Lesson D-6
Cubans Immigrate to Ybor City
By Delphine Kendrick, Jewett Academy
I.
Lesson Summary
Summary
Florida had an early interest in Cuba. Cigar makers in Key West and Tampa got their tobacco from
Cuba. Vicente Martinez Ybor was thriving with his successful tobacco business. He then brought this
business to Florida. Numerous jobs and a diverse way of life arrived in the Tampa area. The Spanish
rulers in Cuba became so harsh; Cubans looked for ways to free themselves from these rulers. Many
Cubans escaped to Florida’s Ybor City to find that freedom. This revolution brought the Cubans along
with their traditions and skills to boost a successful economic system.
Objectives
Students will:
1.) create a timeline for Florida from 1880 to 1960
2.) describe the jobs and/or skills brought by the Cuban immigrants
3.) identify reasons why Cubans came to Ybor City
4.) identify the 3 Spaniards responsible for establishing Ybor City, Florida
5.) describe ways the Cubans in Florida helped during the Spanish-American War
US History Event
This lesson could be used with any unit that highlights the Age of Immigration in America (1880s-1920s),
the Spanish-American War, or one that shows the diversity and economic growth of a city.
Grade Level
This lesson can be implemented into the middle school Social Studies class.
Materials
Transparency of a Florida map with Cuba (can be found at
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/printpage/carribbean.htm or
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/printpage/namerica.htm); a copy of Reading 1
("The History of Ybor City") and discussion questions for each student (from
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts1.htm); a copy of Reading 2 (“Ybor City,
Jose’ Marti, and the Spanish American War”) and discussion questions for each student (from
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts3.htm); an overhead transparency of
Picture D-6-3, depicting factory workers and including questions (in the “Activities section, and found at
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51visual3.htm); and a copy of “Los Lectores” for
each student.
Lesson Time
This lesson could be implemented and discussed in two 45 minute classes.
II.
Lesson Procedures
Procedures
Day 1
1.) Preview: as students enter the classroom, display a transparency of Picture D-6-1 and have students
answer the following question: “What island nation is found just 90 miles south of Florida?” After students
have had sufficient time to answer the question, display a transparency of Picture D-6-2 and have students
answer this question: “Why do you think that most Cuban immigrants to America in the late 19th century
chose Florida for settlement?” Allow time for discussion.
Picture D-6-1: map of the Caribbean Sea
Picture D-6-2: map of North America
*Maps found at
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/printpage/carribbean.htm (D-6-1) and
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/printpage/namerica.htm (D-6-2)
2.) Display Picture D-6-3 (found at
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51visual3.htm
) and have students do the following:
a. Divide the photo into quadrants with a pen or marker and
examine each quadrant closely (Note: you may want to tape a
large piece of white butcher paper to the front of the room and
project the image as a transparency, or pair students and give
each pair a copy of the picture). Have students list their
observations about the workers and the factory itself.
b. Point out the man sitting in the chair in the top right quadrant; this
man is called el lector. This man is hired to read to the workers
for part of the workday. Have students answer the question,
“What might the lector be reading to the workers?”
c. Answer the question, “Do you think you would have liked to work
here? Why or why not?”
Picture D-6-3: Ybor City cigar makers
3.) After about 5 to 8 minutes, students discuss their answers to Picture D-6-3 in small teams. The teacher
will then explain to the student that the photo is a cigar factory located in nearby Ybor City, circa 1925. The
teacher will tell the students that in the 1880s, three prominent Spaniards came to the “New World” and
established what would soon become Ybor City. The teacher will explain that Vicente Martínez Ybor
worked as a salesman in Cuba and then started his own cigar factory in Havana, Cuba.
4.) The teacher will then explain the Cuban revolution and how Ybor looked for a new location for his factory
because of the harsh treatment he received from Cuban rulers.
5.) Pass out the “Reading 1;” students will then read the passage “The History of Ybor City.” After reading this
students will be able to identify at least three reasons why Ybor and his Cuban workers came to the Tampa
area. Students can then answer questions at the end of the reading assignment.
Day 2
6.) Students review reasons Cuban immigrants came to Ybor City. The teacher will pass out Reading 2. The
teacher will prepare the students for the reading by explaining how the immigrants in Ybor City used their
skills to help during the Spanish-American War. Students will read and answer the questions at the end of
the reading.
7.) Optional Assignments: 1.) Students read “Los Lectores” and answer the discussion questions; 2.)
students could research the life of the Cuban immigrants in Ybor city; bakeries and society living. Student
could also research the economic change in Ybor City because of: the change of regime in Cuba under
Castro in the 1959-1960 and the subsequent ban on Cuban tobacco; urban renewal; and second and third
generations becoming more Americanized and leaving the cultural traditions of their parents and
grandparents behind.
