José “Pepín” García is widely regarded as one of the most important cigar makers to emerge from Cuba in the post-revolution era. Born in 1950, Pepín began rolling cigars at the age of 11 in the small town of Báez, Villa Clara province. He rose through the ranks to become a Class 8 master roller, training hundreds of torcedores and crafting some of Cuba’s most famous cigars for brands including Cohiba, Montecristo, and Romeo y Julieta before the family operation was nationalized.
After emigrating and starting over in Miami’s Little Havana with a tiny factory called El Rey de los Habanos, Pepín set out to recreate the bold, full-flavored Cuban style using Nicaraguan tobacco. His vision led to the creation of My Father Cigars and a state-of-the-art factory in Estelí. Pepín’s influence extends far beyond his own labels—he has been the driving force behind numerous boutique projects and remains the patriarch of a multi-generational family business that continues to shape the Nicaraguan cigar landscape through both its own brands and contract work for others.