杰内罗索·埃罗阿（Generoso Eiroa）（上图左一）在烟草行业工作了70年，几乎在主要的雪茄生产国都工作过，从古巴到多米尼加共和国。12月3日，他在洪都拉斯去世，享年86岁。他是CLE雪茄公司克里斯蒂安·埃罗阿（Christian Eiroa）的伯父，是JRE烟草公司朱利奥·埃罗阿（Julio Eiroa）的哥哥。

克里斯蒂安·埃罗阿在一封情真词切的感谢信里怀念叔叔照顾小时候的自己，那时候克里斯蒂安只有三岁。当时他生活在洪都拉斯，不小心被严重烧伤。叔叔杰内罗索抱着克里斯蒂安去医院治疗。后来克里斯蒂安在杰内罗索的家里住了几个月，进行康复治疗。每天杰内罗索都会到克里斯蒂安的房间陪伴他，给他折一架纸飞机。克里斯蒂安的父亲朱利奥·埃罗阿1977年在一次飞机飞行事故中部分瘫痪，杰内罗索继续照顾克里斯蒂安和他的家人一段时间。

杰内罗索·埃罗阿16岁的时候就开始工作，当时在古巴的科罗霍胜利农场（La Victoria del Corojo tobacco farm）种植烟叶，作为家庭的长子，他一直在照顾母亲维多利亚和两个弟弟朱利奥和弗朗西斯科。1960年，他前往美国的佛罗里达州，在坦帕工作。1962年，又前往尼加拉瓜在烟草农场工作。1964年，他到了洪都拉斯的贾马斯特兰河谷，和弟弟朱利奥一起种植烟草。

克里斯蒂安·埃罗阿回忆道，当时他们住在一个小屋里，只有三个灯泡，还要一台小发电机，发电机晚上八点就会停止工作。条件很艰苦，他们就这样节约下每一分钱，一直坚持到1970年代末。杰内罗索做事有条理，即使在晚年，也会经常用铅笔记账。

1980年，杰内罗索搬到了多米尼加的圣地亚哥，在那里加入了环球烟叶公司（Universal Leaf）的一个子公司 INETAB，负责该公司的深色风干烟叶。2000年他从 INETAB退休。

埃罗阿家族以生产雪茄著称，朱利奥和克里斯蒂安共同生产卡马乔（Camacho）品牌的雪茄，克里斯蒂安自己创建了 C.L.E.雪茄公司，并生产C.L.E.雪茄、Chele（男孩）、Prieto（普列托）、25周年等品牌的雪茄。这些雪茄使用的烟叶都是洪都拉斯种植的科罗霍烟叶。如今，朱利奥和克里斯蒂安仍然在洪都拉斯的贾马斯特兰河谷种植烟叶。

谈到杰内罗索，克里斯蒂安说，即使去医院看望叔叔时，叔叔还在沟通从克里斯蒂安那里采购一批茄芯烟叶的工作。

杰内罗索·埃罗阿留有妻子伯蒂卡，以及四个孩子：格尼托、玛丽、维姬、豪尔赫。他还有两个弟弟：朱利奥、弗朗西斯科。此外还有八个孙子（外孙）和一个曾孙。

附参考文章：

Generoso Eiroa, who spent 70 years working in the tobacco business in just about every major tobacco-producing country, from Cuba to the Dominican Republic, died on Friday. He was 86 years old. He was the uncle of cigarmaker Christian Eiroa, and the brother of tobacco grower Julio Eiroa.

In a heartfelt note, Christian remembered how his uncle cared for him when he was only three years old, living in Honduras and badly burned. “My mother tells me the story of how he carried me to the hospital in his arms,” he wrote. “I spent months at his house in Tegucigalpa recovering and every day he would come in to my room and make me a paper airplane.” Generoso went on to care for Christian and his family later, when Julio Eiroa, Generoso’s brother and Christian’s father, was partially paralyzed in a plane crash in 1977.

Generoso Eiroa began working around tobacco when he was 16, running the La Victoria del Corojo tobacco farm in Cuba. “Being the eldest of the family, it was up to him to take care of my grandmother, Victoria and his two little brothers, Julio and Francisco,” said Christian Eiroa. Generoso would go to Tampa, Florida in 1960, and then to Nicaragua in 1962, working on tobacco farms. In 1964 he moved to Jamastran, Honduras, joining his younger brother, Julio on a tobacco farm.

“They lived in a shack with three lightbulbs and a generator which would get shut down at 8 p.m. every night so they could save every penny. My father and uncle would work together until the late ’70s. Tio Gene was extremely organized and was known to keep a ledger in pencil, even in his later years.”

In 1980, Generoso moved to Santiago, Dominican Republic where we went to work with INETAB, a division of Universal Leaf, running the company’s dark, air-cured tobacco. He retired from INETAB in 2000.

Cigar tobacco runs strong in the Eiroa family. Julio and Christian made Camacho and other cigars together, and Christian now owns C.L.E. Cigar Co., making such cigar brands as C.L.E. Chele, Prieto and 25th Anniversary, all of which feature Honduran Corojo-seed tobacco. Julio and Christian still grow tobacco in the Jamastran Valley of Honduras.

“He never left the tobacco business,” said Christian of his uncle. “Even as I visited him in the hospital, he was coordinating the last containers of filler I had purchased from him.”

Generoso Eiroa is survived by his wife, Bertica; by his children Genito, Mary, Vicky and Jorge; his brothers Julio and Francisco; eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.