José Martí and cigar workers on the steps of V.V. Ybor's factory, 1893
Imagine my surprise this morning, when my usual Sunday
reading of the NYT's brought my heritage and city to the masses.
My ancestors came from Spain and Italy and settled in Florida many generations ago. They settled in a small area on the west coast. They weren't the only ones. There was a small enclave of Spanish, Italians and Cubans living in a small insular community with our own languages and customs. Soon our little area was a bustling center for Spanish, Italian and Cuban culture set amongst a waspish cracker majority.
Today the NYT's is exploring the early Cuban influence in the Tampa Bay area and how that influence is preparing the way for the normalization of relations with Cuba. What the
article doesn't mention is that the early Cubans coming to Tampa Bay were made comfortable because there was already a flourishing Latin culture brought here by the early Spanish and Italian immigrants.
Later, when the influx of Cuban refugees from Castro's revolution arrived in Florida they primarily settled in the Miami area. Some did come to the Tampa Bay area where they rapidly assimilated into the thriving Latin culture. Because of this assimilation the Cuban refugees who settled in the Tampa Bay area have historically shown less animosity toward Castro then those in the Miami area.
TAMPA, Fla. — Decades before Miami danced to a Cuban rhythm, Tampa’s Ybor City grew up and got rich to the sounds of Cuban-inflected Spanish as thousands of workers rolled cigars by day and plotted the island’s independence from Spain by night.
The city was America’s first touchstone for Cubans from the island. José Martí, the poet and the hero of Cuban independence, visited often during the 1890s to plan insurrection and to raise money from the successful cigar barons and their employees. A young Fidel Castro retraced Martí’s steps in the 1950s, hoping for a similar infusion of money and inspiration to boost his own revolution. Later on, exiles and former Cuban political prisoners streamed in, escaping Mr. Castro’s Communist grip.
I grew up hearing the stories of how these different Latin cultures became assimilated in this small pocket of heated political activism on Florida's west coast.
In fostering closer ties to Cuba — a stance some here embraced long before President Obama’s December announcement — Tampa is positioning itself to one day reap the economic benefits of helping rebuild the crumbling country. Tampa’s port allows for a straight shot to Havana’s, giving it a major advantage if the United States lifts its economic embargo. Beyond that, city officials want to begin mending the historical kinship and once-powerful economic links between Cuba and Tampa that reach back more than six generations.
“You can’t write the history of Cuba without Tampa, and you can’t write the history of Tampa without Cuba,” said Patrick Manteiga, who runs La Gaceta, a daily newspaper. “This relationship between Tampa and Cuba means a lot here.”
La Gaceta — which publishes in English, Spanish and Italian — was founded in 1922 in Ybor City by Mr. Manteiga’s grandfather Victoriano, who was Cuban and once a lector who read to cigar workers as they worked.
I have ambivalent feelings about the opening of Cuba bringing even more economic prosperity to my area. Yes, there is poverty in Cuba but, they have proven resilience and sustainability without destroying their environment. We have much to learn from them. I hope their new relationship with the US doesn't prove to be their undoing as the multi-nationals try to carve out their piece of the Cuban pie.