Cuba cigar factory 'readers' keep oral tradition smoking

(AFP) Perched on a wooden dais in front of 600 workers rolling Cuba's legendary cigars, Grisel reads aloud -- poems, novels and even sex tips from the newspaper -- keeping workers entertained, their attention rapt, just the way it has been done for 150 years.
Grisel, 55, a petite former teacher who wears reading glasses she adjusts frequently, may have a job that predates electricity. But nobody in Cuba seems to have any interest in replacing her with a transistor radio or TV. Continued