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Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South
Decades before Miami became Havana USA, a wave of leftist, radical, working-class women and men from prerevolutionary Cuba crossed the Florida Straits, made Ybor City the global capital of the Cuban cigar industry, and established the foundation of latinidad in the Sunshine State. Located on the eastern edge of Tampa, Ybor City was a neighborhood of cigar workers and Caribbean revolutionaries who sought refuge against the shifting tides of international political turmoil during the early half of the twentieth century.
Historian Sarah McNamara tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who organized strikes, marched against fascism, and criticized U.S. foreign policy. While many members of the immigrant generation maintained their dedication to progressive ideals for years to come, those who came of age in the wake of World War II distanced themselves from leftist politics amidst the Red Scare and the wrecking ball of urban renewal. This portrait of the political shifts that defined Ybor City highlights the underexplored role of women's leadership within movements for social and economic justice as it illustrates how people, places, and politics become who and what they are.
Historian Sarah McNamara tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who organized strikes, marched against fascism, and criticized U.S. foreign policy. While many members of the immigrant generation maintained their dedication to progressive ideals for years to come, those who came of age in the wake of World War II distanced themselves from leftist politics amidst the Red Scare and the wrecking ball of urban renewal. This portrait of the political shifts that defined Ybor City highlights the underexplored role of women's leadership within movements for social and economic justice as it illustrates how people, places, and politics become who and what they are.
266 pages, Hardcover
Published April 11, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 29, 2023
Ybor City was a fascinating read! An accessible and beautifully written history of a place and the people who populated it, it often seemed like a novel I could not stop reading. And even though it was written with all the academic accoutrements of detailed notes, bibliography and index, Sarah McNamara has given us a lively story and an important piece of Florida/Cuban history that feels full and balanced.
I got interested in Ybor City which is like a city within Tampa, on a recent visit. The Cuban Club, a beautiful old building we came upon, seemed more like it should be a museum than an event center which we found out it was. The best part of that visit was a casual tour we luckily received from a young maintenance worker. He took us through all four stories of the Cuban Club and pointed out architectural details and added great stories. This whetted my appetite for learning more about Ybor city. I was glad to come across the book Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South and was intrigued by its feminist title.
Sarah McNamara’s book holds a kind of history we rarely read. I love how engaging her writing is. The pictures she paints and background she gives of the people and movements in Ybor City make the place come alive. I learned much about the forgotten and hidden pieces of labor history, of left organizing, of woman-led movements, I knew I was reading a book close to my heart.
Our culture is so dominated by capitalist politics and imprisoned by the two party system that the real stories get erased. Even the anti-racist, pro-immigrant 1948 campaign of Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party is never talked about but the Latinas/os were supporters.
The drive to suppress all traces of communist and even labor history in Florida is also depicted in this book. The Klan was one vicious weapon used against the working people of Ybor City. Now in Florida the fascist-like politics of the governor reign supreme, trying to drown out the precious progressive history of earlier Florida.
I applaud Sarah McNamara for highlighting Ybor City from its pre-colonial beginnings and for bringing out the crucial role of women who are so often forgotten and erased, especially in being there and in organizing the cigar workers of Ybor City.
“What is impressive about the Ybor City community, however, is that they did not stop striking, they did not stop organizing, and they did not stop living. While Anglos in Tampa sought to control and rebuke the authority that immigrants and U.S.-born cigar workers held over their workplaces and their neighborhood, the people of Ybor fought back. Unionism remained strong as did leftist political activism. Over time, the community looked for solutions and tactics to bypass violence and often found the solution in women…”
And the book is much more than this and I am just giving a few tidbits. Suffice to say I enjoyed and I recommend it.
I got interested in Ybor City which is like a city within Tampa, on a recent visit. The Cuban Club, a beautiful old building we came upon, seemed more like it should be a museum than an event center which we found out it was. The best part of that visit was a casual tour we luckily received from a young maintenance worker. He took us through all four stories of the Cuban Club and pointed out architectural details and added great stories. This whetted my appetite for learning more about Ybor city. I was glad to come across the book Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South and was intrigued by its feminist title.
Sarah McNamara’s book holds a kind of history we rarely read. I love how engaging her writing is. The pictures she paints and background she gives of the people and movements in Ybor City make the place come alive. I learned much about the forgotten and hidden pieces of labor history, of left organizing, of woman-led movements, I knew I was reading a book close to my heart.
Our culture is so dominated by capitalist politics and imprisoned by the two party system that the real stories get erased. Even the anti-racist, pro-immigrant 1948 campaign of Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party is never talked about but the Latinas/os were supporters.
The drive to suppress all traces of communist and even labor history in Florida is also depicted in this book. The Klan was one vicious weapon used against the working people of Ybor City. Now in Florida the fascist-like politics of the governor reign supreme, trying to drown out the precious progressive history of earlier Florida.
I applaud Sarah McNamara for highlighting Ybor City from its pre-colonial beginnings and for bringing out the crucial role of women who are so often forgotten and erased, especially in being there and in organizing the cigar workers of Ybor City.
“What is impressive about the Ybor City community, however, is that they did not stop striking, they did not stop organizing, and they did not stop living. While Anglos in Tampa sought to control and rebuke the authority that immigrants and U.S.-born cigar workers held over their workplaces and their neighborhood, the people of Ybor fought back. Unionism remained strong as did leftist political activism. Over time, the community looked for solutions and tactics to bypass violence and often found the solution in women…”
And the book is much more than this and I am just giving a few tidbits. Suffice to say I enjoyed and I recommend it.
