who worked as a cigar manufacturer in Miami, producing a brand called Antillian Cigars. Due to an aging population of experienced cigar-rollers (torcedores) and an increasingly unfavorable employment tax situation, the Sosa operation was joined with Quesada's brokerage, with Quesada handling manufacturing in the Dominican Republic while Sosa remained as the American distributor of the finished product. Establishment of Manufactura de Tabacos S.A. A new company was formed by Quesada to handle the manufacture of Antillian Cigars. This new firm, Manufactura de Tabacos, S.A. (commonly known by the acronym MATASA), was established in a new free trade zone in Santiago in June 1974. The company began as a small operation with "$100, a chair, and a phone," employing just three rollers. Soon there were 35 rollers producing the Fonseca and Sosa brands for Antillian. Total production in the first year was just 20,000 cigars. MATASA soon underwent a period of expansion, taking over the production of the Ricardo Samuel line on behalf of a major cigar wholesaler of the day, Faber, Coe & Gregg. Additional rollers were hired and trained and within a few years MATASA was producing over 1 million cigars per year. In addition to the products it made for others under contract, the company launched its own brand, called José Benito. Following the purchase of the non-Cuban version of the Romeo y Julieta brand by Hollco-Rohr, a contract was made with MATASA for production of the line in the Dominican Republic. The cash infusion associated with this expansion enabled MATASA to open its own box factory in 1978. In 1982, cigarmaker Santa Clara, Inc. contracted with MATASA for production of another 1 million cigars in its expanding Santiago operation. In 1984, a further contract was obtained for the production of the Licensiados brand. MATASA continued a period of steady growth for the rest of the decade of the 1980s. MATASA in the "Cigar Boom" For a period of about five years beginning at the end of 1992 the United States experienced a sudden and massive growth in the popularity of premium cigars. The mad demand associated with this so-called "Cigar Boom" taxed available stocks of every necessary component and pushed production to the limit. New brands and manufacturing facilities sprung up overnight in attempt to capitalize on the faddish demand for cigars in America. Whereas prior to the boom there were approximately a dozen cigar factories in