Beginning in Havana in 1865, workers in cigar factories devised a way to keep their minds active and engaged during long hours of monotonous labor: they began paying a reader, or lector, to read aloud as they went about their delicate and precise work.

The workers of a factory generally elected a committee who would hold auditions for lectors and pay them with contributions from each worker’s pay. To be selected as a lector, a candidate needed to have excellent pronunciation and oratorical skills, and be capable of acting out multiple parts.

The lector sat on an elevated platform and read from sources selected by the workers, from Cuban and American newspapers to classic literature such as Don Quixote and The Count of Monte Cristo.

If a reading was particularly well-received, the workers would rap their knives on their cutting boards as a form of applause.