Ernest “Papa” Hemmingway sported one famously. And so did, at one or another, U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama. Guayabera shirts have long been identified with the people of Cuba and other Caribbean, Central American, and Southeast Asian countries. They have been associated with a sort of casual, elegance that allow the wearer to don this four-pocketed, loosely worn shirt on both formal and informal occasions. So popular are the shirts that they exist in one form or another in several different iterations. In the Dominican Republic they are called “chacabana” shirts. In Jamaica they are known as “bush jackets” and so forth and so on. Hence, begins the many versions of how the guayabera came to be. Here are few of the guayabera’s origin stories. The Cuban Origin Story The Cuban version of the guayabera’s history is that they originated around 1893. The tale goes like this: a poor seamstress sewed large patch pockets on her husband’s shirt so that he would be better able to carry guavas home from the field in which he worked. In another iteration of the same story, it is claimed that the wife of a Spanish immigrants from Granada named Encarnación Núñez García made the shirt for her husband so that he could carry the items that he used while working such as writing tools, cigars, etc. The Pilipino Origin Story Some believe that the shirt originated in the Philippines and made its way to Cuba via Mexico. There the shirt is called the barong. However, the barong does not resemble the guayabera much in that it has no large pockets and the embroidery on it is very different. As a result of these obvious differences, many scholars doubt that the barong and the guayabera were ever the same shirt. There are other origin stories surrounding the guayabera as well. No matter which story you believe, the fact remains that the Cuban guayabera is often imitated but seldom duplicated. Our shirts stay perfectly faithful to those guayaberas worn all over Mexico City. They match the comfort, simple charm and old world craftsmanship that have caused several cultures to claim ownership to this universally admired piece of clothing. Our styles are for both men and women, old and young. Wear a piece of history even if that history is the subject of debate.