III.
Activities
Reading 1: The History of Ybor City
Ybor City, a section of the large metropolitan area of Tampa, Florida, owes its beginning to three
Spaniards who came to the "New World" in the 19th century: Gavino Gutierrez, Vicente Martinez Ybor,
and Ignacio Haya. Ybor immigrated to Cuba in 1832, at the age of 14. He worked as a clerk in a grocery
store, then as a cigar salesman, and in 1853 he started his own cigar factory in Havana. Labor unrest, the
high tariff on Cuban cigars, and the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1868 caused Ybor to move his plant
and his workers to Key West, Florida. While his business there was successful, labor problems and the
lack of a good fresh water supply and a transportation system for distributing his products led him to
consider moving his business to a new location.
Gavino Gutierrez came to the United States from Spain in 1868. He settled in New York City, but he
traveled often–to Cuba, to Key West, and to the small town of Tampa, Florida, searching for exotic fruits
such as mangoes and guavas. During a visit to Key West in 1884, he convinced Ybor and Ignacio Haya,
a cigar factory owner from New York who was visiting Ybor, to travel to Tampa to investigate its potential
for cigar manufacturing. That same year Henry Bradley Plant, a businessman from Connecticut, had
completed a rail line into Tampa and was in the process of improving the port facility for his shipping lines.
These methods of transportation would make it easy to import tobacco from Cuba as well as distribute
finished products. Tampa also offered the warm, humid climate necessary for cigar manufacturing, and a
freshwater well.
After visiting Tampa in 1885, both Haya and Ybor decided to build cigar factories in the area.
Gutierrez surveyed an area two miles from Tampa, even drawing up a map to show where streets might
run. Ybor purchased 40 acres of land and began to construct a factory. He continued to manufacture
cigars in Key West as well, until a fire destroyed his factory there in 1886. Afterwards, Ybor spent all of his
time on his operations in the Tampa area. At age 68, Ybor began developing a company town "with the
hope of providing a good living and working environment so that cigar workers would have fewer
grievances against owners."
There had been Spanish and Cuban fishermen in the Tampa region before Spain ceded Florida to the
United States in 1819, but the city had grown slowly. As late as 1880, the population was only about 700.
In 1887 when the city of Tampa incorporated Ybor City into the municipality, the population increased to
more than 3,000. By 1890 the population of Tampa was about 5,500. Most residents made their living
from cigar making, while the occupations of many other workers revolved around the cigar trade. For
example, some workers made the attractive wooden cigar boxes in which the hand-rolled cigars were
shipped and which, in most American homes, came to be used for holding keepsakes. Other workers
made cigar bands, pieces of paper around each cigar denoting its brand, which once were collected by
children all over the country.
Ybor City developed as a multiethnic community where English was a second language for many of its
citizens. Cubans made up the largest group, about 15 percent of them were African Cubans. Next were
the Spaniards, who came in large numbers after 1890. Together these two groups dominated the cigar
industry and set the cultural tone for the community. Ybor City also attracted Italians, mostly Sicilians,
who had first come to work in the sugar cane fields in Louisiana. Some Italians worked in the cigar
industry, but many operated restaurants and small businesses or farmed for a living. Most became
bilingual in Italian and Spanish. Other immigrants included Germans, Romanian Jews, and a small
number of Chinese. The Germans contributed to the cigar industry through their superb cigar box art. The
lithographs incorporated into their cover designs were considered the best in the world. Romanian Jews
and Chinese immigrants worked mainly in retail businesses and in service trades.
Ybor City eventually outproduced Havana as a manufacturing center of quality cigars. Both Ybor and
Haya offered plant sites and other incentives to lure other major cigar factory owners away from Cuba
and Key West. There were also hundreds of small cigar making shops. By 1900 Tampa's Ybor City had
become known as the "Cigar Capital of the World." Nearby West Tampa also profited from Ybor City's
success. By 1895 it had 10 cigar factories of its own, and it also supported additional box making and
label printing factories.
Ybor City continued to grow and prosper through the 1920s and into the 1930s. Several factors soon
converged to bring about hard times, however. Cigarette consumption began to grow, a major depression
struck the nation, and improved machinery for rolling cigars began to produce a product comparable in
workmanship to the hand-rolled variety. At first, these machineproduced cigars could find little market
because the hand-rolled "Havana" type cigar had such a good reputation. Then the producers of the
machine-made cigars launched a notorious "spit" campaign. In their advertisements they falsely claimed
that human saliva played a major role in the production of hand-manufactured cigars.
