Gilberto Oliva

The family’s tobacco history began in 1886, when Melanio Oliva started growing tobacco in Pinar del Río, Cuba. His son Hipolito continued the operation from the 1920s, followed by Hipolito’s son, Gilberto Oliva Sr.

After the Cuban Revolution, Gilberto Sr. became a tobacco broker. He emigrated with his family to Spain in 1964 and later moved to Nicaragua, where he began growing tobacco independently in 1969. The Sandinista revolution prompted him to leave Nicaragua in 1979; over the following six years, he grew tobacco in Honduras, Mexico, Panama and the Philippines.

Gilberto Sr. returned to Nicaragua in 1995 and entered cigar manufacturing with his son, Gilberto Jr. They launched the Gilberto Oliva brand using one of Plasencia’s Honduran factories, initially combining Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with Dominican binder and an Ecuadorian wrapper grown from Connecticut seed. The brand name was shortened to Oliva in 1996.

During the late-1990s contraction in the cigar market, the family relied on its stock of aged Nicaraguan tobacco. Producing Nicaraguan puros moved the business closer to self-sufficiency and helped establish its position in the market. Oliva opened a larger facility in Estelí in July 2003 and launched its flagship Serie V in 2006.

J. Cortes Cigars acquired Oliva Cigar Family in the summer of 2016. The five Oliva siblings, great-grandchildren of Melanio Oliva, remained active: Gilberto Jr. in leaf growing and blending, Carlos in production, Jeannie in the Miami Lakes office and José in sales.