“Surfing is something that was born inside of me, because it was in my blood,” says Rex Calderón, his vibrant sun-bleached locks flowing out of a black Quiksilver hat. Rex and the other members of team Nicaragua are in the capital, Managua, to promote the upcoming Central American Surf Championship that will be held the following weekend at Playa Maderas. It’s the same beach, just outside of San Juan del Sur, where Rex’s uncles began teaching him the ways of the waves when he was a kid. The same beach where from the first time he paddled out he says he knew he would be surfing for life. And the same beach where that weekend the 18 year old surf prodigy would go on to become the Central American Champion.

“When I get into the water and surf my mind changes,” he says. “All I want is to surf, and surf aggressively; meaning surfing strong, motivated and always trying to come up with different tricks to push my limits.”

In person this aggressive style is dynamic to watch. He attacks the waves, yet somehow makes it look effortless at the same time. His biggest asset however may be an uncanny ability to make bad waves look good and good waves look amazing. When Rex Calderón is surfing people take notice.

“Everything stopped,” says Shawn Kelly, a tourist from the States who had been watching the Central American Semi Finals at Playa Maderas when Rex entered the water. “People stopped what they were doing and just watched. Nobody else got a reaction like that.”

According to those who know him, that is typical Rex, in the water he is a fierce competitor, with a style that is radical, innovative, fluent and natural. But all the energy and aggression he demonstrates in the ocean doesn’t reflect his personality on the mainland where instead of a surfboard he often carries a shy smile and getting him to open up can be quite a task. Perhaps that comes from his humble beginnings, sharing a modest house with eight people in San Juan. It was there where his uncles Chelo and Roque, part of the first generation of Nica surfers, introduced him to the rest of his life.

Rex built on the pioneering experience and lessons of his uncles; he became serious about surfing and dedicated himself to it wholeheartedly. But he soon realized he couldn’t do that and live the same life as many of his peers.

“I have to go to sleep early, wake up early, can’t party too much, take care of myself and train…above all, train,” says Rex.

And while it is hard work, there is nothing he would rather be doing. Training provides Rex the freedom to experiment and hone his craft. But it is the thrill of competition that pushes him to the next level.

“Competition wakes something up inside of me, it sets me off,” he says. “You’re there waiting for the moment and then it hits you like an adrenaline rush.”

It’s that fighter’s spirit and a desire to always be better that makes him walk from San Juan to Playa Maderas when he can’t find a ride. It is also what keeps him disciplined and motivated. His whole world and life revolves around surf. The rare times when Rex isn’t at the beach you can likely find him watching a surf video, riding his bike, or better yet, on a skateboard “because I always need to be practicing,” he says with a smile. This is a routine he lives everyday. The longest he has ever been out of the water was two weeks for a small knee injury. He basically lives in the ocean; without it he feels he can’t breathe.

But while Rex is the first to say he was born a surfer, he is quick to add that a surfer without a board is nothing, and in addition to his raw talent and perseverance, he is the surfer he is thanks in part to the many people who have sponsored and supported him. Endorsements are an important part of the sport, as surfing can get very expensive very fast, especially for a kid from San Juan with dreams of competing and training at a high level. Rex says he was fortunate to have developed a relationship with board shaper Tom Eberly, who backs him with his shop Nicasurf and helped get Rex signed with Quiksilver early on in his career. He also recently got sponsorship from Sexwax and his good friend Johnny Goldenberg has been there to pick up the slack when travels and boards have gotten too expensive.

“Rex is our guy, he’s the one,” says longtime San Juan resident Goldenberg, echoing the sentiment of many in the small town and throughout Nicaragua who see Rex as the future of surfing.

Rex’s dedication and natural ability has paid off and though still a teenager he is already the most decorated surfer in Nicaraguan history. He is also the first to compete at a truly international level. In 2009 Rex took part in the International Surf Association (ISA) World Juniors in Ecuador, and while every other country came with a well-prepared team, Rex stood alone, holding a jar of sand from Nicaragua, representing his country proudly with a smile on his face and a fire in his belly.

His dream is to truly bring Nicaraguan surfing onto the international scene by competing at the highest level in the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). The upcoming 2011 ALAS Tour will be an important step in working towards that goal. After a strong showing in last year’s tournament, everyone in Nicaragua is expecting big things from their champion.

But when Rex thinks of the future he doesn’t only think of himself, his hope is that there will be more Nicaraguans standing there beside him on the world stage. And much like his uncles with him, he already has an eye on the next generation of Nicaraguan surfers.