The combined effect of the "spit campaign," the Great Depression, and the growing popularity of
cigarettes finally changed Ybor City. Large factories either mechanized or went out of business. As
machines took over for people, many of Ybor City's residents moved elsewhere in Tampa to find work.
Between 1930 and 1940, some Cubans left the city and returned to their homeland.
In the 1960s Ybor City was split apart by an urban renewal project. Seventy acres of the old city were
leveled, including several hundred houses, one mutual aid society building, and a fire station. An
interstate highway took up part of the leveled ground, but the rest was never redeveloped because
federal funds and private investments did not materialize. This destruction did have one positive effect,
however. Years later, it prompted a number of civic organizations to band together to preserve what
remained of the city's historic buildings and ethnic heritage.
Questions for Reading 1
1. Why did Vicente Martinez Ybor leave Cuba to start a cigar factory in Key West, Florida? What
factors caused him to relocate a second time to Tampa, Florida?
2. Have any industries moved into or out of your community recently? What factors caused
them to do so?
3. How was Gavino Gutierrez influential in establishing Ybor City?
4. What was the approximate percent of growth in Tampa from 1880 to 1890? How does this
demonstrate the impact of the cigar industry on Tampa? What would be some of the positive
and negative impacts if your community grew at a similar rate over the next 10 years?
5. What factors caused Ybor City's cigar-making industry to decline?
Reading 2: Ybor City, José Martí, and the Spanish–American War
It has been said that the revolutionary activities that took place in Ybor City in the late 1880s and the
1890s caused the Spanish-American War of 1898. Although that may be an exaggeration, the immigrant
Cuban population in the city was deeply involved in Cuba's efforts to free itself from Spain.
Resenting their Spanish rulers who had become increasingly harsh, the Cuban people began sporadic
rebellions as early as the 1860s. Some of the people who immigrated to Ybor City in the late 1880s were
in exile because of their participation in such activities. Because of their proximity to Cuba, Ybor City and
Key West became major centers for those who pushed for Cuba's independence. The lectors in the cigar
factories often read from revolutionary newspapers and the cigar factory workers supported the revolution
with cash donations.
Into this receptive climate came the great revolutionary known as the "George Washington of Cuba."
José Martí, born in Cuba in 1853, was a teacher and a writer who advocated the overthrow of the
Spanish who controlled his native land. He was exiled twice–in 1871 and again in 1879. From 1881 to
1895, Martí lived in New York City where he spent most of his time writing poetry, essays, and newspaper
articles in support of Cuban freedom.
Martí often made long visits to Ybor City. On November 26 and 27, 1891, he delivered two speeches
there—Con Todos Y Para Todos ("With All and For All"), and Los Pinos Nuevos ("The New Growth")—
which outlined the goals of the United Cuban Revolutionary Party. Both speeches were reproduced in
newspapers and journals in the United States and Cuba and inflamed Cuban desire for independence. In
1893 Martí delivered the speech that many feel led directly to war. More than 10,000 Cubans jammed into
a small outdoor area in front of the V.M. Ybor Cigar Factory, punctuating Martí's speech with cries of
"Cuba Libre!" (Free Cuba!) Following that rousing evening, workers from all the factories pledged to give
one day's pay a week to the revolutionary fund. Hundreds of cigar makers and other workers formed
infantry companies to begin preparing themselves for battle. From the revolutionary fund they bought a
few rifles and some ammunition, as well as many machetes–a weapon with a sharp blade that is a cross
between a sword and an axe. Martí returned to Cuba with a small army of these men and led the
insurrection of 1895. Martí and many members of his Ybor City army died in a skirmish. Their deaths
further inflamed public opinion against Spain.
Newspapers across the country emblazoned Martí's efforts in huge headlines and detailed stories. His
death brought more pressure for full-scale revolution with help from the United States. When the U.S.
declared war against Spain in 1898, American troops passed through the port of Tampa on their way to
Cuba, and many Cuban immigrants were part of that army. Martí was still so revered as a great Cuban
freedom fighter many years later that when Fidel Castro imposed a dictatorship on Cuba in 1958, the U.S.
government named its shortwave radio broadcasts to Cuba "Radio Martí."
Questions for Reading 3
1. Who was José Martí, and why was he considered to be a martyr to the cause of Cuba's
freedom?
2. How did Martí's work in Ybor City help the Cuban revolutionary cause?
3. Why was it logical that American troops embarked for Cuba from Tampa, Florida?
Overhead Transparency D-6-1
Student Worksheet D-6-1
Directions: Closely examine the photograph below with a partner. Then, answer the three questions below
the photograph.
