{"id":336964,"date":"2026-04-07T12:39:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=336964"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T16:39:52","slug":"vicente-martinez-ibor-and-the-cubans-who-built-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/vicente-martinez-ibor-and-the-cubans-who-built-tampa\/","title":{"rendered":"Vicente Mart\u00ednez Ibor and the Cubans who built Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1885, Vicente Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0sat down at the negotiating table with the Tampa Board of\u00a0Commerce\u00a0to sign the purchase\u00a0contract\u00a0for 40 acres of land. It was a risky decision. At that time, Tampa\u2019s population barely exceeded 800 inhabitants\u00a0\u2014\u00a0mostly farmers and\u00a0fishermen. It was an unremarkable hamlet with a stagnant economy, a place that Americans from\u00a0\u201cthe North\u201d\u00a0tended to look down upon as a zone of heat,\u00a0swamps\u00a0and vermin\u00a0\u2014\u00a0hardly a desirable place to live.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, the 66-year-old Valencian\u00a0possessed\u00a0a bold vision, sparked during a conversation among friends when he first heard about the hidden potential\u00a0of\u00a0the environs of Tampa. As it happened, in 1884, his compatriot Gavino Guti\u00e9rrez had explored the area alongside the Cuban Bernardino\u00a0Gargol\u00a0while searching for guavas for the latter\u2019s canning business. They did not find what they were looking for, but they did perceive the abundance of virgin land, the magnificent bay\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the Bay of the Holy Spirit (Bah\u00eda del Esp\u00edritu Santo), where the conquistador Hernando de Soto had landed in 1539\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and the parallel lines of the railroad laid down by Plant.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These\u00a0means of\u00a0transportation would prove key to opening the\u00a0area\u00a0to the currents of modernization, while also guaranteeing the inflow of imported tobacco leaf and the export of the finished product. What began as a plan to\u00a0establish\u00a0a colony of cigar\u00a0makers\u00a0evolved into something far greater: Ybor City\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a prosperous,\u00a0multicultural\u00a0and spirited community that would\u00a0contribute to the\u00a0transformation of\u00a0Tampa into one of the major capitals of the state of Florida.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those 40 acres would forever alter the destiny of Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0and that of the entire region. The world that\u00a0emerged\u00a0from that epicenter was created by men with strong hands and clear dreams,\u00a0people of diverse backgrounds who arrived with the hope of a better life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0pioneer\u00a0from Valencia<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Vicente Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0was born on September 7, 1819, in Valencia. He was around fourteen years old when his family put him on a ship bound for Cuba, with the dual intention of sparing the boy from military service and enabling him to make his fortune. In Havana, he began working in a grocery store, but his forward-looking nature led him to focus his attention on one of the island\u2019s most flourishing industries: tobacco.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leveraging his gift for business, by 1854 he managed to launch his own enterprise under the brand El Pr\u00edncipe de Gales, which gradually gained prestige among both aficionados and outsiders alike. His reputation even enabled him to subcontract prisoners from the Havana Jail to work in his workshop. Nevertheless, he openly opposed the continuous rise in tobacco taxes and in 1868, when C\u00e9spedes declared the war for independence, Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0demonstrated his liberal convictions by siding with the Cubans, whom he supported with funds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That daring decision earned him the enmity of the Volunteers (pro-Spanish militias). Weary of inflated taxes and\u00a0seeking\u00a0to avoid arrest, he boarded a schooner and set sail for Key West with those he loved most: his family. He had fathered four children during his first marriage; after being widowed, he remarried in January 1874, taking Mercedes de la Revilla\u00a0\u2014\u00a032 years his junior\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as his wife, with whom he would have eight more children.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon his departure, Don Vicente packed his entrepreneurial drive alongside his luggage.