“My little brother is three years old and I’m already planting the idea of surfing inside his head,” says Rex with a laugh. “I am always showing him surfing videos, magazines and all that. He likes surfing and by the time he’s my age I’m sure can be two or three times better than me.”

Photos by Jairo Ramos

We begin the session sitting around a table while eating tortillas and fried pork, and you instantly take notice of the chemistry and the way the band members interact with one another. Ana and Amharuc, the youngest, joke around with each other while Rodrigo and Lennin try to maintain control, though sometimes they allow their inner child to come out and play. And that´s what Pequeño Parlante is all about, expressing through everyday situations the emotions that we lock up inside of us.
Lennin Ortiz, who also plays with Monroy & Surmenage, while searching for a personal project to involve himself in, is the one responsible for putting this new lineup together. The band has been well received, not only by other bands but by the public as well. They presently have one album on the market with eight original songs, all written by Lennin throughout his musical trajectory but which are until now seeing the light of day through Pequeño Parlante.

The name of the band comes from the idea of creating a story for each song, creating characters like Dr. Parlante (Dr. Speaker) and Señor Molusco (Mr. Mollusk) and many more who will pop up as the band progresses. This is an important theme that resonates in all the bands publicity and visual elements. The fact that 17 year old Ana is the lead vocalist makes the band stand out even more since they are one of a few bands with a female vocalist. This

HECHO magazine hosted the launch of it´s 9th edition this past March 19 in San Juan del Sur, kicking things of with an itimate acoustic evening in the light of San Juan’s sunset at “EL TIMON” where the three featured bands gave attendees a taste of their music playing their most popular hits. Those in attendance received a free copy of the magazine that features Central-American surfing champion Rex Calderon illustrated with waves for hair on the cover. The magazine was also distributed by our staff outside of El Timon. DJ ZemoGregor closed out the evening with an eclectic mix of sounds that prepared the crowd for what HECHO had in store for that night. The real party happened later that night at Bambu Beach Club where a stage, metal structures and an insane light display, designed by Gaby Disco, made the concert a memorable one and easily one of our best events so far. CultraFolk, Peqeño Parlante and Diabizarro played the concert of their lives, confirming the success that precedes them and reaffirming their popularity. The staff want to thank our readers for making the 9th edition possible and we can´t wait to show you what we have in store for our next issue !!!

Wether its a packed house to see Momotombo or a chill night having drinks with friends the Reef is one of our favorite places in Managua. Congratulations!

Wednesday February 09th. DJ ZEMOGREGOR Electro Lounge
Thursday February 10th Momotombo kicks things off
Friday 11th the party continues with their VIP Edition
Saturday Monroy and Surmenage close it out

pictures by Silvio Balladares & Julio Molina F2.8

By Martin Mulligan, photography Christopher Sataua

The early 60’s became a milestone in the history of Nicaraguan Cigars. Cuban émigrés from the Pinar del Rio region came to Nicaragua with their prized tobacco seeds and technical knowledge. Over the next few years, the rudimentary cultivation of indigenous “chilagre” tobacco that had been practiced in the Jalapa Valley evolved, giving birth to what is today one of the most important tobacco growing areas in the world.

The history of cigars is full of ritualistic elements. Traced back to when Mayan priests blew smoke on the faces of warriors during ceremonies prior to battle, or be it in more modern times when Alliance members took to smoking while resolving their discrepancies during World War II.

Those were very intense meetings held between Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill. It was Churchill who always ended up breaking the ice by pulling a cigar out of his suit. “I drink a lot, sleep very little, and smoke cigar after cigar. That’s the reason why I’m at 200% most of the time,” said Churchill while referring himself to Marshall Montgomery.

Apparently Roosevelt learned his lesson and acquired the ritual of offering all visiting presidents to the White House a glass of cognac and a good cigar, aside from the customary cup of coffee.

And so it happened that for some decades the cigars offered in the White House were Cuban “Habanos”. It wasn’t until Lyndon B. Johnson became president, after Castro’s revolution and the consequent embargo on Cuba, that Joya de Nicaragua came to be noticed as one of the best selling cigars on the market.

(The Joya de Nicaragua factory in Estelí)

Legacies from Pinar del Rio

According to Nicaraguan Tobacco Association member Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, Cuba has been in charge of revealing the history of the Cigar to the world, and thus claiming it for itself.

The island’s natural resources, together with a good marketing strategy and the economic embargo, turned the Cuban Cigar into an attractive product within US borders; regarded by many as something resembling a “forbidden fruit.”