1. Divide the photo into four quadrants with a pen or marker and examine each quadrant closely. List any
observations you and your partner make about the workers and the factory itself.
2. Look at the man sitting in the chair in the top right quadrant; this man is called el lector. This man is
hired to read to the workers for part of the workday. What might the lector be reading to the workers?
3. Do you think you would have liked to work here? Why or why not?
“Los Lectores” -- (from Ybor City Chronicles: A Memoir)
*Growing up in Ybor City during the Great Depression and World War II provided Dr. Ferdie Pacheco
memories to last a lifetime. Many of these formative moments were written down by Dr. Pacheco and
made into a semi-autobiographical book, Ybor City Chronicles. In the following passage, Dr. Pacheco
remembers “los lectores,” the lectors that were hired by cigar factory workers to read to them through
much of the day. Lectors were generally well-educated, and highly respected by the people of Ybor City.
However, as the cigar industry began to wane in the 1930s, many lectors fell on hard times. As the story
picks up here, the then-14-year-old Dr. Pacheco is working as a waiter in the café of the world-famous
Columbia Restaurant in downtown Ybor City.
Don Victoriano Manteiga was a tall man in a city of small people. At least it seemed so to me, as I brought him
a café solo at the Columbia Café. He always sat by the window so that the sunshine would illuminate material he
had brought with him to read. He seldom wasted time in conversation. People so respected him that he just had
to nod when addressed, and returned to his reading. He was not aloof, but distant. He lived in his own world.
The lectores (readers) in the cigar factories were employed to read to the workers as they made cigars. The
owners threw them out after the Big Strike of 1931 because they had committed the outrage of reading tracts
about workers’ rights. The angry owners had responded by barring them from the factories. Many lectors
returned to Cuba to read in the cigar factories there. Some opened cafes or other businesses, but only a very few
remained as disseminators of information. Don Victoriano Manteiga was one of the most distinguished and
respected of all the lectors. But he had several advantages. He was tall, handsome, and distinguished. He had
a full, rich voice which could be heard over the sound of 500 chavetas (knives) cutting tobacco leaves. From a
high perch in the middle of the hall he read in his sonorous voice the works of Zola, Cervantes, and Moliere. His
command of the Spanish language was perfect. He was incapable of dishonesty. His opinions were arrived at
only after careful study. He was Ybor City’s resident intellectual.
What constituted an intellectual in Ybor City? Don Victoriano did. An intellectual’s work was his brain. No one
ever saw him lift a finger at hard labor. His hands were soft and pink. He was always correctly dressed in a coat
and tie. His clothes were immaculately clean and pressed, and his shoes shone to perfection. He never wasted
time in coffee-shop chisme (gossip) because he utilized every moment reading to seek knowledge.
At the other extreme was a man nicknamed Pan con Chinches, who was a regular at the Columbia Café. He
had also worked as a lector in a cigar factory. One day, while reading a text to the workers Pan con Chinches
had come upon the phrase “pan con timbas.” That was a name for a common sandwich that poor people ate
when funds were low. It consisted of guava paste and a slice of the cheapest cheese on Cuban bread. It was
also called a “Don Alonzo.” On this unfortunate day the lector misread it, and it came out “pan con chinches,” or
“bread and bedbugs.” Great was the laughter and derision that followed, and the name stuck. Incensed at
becoming the butt of their jokes, Pan con Chinches quit his job as a lector.
Many years later, Pan con Chinches became the most spectacular of all of the Columbia Café regulars. Living
off of the charity of Big Lawrence Hernandez (the owner of the Columbia Restaurant) and his brother, Casimiro,
who ran the day-to-day operations of the Columbia Restaurant, Pan con Chinches was a walking sound machine.
He had advanced heart disease, with valvular damage, emphysema, and advanced congestive heart failure—a
walking dustbin of a man who slept in doorways long before it was fashionable. He wore a derby hat at a cocky
angle over his rheumy eyes. He had no teeth and when he sat in the café, people at adjoining tables moved
away because of the sucking, gargling sounds he made as he tried to keep from drooling. If you stood five feet
from the table you could hear his heart murmur, which sounded like a steam engine laboring in his chest. He was
bent over, but held himself semi-erect with the help of a broomstick handle.
Casimiro had a standing order regarding Pan con Chinches: he could come in anytime except during rush
hours. He would be served a big cup of expresso coffee, black with no boiled milk. Whether this was due to
Casimiro’s fine sense of economy or a secret health remedy, I never found out. He was to be given the leftover
tips of the Cuban bread used to make sandwiches. There was no shortage of those, so in a sense Pan con
Chinches served as Casimiro’s disposal unit.
