PCA Magazine Winter 2020

62 PCA The Magazine | WINTER 2020 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG F Who We Are | BY LUC I ANO ME I RELLES, Co - Founde r, A .C . E . Pr ime, PCA AMAB Membe r Last Word FOR MANY YEARS, I did not have a close relationship withmy brother. Our lives had taken us to different places. A phone call on Feb. 21, 2008, the samemorning of my youngest daughter’s birthday, changed our lives forever. Mymother had a devastating stroke. Three-quarters of the right hemisphere of her brain were affected. She had a 10 percent chance of survival, and the brain damage was permanent. Nomore walking, talking or evenmoving. I would never listen tomymother singing with her beautiful voice. I would never again hear her wise counsel. Her pain and suffering brought my brother andme back together. We fought together. We cried together. We found solutions together. Our differences were forgotten. We became a team. Let’s stop and think about our virtues, about our social and emotional skills. Most of themweren’t developed through sophisticated training or years of study. They were built at home—sometimes in hard times, sometimes though tough conversations around a dinner table, sometimes by cooking together or simply playing with friends in the backyard. I believe our best qualities are born froma persistent willingness to sacrifice comfort and convenience to help each other. From the small needs of everyday life to extreme situations, wemove forward through generosity. Wemove forward when we choose to see the accomplishments of others instead of their mistakes. When others fail, we shouldn’t be passive. We should help them start over. We should care for them. We should show them love. Maybe that’s not a traditional business model. Rarely do organizations supplant self-centered or purely financial interests in favor of mutual benefit. Deep inside all of us we want to belong, to be together, to celebrate together and fight together—even suffer together. That’s love: love for each other and for the values that unite us. It is the feeling of serving the greater good—a divine force that brings out the best of our human nature. Here are good examples: Many years ago I met my friend Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. Ernie befriendedme without expecting anything in return. Hemademe feel accepted in the premium cigar tribe ( mi Padriño !). Ernie’s passion for premium cigars capturedmy heart. His willingness to teach, tomentor and to truly invest time for the sake of the art was astounding. I alsomet Eradio Pichardo, who welcomedme as his brother. As a fourth-generation tobacco agriculturalist, Pichardo never stoppedmentoringme. He didn’t have to do any of this. His generosity grew out of his passion to teach the sacred art of tobacco. A few years later I had the privilege to bementored by the late Arsenio Ramos. His willingness to pass on his knowledge demonstrated his altruistic and passionate heart. It revealed his true passion for our premium cigar brotherhood. Hemademe understand that what we call “the tobacco industry” is actually a great household, driven by passion and dedication, where themain objective is to perpetuate a culture and a lifestyle. I believe, from the bottomof my heart, that sustaining families inNicaragua, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Honduras, as well asMiami and Chicago, is far more important than personal financial success. I believe this to be the sentiment for most of my colleagues as well. In early February, as a newmember of the Associate Members Advisory Board (AMAB) to PCA, I had the privilege to sit withmy colleaguesMike Conder, Alan Rubin, Christian Eiroa and Rocky Patel with the PCA Board to think about the future of PCA. I witnessed passionatemen willing to sacrifice their time and resources for the collective well-being of our society— for both retailers andmanufacturers. Together withmy colleagues of the AMAB, CRA and PCA, wemet to focus our message on what really