La Violeta cigar factory

Diego Barrena was a Spaniard who arrived in Mexico with no money but amassed $10,000 selling maps in various parts of the country^{El Partido Liberal, Tomo XVII, Núm. 2749, 15 May 1894}. Before 1894 had worked for many years producing cigars, with his “La Crema” brand sold in La Lidia, at 3a calle de San Francisco, Mexico City^{El Noticioso, 13 May 1894}.He had acquired the “La Crema” trademark on 3 June 1886 and in 1891 was unsuccessfully sued in a trademark dispute^{El Foro, Tomo XXXVII, Año XXIX, Núm. 132, 18 July 1891}. He then ran a shoe store on the ground floor of the Casino Español^{El Noticioso, 13 May 1894}.

However, in 1894, he was involved in an operation counterfeiting about $400,000 worth of 50c stamps of the Renta Interior. The scheme was uncovered when someone asked the Administración General del Timbre whether he could buy 50c stamps which were being offered to various casas de comercio at a 10% discount. The authorities then discovered that several establishments had bought these stamps which, on expert examination, were found to be false.

On 14 May 1894 a decree suspended the sale of 50c stamps for the rest of the fiscal year, and it was ordered that all such stamps should be collected, with the good stamps replaced with stamps of different values.

Diego Barrena was arrested and held incommunicado in the Belén prison^{El Noticioso, 13 May 1894}. In June 1894 he (together with Clemente Xicoy and Francisco B. Chávez) was found guilty and sentenced to four years eight months in prison and a fine of three hundred and fifty pesos^{El Tiempo, 8 June 1894}.

He obviously made good use of his time in prison because on 20 July 1898 he married Cristina Muñoz Campuzano, daughter of Col. Pedro Muñoz Campuzano, “the popular warden of Belem prison”^{The Mexican Herald, vol. V, no. 323, 21 July 1898}.