May 10, 2023
Dr. McNamara weaves together a beautiful narrative of a city you can implicitly feel her connection to, with masterful use of oral history and archived sources. Her descriptions leap off the page and make it feel as if you are reading your own memories. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Latine history, labor history, women’s history, or anyone who just wants to see a story come to life. Well done.
October 8, 2024
I love a history book that brings in personal history and puts you in the shoes of the historical figures and this does that!!
November 22, 2023
I'm so grateful that this book exists. As a Puerto Rican woman who grew up in Orlando, I'm so desperate for history and narratives about Latinas in the South, and especially Florida, that don't center Miami or South Florida. I learned so much from this book and, while I'm not from Ybor City, felt very connected to the author, the stories, and the history. I actually took a weekend trip to Ybor City to visit some of the sites the author references in the text. Thank you for your work, Sarah!
September 27, 2024
4 stars. I really liked this it made me think of how I can connect my family with my studies
May 18, 2026
As someone trying to uncover my paternal family history, this book is an absolute treasure to me. My grandfather passed away 14 years ago, and I regret the opportunities I missed as a young adult to ask him and my eldest aunts & uncles about my great-great-grandfather Candito / Candido (the spelling varies), who emigrated to Ybor City from Cuba in the 1890s, worked as a cigarmaker, and lived into his 90s. A city directory page from 1912 confirms it was a multi-generational operation for our family on Seventh Avenue, in the heart of Little Havana. I scanned the faces in the photos of the cigar factory floors, wondering if they are there. I wonder what they enjoyed hearing the lectores read, as they paid for the service, before that form of morale was shunted off by cigar manufacturers for being too inciteful during tense labor movements.
I can only go off obituaries that state that my great-aunt Inez and great-great-grandmother Severa died within a few years of each other, weathered by the Great Depression and other immense burdens (including the murder of Inez's husband in a pistol duel immediately before the Depression) I may never know. A trained tobacco stripper, it must have been so hard for Inez to raise two young children as a single mother in that era. I mourn the indignity Inez and Severa both faced by not being allowed to be treated in Tampa hospitals because they were Latina, while also facing the loss of medical services from Ybor City's mutual aid societies due to their age.
I have a better understanding now as to why the Jim Crow South made my grandfather Manuel Jr., a third generation tampeño, fully assimilate into whiteness and abandon the Spanish language. Although I cannot ask him about it, I understand he would have faced corporal punishment and ridicule from Anglo teachers and classmates for embodying any part of his Latino identity, and that the only way for him to lead a successful life beyond Ybor City would be to become a Korean War veteran and upstanding businessman. I understand why the family lore that did trickle down into stories I heard growing up characterized our ancestors as "Spanish", for its proximity to whiteness and distancing from the Cuban Revolution, even if that fails to tell the whole story.
The history documented in this book fills holes I never knew existed. I'm so thankful to Dr. McNamara for giving me new leads to chase and for humanizing my ancestors who make me the person I am today.
I can only go off obituaries that state that my great-aunt Inez and great-great-grandmother Severa died within a few years of each other, weathered by the Great Depression and other immense burdens (including the murder of Inez's husband in a pistol duel immediately before the Depression) I may never know. A trained tobacco stripper, it must have been so hard for Inez to raise two young children as a single mother in that era. I mourn the indignity Inez and Severa both faced by not being allowed to be treated in Tampa hospitals because they were Latina, while also facing the loss of medical services from Ybor City's mutual aid societies due to their age.
I have a better understanding now as to why the Jim Crow South made my grandfather Manuel Jr., a third generation tampeño, fully assimilate into whiteness and abandon the Spanish language. Although I cannot ask him about it, I understand he would have faced corporal punishment and ridicule from Anglo teachers and classmates for embodying any part of his Latino identity, and that the only way for him to lead a successful life beyond Ybor City would be to become a Korean War veteran and upstanding businessman. I understand why the family lore that did trickle down into stories I heard growing up characterized our ancestors as "Spanish", for its proximity to whiteness and distancing from the Cuban Revolution, even if that fails to tell the whole story.
The history documented in this book fills holes I never knew existed. I'm so thankful to Dr. McNamara for giving me new leads to chase and for humanizing my ancestors who make me the person I am today.
January 23, 2025
I haven't enjoyed a straight-up history book this much since reading the "The Great Migration." Beautifully written and engaging, it gives the reader the background on how the city of Tampa started. Who knew Tampa was based on the Cuban Industrialists, who moved their factories and skilled workers to a section of that formerly sleepy harbor, built shot-gun housing, community centers, grocery stores, and named it Ybor City. McNamara focuses on the female workers who rolled cigars, raised their children, and marched for fair labor rights.
I've been writing a new novel that is partly situated in Ybor City, so this history helped me get my facts straight. Thank you Sarah McNamara. Well done! RM
I've been writing a new novel that is partly situated in Ybor City, so this history helped me get my facts straight. Thank you Sarah McNamara. Well done! RM
September 28, 2023
A TRULY FASCINATING BOOK - AS SOMEONE WHO HAS LIVED NEAR YBOR CITY FOR MOST OF MY LIFE, I LOVED LEARNING ABOUT THE WAYS THAT LATINO/A CULTURE, LABOR DISPUTES, LEFTIST ACTIVISM, RACE RELATIONS, AND COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS ALL SHAPED THE AREA
January 1, 2024
4/5⭐️ This was fascinating! I've lived in this area since 1990 and even attended classes in Ybor at HCC, so I'm very familiar with Ybor City. This was well-written!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews