Bernardo Vega

Date of Birth: 1885

Date of Death: 1965

Cigar maker and writer. Bernardo Vega was born in Farallón near Cayey, Puerto Rico, and died in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is best known for his work Memoirs of Bernardo Vega (1977). The title is quite misleading as it is not a memoir of Vega's life; rather it is a memoir of Puerto Rican life in New York between the late 1800s and the 1940s from the viewpoint of a socialist cigar maker. Vega had many occupations throughout his life, including bookkeeper, postal worker, and editor in chief. But the occupation that defined Vega and the one he returned to throughout his life was cigar maker. He picked up this trade as a young boy and took immense pride in it. As a cigar maker, he was considered part of the intellectual sector of the working class because cigar makers often had someone read to them as they worked.