TY - JOUR AU - Rovetto, Pedro PY - 2012/12/29 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The tobacco gardens JF - Colombia Medica JA - Colomb Med VL - 43 IS - 4 SE - Windows to History DO - 10.25100/cm.v43i4.1265 UR - https://colombiamedica.univalle.edu.co/index.php/comedica/article/view/1265 SP - 312 AB - <p class="Pa3">In 2008 it was closed and dismantled the spectacular Duke Gar­dens near Princeton University. They were created by the famous heiress Doris Duke, in honor of her father, James Buchanan Duke. This last gentleman caused 100-million deaths during the 20th century. The gardens mentioned demonstrated, perhaps trivially, what was stated by philosopher Walter Benjamin: There has never been a document of culture, which is not simultaneously one of barbarism”.</p> <p class="Pa3">“Buck” Duke was the inventor of the modern cigarette. By the end of the 20th century, this astute manufacturer entered the instantly ready-to-smoke tobacco market (without having to roll in small pieces of paper or cut off the cigarette tips) with the automated production of cigarettes. Without a cigarette maker like Carmen from opera by Bizet who rolled a maximum of 200 cigarettes per day, the machine he perfected with a mechanic named Bonsack produced 120,000 “cigarettes” during the same time. Thereby, rea­ching a oversupply that had to be sold – creating a demand for it.</p> <p>The solution was cigarette marketing and advertising. These were placed in restaurants, bars, and cigar stores; thus, making them an important part of the worker’s period of rest and dining. Although, in principle, they were associated to women of free morals (“Smo­king is a great sensual pleasure. While smoking, I a wait for the man I love …” sang Sarita Montiel in the 1950s) in a stroke of clever advertising these were transformed into symbols of women’s libe­ration. Toward the late 1920s, young women were seen marching and brandishing their freedom torches, the cigarettes. During the two world wars, cigarettes were distributed to hundreds of thou­sands of soldiers as part of their daily nutritional ration. During the immediate post-war, packs of Camel and Lucky Strike were the most used Exchange currency in Europe. With all these publi­city maneuvers, Mr. Duke and his partners have caused, as we al­ready stated, over 100-million deaths throughout the world; more than Hitler and Stalin together.</p> ER -