Eternalized with the help of iconic images of revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro, the Cigar became Cuba’s insignia. Although the Cigar industry dated back to the XIX century, developed by English and US industrialists after the island’s independence from Spain, it wasn’t until after the revolution that the Cuban Cigar gained its true notoriety and fame.

Nonetheless, the economic embargo prompted several exiled manufacturers to begin looking elsewhere for areas to grow. This is how many Cuban families arrived in Nicaragua, and were responsible for bringing with them the island’s tobacco seeds. The newcomers were welcomed by a special program from the Institute for National Development (INFONAC), which began working in the 60’s supporting the farming of tobacco.

Initially cultivated in the Jalapa Valley, the first crops were considered a failure, but as time progressed and the seeds slowly adapted to the soil and started delivering successful results. Test cultures were made in several other regions of the country with moderate success, but without a doubt, the best results remained in the northern lands, between the valleys of Esteli and Jalapa. The climate and soil conditions in this region were ideal for high quality tobacco, most of which was exported to the United States.

It was under these circumstances that a pair of young Cuban entrepreneurs, Juan Francisco Bernejo and Simon Camacho, concluded that if the region was conducive for the cultivation of tobacco, then it could be the same for manufacturing cigars. In 1968 they founded the first cigar factory in the country, which they called Nicaragua Cigars Company and created the first commercially available Nicaraguan brand on the market under the name Joya de Nicaragua.

By its own account, “Joya de Nicaragua” became the Official Cigar of the White House during the Nixon and Ford administrations. But not everything was as sweet as it seemed. During his visit to president Nixon at the White House in 1978, Anastasio Somoza noticed the huge success of “Joya de Nicaragua” and upon returning to Nicaragua he met with Camacho and gave him 48 hours to pay his debt to the Nicaraguan government.

Somoza hastily took 75% of the “Joya de Nicaragua” shares in exchange for eliminating Camacho’s debt. But soon after, Camacho decided to get rid of his remaining shares and establish himself in Honduras.

Afterwards, during the first Sandinista government, “Joya de Nicaragua” became nationalized property, and again went back to being privatized in the beginning of the 1990’s when Alejandro Martínez Cuenca bought the company, and thus began it’s fourth cycle.

Smoker Stereotype?

Hollywood has dedicated itself to creating this stereotype in which the cigar smoker is some sort of high-class, gangster, artist, or powerful influential character. But market research shows no such indication that this is true.

“They can come from very different social backgrounds. For example, there are more taxi drivers in New York that smoke cigars than there are bankers. And there are a lot more police officers that smoke than millionaires” says Alejandro Martínez Cuenca.

A Cigar’s Anatomy

“The art of enjoying a cigar not only consists of putting it to your mouth, it has to do with knowing how to distinguish certain tastes and combining tobaccos in order to achieve the desired results” – Alejandro Martínez Cuenca

The premium cigar is entirely hand-made. A premium is composed of three fundamental parts: the “capa” or outer layer, made up of different tonalities or colors, some darker that others, although not necessarily stronger. Within the outer layer is the “capote”, which is tougher and more rigid. It is the shield that protects the inside of the cigar. Finally there is the “tripa” or “guts” which we refer to the actual contents of the cigar, composed of three different leaves of the tobacco plant: the “ligero,” the “viso” and the “seco.” The “ligero” is the leaf that receives the most exposure to sunlight, giving it more nicotine content for a stronger taste. Then there is the “viso,” a leaf that is cut from the plant after 65 days, giving the cigar it’s unique aroma. And finally, the “seco” or dry leaf, which allows the cigar to burn.

These leaves are combined in different proportions in order to give a cigar it’s own unique identity. “A good cigar must have all three qualities, it must burn nicely, have a good aroma, and a solid taste,” says Martínez Cuenca.

The Cigar Industry in Nicaragua

There are currently 17 companies registered in the Nicaraguan Association of Tobacco, of these 12 manufacture Cigars. Among them we find Joya de Nicaragua, Drew Estate, Grupo Plasencia, Nacsa, STG, Cubanica, Oliva and more.
Other smaller companies manufacture the cigar boxes and the cellophane, both of which are very important contributors to the production process.

There are currently 10,500 acres of tobacco fields in Nicaragua, and according to the Central Nicaraguan Bank (BCN) exports from cigar production reach well over $20 million per year. It’s worth mentioning that the full magnitude of tobacco exports would reach $57 million if we would take into account tobacco sold to Foreign Trade Zones (Zona Franca).

