HispanicBusiness

The art of cigar making and the art of an illustrator have been blended for a good cause: raising funds for El Museo del Barrio, a Caribbean and Latin American cultural institution in New York City.

Cuban-born artist and illustrator Ruben Toledo has created a limited-edition cigar box and band that will be sold to benefit the museum. The cigars and their white lacquer boxes, featuring black silhouetted designs both inside and out, are being produced by top cigar maker La Flor Dominicana of the Dominican Republic. Each cigar also has a gold-embossed band designed by Toledo. All profits will be donated to El Museo.

Both Toledo and his fashion designer wife, Isabel, who created Michelle Obama's yellow Inauguration Day outfit, have been working on the cigar design project for about a year.

"This is a project with so much meaning for both my wife and I," said Ruben Toledo, a painter, sculptor and illustrator whose work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Vogue and The New York Times. "El Museo is a symbol of pride for Latins, and cigars are such a potent symbol of our heritage. We traveled last year to the Dominican [Republic] and saw the factories and tobacco fields where these cigars are produced. It's a project and intuition close to our hearts."

El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by artist Raphael Montanez Ortiz with the support of Puerto Rican artists, educators, parents and community activists in East Harlem's Spanish-speaking El Barrio. Over the years, its mission and scope have expanded to represent the art and culture of all of the Caribbean and Latin America. The museum, which is currently undergoing renovation, is located on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Museum Mile.

La Flor Dominicana founder Litto Gomez said: "These are unique cigars with Dominican filler and binder tobacco grown on our own farms. The wrapper is a delicious rare Habano grown by a small farmer ... in the Dominican Republic."

Only 2,000 boxes of the El Museo Limited Edition Cigars will be produced. The boxes, with a suggested retail price of $600 each, will be sold at selected tobacconist shops and department stores beginning in May.

"We know that we could sell many, many more," said Gomez, "but this is to be special. There's never been a box like this before. When they've sold out, that's the end of this cigar. The package, of course, will be with collectors forever."

For more information on the museum, go to http://www.elmuseo.org.