In 1961, the Francisco Donatién Factory in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba began producing cigars for domestic consumption, in addition to the cigarettes it had been producing for years. These cigars were commonly rolled for national banquets and other public affairs and became colloquially known as Vegueros, after the farmers and field hands that work on Cuba's tobacco and sugar cane plantations. The first people outside of Cuba to become acquainted with these cigars were tourists on sight-seeing trips through Cuba's cigar tobacco-growing regions. In 1997, Habanos SA launched the cigars for export.