Dona Flor Cigars

From the story by Victoria Shorr published in Cigar Aficianado, October 2005:

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands, the popular Brazilian book that became a hit movie starring Sonia Braga in the 1970's, tells a story that could only be Brazilian, and could only take place in the sensuous tropical Brazilian state of Bahia.

A voluptuous young woman, Flor is married to an irresistible bad boy, who gambles away her hard earned cash, carouses all night with his pals, drinks too much, laughs, singas and dances.  She loves him madly, as do quite a number of other young women in town.  He dies one day - happy of course, dancing down the street in his Carnival costume - and eventually Flor is persuaded to marry again.  This time she weds an older man, a respectable pharmacist, who comes to bed on his wedding night, buttoned up in his pajamas.

Like so many hroines before her, Dona Flor has left passion and sensuality behind her - a time honoured progression both in literature and in life. But the author here is the Brazilian Jorge Amado, and what happens next is quintessentially Brazilian.  If you've seen the movie your probably laughing already.  For who can keep a straight face remembering Flor, lying dutifully under the second husband on tyat wedding night and gazing up - not at the ceiling, but straight into the laughing eyes of her first husband, who's come back to her, naked no less, and it goes from there....

Like so many heroines before her, Dona Flor has left passion and sensuality behind her - a time honoured progression both in literature and in life.  But the author here is the Brazilian Jorge Amado, and what happens next is quintessentially Brazilian.  If you've seen the movie your probably laughing already.  For who can keep a straight face remembering Flor, lying dutifully under the second husband on tyat wedding night and gazing up - not at the ceiling, but straight into the laughing eyes of her first husband, who's come back to her, naked no less, and it goes from there..

It is no coincidence that the Menendez Amerino Co decided to call the fine line of cigars "Dona Flor" and export to the United States with all the passion and sensuality the name elicits.