There are many places in the world that are seemingly built for cigars, places with factories and roads paved of tobacco, places where leaves blossom freely and cigars are always lit. One of these places is Ybor City. Known now as a hotspot for bars and nightclubs, Ybor City was once known as the Cigar Capital of the World.
Ybor City is a historic district in Tampa, Florida. It was named after Vincent Martinez Ybor, a Spaniard who immigrated to Cuba at the age of 14. Starting off as a cigar salesman, Vincent Ybor eventually began to manufacturer the cigars he previously sold — he started his own cigar factory in Havana. But this time in Havana was a time of unrest, and a time on the brink of a war. As the Cuban Revolution raged, Vincent Ybor moved his factory and his workers to Key West, Florida.
The success of the relocation fluctuated. Ybor’s business was profitable, but labor and transportation problems kept true success evasive. A friend of Ybor's, Gavino Guiterrez, convinced him to investigate Tampa as a place to set up cigar roots. Tampa offered the climate, the water, and the transportation necessary for a productive operation.
Ybor was sold on the Tampa idea and purchased a large acreage of land in 1886 and not only started a business, but started a town. This area, built for the purpose of housing Ybor’s factories and his factory workers, became fittingly known as Ybor City.
Following the lead of Ybor, other cigar manufacturers moved to this area and by the close of the 19th century, Ybor City and Tampa had the honor of being the largest cigar manufacturer in the world. Not to be outdone by the expansion of the industry it held, the area itself also saw a population boom as well. When Ybor City was incorporated by Tampa into its municipality, the population shot up to 3000; three years later that number nearly doubled.
Article comments
1 - Howard Dratch
A native of Tampa and Ybor City I think your posting a history of what was a vibrant, ethnic, bustling place in my youth with deviled crab and hot, boiled peanut vendors on the street -- great restaurants like the original Columbia and Las Novedades was a fine reminder of days past and a lively part of the city that was consciously destroyed by a long history of narrow-minded and bigoted city governments.
Tampa could have had its very own Bourbon Street. It could have had art galleries and historical walks. It could have been New Orleans without the dikes or San Antonio with a river that runs through it.
10 years ago I took my wife back home with me to visit. We talked with the owner of an art gallery on Ybor City's 7th Avenue. He was packing up for Ashville, NC saying how antagonistic the City of Tampa was in providing any historical or cultural areas and actively fought to create a boring, bull-dozed and destroyed area devoid of character.
Tampa is without interests except for 2 football stadiums and 2 baseball stadiums, boring corporate headquarters and a nice airport.
The history of Ybor City is the story of America as melting pot and American Dream (after all I was born nearby). I went to my first family Sunday dinner at the Columbia for chicken and yellow rice and black bean soup when I was about 3 and my first terrifying haircut at my grandfather's barber (100 years old with a straight razor and strop) and have hated haircuts ever since. It was home. It was Cuban and Jewish. It had character.
Now Tampa has malls, fast food chains, expressways, a truly ugly skyline and the memory of a history that could have made a fascinating city. You found the only story of interest in one of America's least interesting cities. Have a cigar. Have a Hav-a-Tampa. I remember that brand with a great cigar box in which boys kept their treasures.
As you so aptly put it, "the ashes of its previous life were laid to rest in a permanent part of cigar history." Sadly. But you did find a book by a Ferdie Pacheco and pique my interest that there is still a memory of what was. A Pacheco family lived across the street and, 57 years ago Mrs. Pacheco brought me little heart-shaped bowls of flan on Valentine's Day. I still remember the explosion of goodness in my mouth. There was more than cigars in the cigar capital.
Thanks for the reminder of the good stuff.
2 - RJ Elliott
Great article. I have been to Ybor many times. Thanks for the history lesson! :)
3 - Clavos
JJ
Nice article. It was fun to remember good times spent there. Is the Silver Ring Cafe still there? They used to have the best Cuban sandwiches (back in the sixties)
Did you know that the little park (I think it's about a square block in size) that's dedicated to the memory of José Martí has soil from all six Cuban provinces in it, and that title to the land is still held by the Cuban Government?
Howard wrote:
Tampa is without interests except for 2 football stadiums and 2 baseball stadiums, boring corporate headquarters and a nice airport.
And a decent University, University of South Florida. I got my degree (BA English) and my wife there. She's, like you, a Tampan(?) (but not a Tampeña, she's Anglo), a grad of Plant HS, as well as USF.
4 - RJ Elliott
Yeah, USF is a fine school.
Not as good as UCF tho... ;-P
5 - Rafael M. Ybor
The article on Ybor City The History of Cigars in America is good however, the correct name of the founder is VICENTE not VINCENTE he was a Spaniard not Italian--Vincente is the way the Italians would write it.
Thanks
Rafael,Great-grandson of VICENTE Martinez-Ybor
6 - Robert Martinez
My grandfather arrived at Ybor City from Spain in 1886 at the age of 16 and quickly got a job in the budding cigar industry. My dad was born there in 1901 and his brother (born in 1898) would fill me with wonderful stories of the whole area about the times during the early part of the 20th Century. In 1957, my dad moved back to the area, north to Brooksville, and we occassionally would visit Ybor, but it was a shadow of itself. Kind of like a 75 year old lady wearing her homecoming dress. It was sad. There have been recent efforts to liven up Ybor City, but there has always seems to be a problem, (Crime, too much rent, poor parking, politics, traffic, curfews etc.) But one of my fondness memories to this day is seeing my dad light up when his old friends would come to visit and they would light up a strong cigars from Tampa, usually big fat ones. The pungent aroma would hang in the hot, sultry air as they talked about 1915 and the old friends they knew.
7 - Cigars
Looks like Hav-A-Tampa in Tampa, Fl is getting closed down now..
See, guys, you can't keep taxing and taxing... at some point there is a price to pay and you can tax an industry out of business. Tell me, how is the SCHIP bill going to pay for itself when the companies funding it go out of business because they are taxed to death?
This is only the start. First they will tax tobacco out of existence, then fast food.. then anything else they think is bad for you. Welcome to 1984.
-J Braxton