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.
Although, I never spent considerable time there, it was a place I would frequent to eat or to go to our cousin’s store in Ybor to trade supplies when we operated the store on Columbus Drive. About the most I did there was to drive through. On occasion, I visited the Columbia Restaurant or other stores in the area; along with seeing a couple of parades. Since this area was part of my life, I decided to write about it with the few details that I am aware of.
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 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, Key West, and to the small town of Tampa, Florida, while 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.”1
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.
At the age of twenty, due to association of a Cigar Owner, I was offered a job in the cigar industry. I had finished college and decided it would be best for me to work in the field I had gone to college for. That is as close as I ever got to the cigar industry, as I was never a smoker and did not believe in cigars or cigarettes.
Although this picture did not contain any family members, my Nonna, Aunt Francis, and Uncle Peppe did work for the cigar industry. Nonno, as far as I know; never worked for the industry as he owned his own grocery business. (There were cigar factories located in West Tampa and Ybor City). I do not remember Nonna working for them when I knew her, but my Aunt Francis did until she contracted Tuberculosis (TB). She did have to have a lung removed and never returned to work for them or anyone else. She did on occasion help Mom and Dad by cleaning our house for us, at times as well as she maintained Nonna’s house as well. Uncle Pepe was instrumental in painting and maintaining Nonna’s house as well.
Tampa grew from a fisherman village of about 400 to a town of 15,000 by the turn of the century; with most of the growth contributed by the love for Tampa’s handmade cigars. The first cigar was made by Sanchez & Haya Cigar, Co. 1886. The “Lector” concept was introduced in 1887, to the cigar industry and for over 45 years was considered essential to motivate the work force. His job description was to read stories, the daily news, and keep the cigar makers informed of daily events. Normally, he was sitting on a tall chair in one side by the center of the galley. Nonna and Nonno had described them to me, along with Francis and Peppa when I was younger.
Smoking back then was widespread and there were no commercials about how unsafe smoking is. It was “trendy” and cigar smoking was a tradition. With all the cigar factories that were located not only in West Tampa, but in Ybor City cigars were easy to buy and prices were not what they are today.
Cigar Boxes could be obtained mostly anywhere and they were used for storing items and during one year of elementary school, one of my teachers decided to make gifts out of them. It was not unusual to have a cigar box to store pencils or supplies at school. The boxes were really an art form; as they were decorative, sturdy, and made to store and sell cigars.
Shown below is the cigar cutter used by either Francis or Nonna. These cigar cutters were given to me by my Aunt Francis. They are now with Dennis and Carolyn in Oregon. At some time in the 1970’s, I cleaned and varnished them. On the top of one was written: “Nonno the great”. I found out later on, this inscriptive was written by Uncle John Mistretta during his early days. I learned this fact from Uncle John on his last visit to Tampa, while visiting our home on Manor Oak Dr. He said he had written this phase when he was younger, but didn’t know why.
These boxes of fine cigars could be found all over Tampa while growing up. My Uncle Pepe would buy the Cuesta Ray and Garcia Y Vega brands. Cigar Boxes were plentiful and now can be sold for a premium by looking on E-Bay or other places.
Brand-name paper labels used on the inside lids of cigar boxes exhibited detailed lithography and artistic patterns and also, served to tie the cigar-making industry of Tampa to the local Cuban American community.
Even match boxes could be found during this time.
Here you see a lector in a large Tampa cigar factory.
Hav-A-Tampa cigar workers filled the Hav-A-Tampa factory in Tampa in the early 1900s. The factory rolled its last cigar in July 2009. Tampa back then was called the “Cigar capitol of the world”.
Here is a sample of a cigar press of which you could find at my grandparent’s home. Many of the tools required to make cigars would be found there.
The above picture was the cigar cutter used by Francis or Nonna. There is an inscription on the wood that reads, “Nonno the Great”. Never knew what it meant, until Uncle John visited once while we were living on High Manor Oak Dr. and he stated he wrote that on it when he was younger. At this time the cutter is in Portland OR. and remains with Dennis N. Stafford.
Little History of the Cigar Industry
In 1912 of the 8,500,000,000 US cigars, nearly half were made in PA and NY. Florida’s output was one-sixth that of PA, but got all the publicity because the city of Tampa produced more Clear Havana’s than any other city, closely followed by Manhattan. Florida’s cheap cigars (5¢ or less) outsold Florida’s high-priced cigars (20¢ or more), something they didn’t publicize.
Beginning with the consolidations of companies in the 1950’s, followed by the Cuban embargo; the modern era of the cigar industry was conceived and born. The new age is one dominated by expensive high-quality imported cigars.
“1955” Large high-grade clear Havana cigars selling in the 25¢ to 30¢ range became very popular. Around 100,000 a day were being sold by some companies, especially Garcia y Vega Napoleons, Gold Label Palmas, and Perfecto Garcia Waldorfs among others.
“1969” US Government bans cigarette advertising from television. Small cigars were still allowed to advertise, resulting in boom in brands, ads and sales. It was said they were not as dangerous as cigarettes.
“1973” US Government bans cigars from advertising on television.
Today Tampa and Ybor City are no longer producing the quantity of cigars they did before.
(From the National Park Service)When Vicente Ybor built this three-story factory in 1886, it was the tallest building in the Tampa area. The June 9, 1886, issue of the Tampa Guardian declared that there was “not a more substantial structure in the state of Florida.”
(Courtesy of Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System)
Most cigar workers in Ybor City lived in houses built and owned by factory owners. The houses pictured in this photo were built in the late 19th century and had no electricity or plumbing. Many of these houses sat vacant for years, but starting in the late 1970’s, people began having an interest in them again and using them for rentals and now for art buildings or other retail places.
Rolling a Cigar:
Many times Uncle Pepe would roll his own cigar. He usually did not have a cigar cutter and before lighting the cigar, he bit off the end before smoking.
