cigars annually for the domestic market.

Reyes emigrated to the United States in 1971. After opening a small cigar shop in Jersey City with a $500 loan from his brother, he built a combined home and factory in Union City in 1973 and renamed his cigar Cuba Aliados. Production began in the Dominican Republic in 1978, but Reyes closed that operation because he was dissatisfied with its quality. He opened a factory and retail operation in Miami in 1984.

Most operations moved to Danlí, Honduras, by 1989. An initial factory in a converted twelve-room motel served for fourteen years before a new factory opened outside Danlí in 2002. In late 2007, Reyes promoted his grandson Carlos E. Diez to company president; the business later adopted the name Reyes Family Cigars, Inc.