Don Jose Gener emigrated to Cuba from Spain at the age of thirteen where he worked on his uncles plantation in Vuelta Abajo. 20 years later in 1865, after opening a successful factory in Havana, he purchased one of the best tobacco farms in Vuelta Abajo and registered his new cigar brand, Hoyo de Monterrey. The word Hoyo literally means ‘hole’ and refers directly to the low-lying position of the plantation on the fertile banks of San Juan y Martinez River. The Hoyo de Monterrey plantation can be accessed through the gates in the main square of the town San Juan y Martinez which is in the heart of the Vuelta Abajo region, inscribed on these gates is the phrase ‘Hoyo de Monterrey. Jose Gener. 1860’.