The Columbia Restaurant was owned, run, and patronized by descendants of the Spanish race, and they all
had a considerable share of inherited eccentricities and flaws. One of the main flaws was unfounded, stubborn,
dogged pride. One day Pan con Chinches arrived with his hat at a jauntier angle than usual, its brim nearly
resting on the bridge of his nose. He bristled with a combative air. I could see he meant to have it out with
Casimiro.
Why would a man who existed solely on Casimiro’s charity and Lawrence’s generosity (for Big Lawrence was
always slipping him money) want to challenge his benefactors? Pride. Pure, unadulterated pride. Pan con
Chinches had awakened from a sound night’s sleep in the doorway of Lodato’s Pharmacy with a clear picture of
how Casimiro had insulted him and trampled on his pride. He saw the insult as clearly as he saw the end of his
reddened nose.
Butter. The problem was butter. It was bad enough that Casimiro would not put boiling milk in his expresso,
but to withhold butter on bread tips! Clearly it was not an insult to take lightly. It called for confrontation. A
clarification, and a righting of a wrong. A Spanish man is nothing if he is not given respect.
Casimiro was summoned from the kitchen where he was counting the heads of lettuce in a freshly delivered
case. He greeted Pan con Chinches in his quiet, guarded way. Pan con Chinches launched into his prepared
diatribe, informing Casimiro of his illustrious ancestors, going as far back as his ancestors Vasco da Gama,
Pizarro and Cortes. At the end of this wheezing rampage, Casimiro stood in quiet shock, picking his eyebrows.
The silence was broken only by the accelerated pounding of Pan con Chinches’ heart murmur.
“You are banned from the café forever. Throw the ungrateful bum out,” Casimiro demanded. And so Pan con
Chinches, the resident charity case, was banished, never to return. Entreaties by Big Lawrence, who found Pan
con Chinches’ revolt funny, fell on deaf ears. Casimiro was unmoved. He was fair but hard. The butt ends of the
Cuban bread piled up, employees chose sides, and hard feelings resulted. It’s things like this that contributed to
the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Considering his previous lofty social status as a cigar factory lector, though, it wasn’t so hard to understand the
inordinate pride that caused the Butter Revolution. Pan con Chinches thought that he deserved better, and many
agreed with him. What eventually became of him no one knows.
Discussion Questions
1.) What details in the first few paragraphs give evidence of the exalted status that lectores enjoyed in
Ybor City in the heyday of the cigar industry?
2.) Why did the lectors fall out of favor with Ybor City’s factory owners?
3.) Based on the description of Pan con Chinches, do you think that he was a respected former lector?
Support your answer with evidence from the passage.
4.) Do you think that Pan con Chinches had a legitimate reason to protest his treatment at the hands of
Casimiro and Big Lawrence? Justify your answer.
5.) Imagine that you are Casimiro; how would you have reacted to Pan con Chinches’ argument?
Write out what you would have said or done.
6.) On a separate sheet of paper, create a Venn diagram comparing the two lectors featured in this
excerpt from Ybor City Chronicles.
IV.
Assessments
1.)
______2.)
_______3.)
4.)
5.)
Create a Timeline: 1819, 1880, 1887, 1890, 1900, 1960—base this on the reading
assignments.
During the Cuban revolution many left Cuba. What were the main reasons why
Cubans came to Florida?
A. Florida’s rich land and gold
B. Strict tariffs put on the making of cigars
C. harsh treatment of the Spanish ruler and being exiled because of participation in the
revolution.
D. Resentment of the Cigars makers rebellion
What type of job s were brought to Ybor city by the Cubans
A. fishermen
B. artist
C. laborers
D. All the above
Three business men came to Ybor City: Gavino Gutierrez, Vincente Martínez Ybor, and
Ignacio Haya. Explain what each Cuban businessman was looking for.
In 1893 Marti delivered a speech that many feel led to the Spanish-American War. What
did this cause the Cubans in Ybor City to do?
(Timeline Answers)
1819---Spain ceded Florida to United States
1880---Cuban exiles arrive in Ybor
1887---City of Tampa incorporated Ybor city
1890---Population 5,500- Spanish arrive—15% African Cubans
1900---Ybor known as “Cigar Capital”
1960---Ybor City split as part of the Urban Renewal Project
V.
Resources
http://www.worldatlas.com/country/namerica/printpage/carribbean.htm
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/printpage/namerica.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51visual3.htm
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts3.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51visual3.htm
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html
Cannon, Michael, Florida A Short History. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL. 2003.
Pacheco, Ferdie. Ybor City Chronicles: A Memoir. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL. 1994.