“By minimizing the importation of tobacco we also minimize its importance, without realizing that this industry is a source of income for over 27 thousand families”, says Martínez.

There are nine Nicaraguan brands among the 25 best cigars in the world, according to a specialized ranking that Cigar Aficionado publishes every year. Padrón sits at the top of their list.

Both Cigar Insider and Cigar Aficionado magazines presented Padrón Cigars with their award for Best Tobacco of 2009 for its 45 Year Family Reserve Cigar, which obtained 95 points in their tobacco rankings. Cigar Aficionado described Padrón’s latest creation as an “absolutely brilliant” cigar.

The Nicaraguan cigar industry has had its ups and downs. But since the last recorded crisis in the late 1990’s the situation has gotten stronger, registering a 12% annual increment in exports. It is now known to be an industry with trajectory and quality. We Nicaraguans aren’t big cigar smokers, but consumers and tasters all throughout the world admire our tobacco.
***

By Ioel Molina (translated by Arcadio Rocha), photography by Christopher Sataua

In the midst of promoting their first album, “Ama tu Sangre” (Love Your Blood), I had the pleasure of talking to the professors of the Nicaraguan rock band, La Mano de Vidrio, and seeing things through their eyes.

I say “professors” because the first thing I noticed is that is how the band members, Edgar Aguilar (lead singer and guitar), Andres Centeno (bass), Jorge Lanzas (drums) and Osman Delgado (violin), refer to each other. Upon asking why “professor,” Edgar answers that it’s a matter of trust. For him, the sincerity of each member is what drives the band. They learn from each other because they are unafraid to speak their mind.

Each member’s influences and musical preferences couldn’t be more different, passing from pop to classical and, of course, rock. However, when it’s time to play as a band, all these backgrounds and influences converge, with each person putting part of their musical DNA into the sound.

Jorge is the rocker. When he plays, even if it’s a mellow song, he can’t help but put the weight of a rock drummer into his percussion. He confesses that he taught himself to play on a borrowed set of drums. He has now owned his own set for the past four years and says that every time he plays them “its as if he is talking to her.”

In Andre?s you can see a marked funk influence. It may be difficult to answer how you can extract a sensation or feeling from an instrument, but the bassist from La Mano de Vidrio simply answers: “I just do. I use my heart, my fingers and bass’s four chords.”

Osman’s background is in classical and folk music. His story with the violin began when he was 7 years old taking classes at the National School for Music. Not withstanding, Osman insists that the most important school for him “has been the streets.”

Finally, there’s Edgar, who’s soft guitar rhythms contrast perfectly with his deep voice. He is also the composer and author for the music and lyrics of “Ama tu Sangre.”

Monica Correa, the band’s manager and disc’s producer, says that producing the disc was an unforgettable experience, that can only compare to giving birth to a child.

Ama tu Sangre is a thematic album. The songs lyrics are meant to transmit a message of extreme positivity. Edgar says it in his lyrics, “there is nothing negative, there are no complaints, there are only incentives.”

“The album’s message is to rescue those things that we are losing, like love and all that goes with it,” says Edgar. “Like tickling, butterflies, and the sweat and flushed cheeks that appear when you’re standing in front of the person you love.”

As the name indicates, La Mano de Vidrio (‘The Glass Hand’ in Spanish), has a commitment to transparency. For the band, “loving your blood” means caring for and preserving your values and not leaving them behind as you travel through life.

Download ‘Quiero Ser’ from the album Ama Tu Sangre

Download HECHO 07

Bonanza Electronica is gonna be crazy. The stage area looks insane, with huge screens and projectors everywhere. German-based DJ’s Maral Salmassi and Zero Cash headline with Revuelta Sonora backing them up, but the real highlight is going to be Momotombo, Managua’s best band, doing it big on a stage worthy of their incredible sound and visuals. Any way you look at it, Bonanza promises to be one of the most memorable events of the year.

Find out more details on the Bonanza blog and check out the event on facebook.

Maral Salmassi – Fire Gem (Fukkk Offf Remix)
Momotombo – Boaco

Bonanza Electronica:

No Bonanza Electronica:

Download four free classic songs from Momotombo, as they prepare to finally release some of that new music we’ve all been fiending for. Check out the band live this Friday as part of Bonanza Electronica, October 15th at Galerias Santo Domingo, 8pm.

Desierto
Piensa Rapido
Boaco
DubDub