When you picture a person smoking a great cigar, Yvette and Yvonne Rodriguez want you to picture a Black woman.
They know a lot of people picture a light-skinned abuelo in a guayabera, but the cigar lover in their lives was their grandmother, Esperanza. They remember her ending the day in a rocking chair, sharing stories and smoking a cigar.
Yvette and Yvonne are twin sisters who created the cigar brand Tres Lindas Cubanas (Three Beautiful Cubans). The name comes from the title of a Cuban bolero. Their grandmother makes up the third linda.
The sisters were raised by their Afro-Cuban family in South Miami-Dade. They know that Afro-Latino success stories don’t often reach the mainstream, so they founded a local group of Afro-Latino professionals to help tell stories like theirs.
The twins left their careers in communications to become entrepreneurs together. They created their cigar business 10 years ago. Now, they’ve added Cuban espresso because cigars and coffee are better together.
On the July 18 episode of Sundial, Yvette and Yvonne told us about how their grandmother Esperanza's hustle as a Cuban exile ultimately inspired them to launch their own business.
On Sundial's previous episode, Caron Bowman of Street Art Revolution in West Palm Beach shared why public art is the democratic form of art.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