\u00a0In Key West, he once again\u00a0established\u00a0his cigar-making\u00a0business. He lived for seventeen years on that rocky islet where so many Cubans had found refuge, though his business did not prosper as he had hoped. On several occasions, he had to contend with transportation bottlenecks for his goods, labor instability and workers\u2019\u00a0strikes that\u00a0generated\u00a0financial losses. Then came that fateful\u00a0gathering\u00a0in which Gavino Guti\u00e9rrez sold him on the idea of\u00a0<\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/span>relocating\u00a0his operations to Tampa,\u00a0a city that held promise in many respects.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Key West fire\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which broke out in early April 1886 and left the islet reduced to\u00a0<\/span>charred rubble<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0hastened his departure. Just days after the\u00a0fire, Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0stepped off the steamship\u00a0<\/span>Mascotte<\/span><\/i>\u00a0onto the Tampa docks, envisioning a new future. He was blazing a trail.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0model city<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Standing beside Vicente Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0in October 1885, the engineer Gavino Guti\u00e9rrez traced in the wind with his fingers the layout of the first streets, the quadrants where the houses would stand and the site where the cigar factory would be built. Eduardo\u00a0Manrara\u00a0\u2014\u00a0who, since their days in Cuba, had been Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u2019s\u00a0shadow\u00a0\u2014\u00a0was an indispensable figure. A native of Camag\u00fcey with a background in banking,\u00a0Manrara\u00a0distinguished himself as a key ally and an essential force in the genesis of this burgeoning urban development.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This new spot on the map,\u00a0located\u00a0a mile and a half northeast of Tampa,\u00a0was officially registered under the name\u00a0Cubatown. However, that designation soon faded away, supplanted by popular usage, which favored the surname of the project\u2019s visionary.\u00a0Thus\u00a0was born\u00a0Ibor\u00a0City\u00a0\u2014\u00a0spelled\u00a0\u201cYbor\u201d\u00a0in its English adaptation\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a suburb linked to neighboring Tampa by a meandering ribbon of small houses, scattered haphazardly like an untamed vine. Tampa, with its insatiable demographic appetite, devoured it entirely around the year 1887.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The settlers\u2019\u00a0drive transformed the site\u2019s once-inhospitable landscape. Under the auspices of the Ybor Landscape Co., this\u00a0\u201cpromised land\u201d\u00a0gradually took shape. They drained wetlands, filled in low-lying\u00a0areas\u00a0and\u00a0leveled\u00a0the terrain; they built factories, shops, homes, schools, clinics, churches, bookstores, theaters,\u00a0hotels\u00a0and insurance\u00a0companies. Hand in hand with this development, they paved the sandy streets, dug wells to ensure a water supply and,\u00a0with the advent of electric lighting,\u00a0brought illumination to homes and paved the way for the streetcar.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The community prospered at a breakneck pace, and the value of the land skyrocketed. As\u00a0<\/span>La Uni\u00f3n\u00a0Constitucional<\/span><\/i>\u00a0highlighted on February 9, 1890:\u00a0\u201cThe success achieved by Mr. Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0in Tampa is well known; through his enterprise, he is developing a city that will soon rival the importance of neighboring counties\u00a0\u2014\u00a0lands that, just eight years ago, held almost no value, with acres selling for 25 cents, yet today fetch between $500 and $1,000.\u00a0Houses\u00a0for workers are being built for\u00a0less than $200 each\u00a0\u2014\u00a0easy to rent at a modest price and yielding a high return.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the very beginning, two tobacco factories were\u00a0established: Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u2019s\u00a0own factory and La Flor de S\u00e1nchez Haya, the latter\u00a0owned by Ignacio Haya and Seraf\u00edn S\u00e1nchez\u00a0and which\u00a0had\u00a0relocated\u00a0from New York in search of a better climate and Cuban labor. Cubans constituted the largest ethnic group and the Spanish language predominated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the 1892 census, Tampa was home to 5,532 inhabitants, 2,424 of whom were Cubans hailing from Key West who had settled in Ybor City and West Tampa.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, those numbers continued to swell. In a special edition of the magazine\u00a0<\/span>Cuba y Am\u00e9rica<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(July 1897), journalist Carlos Trelles wrote:\u00a0\u201cTampa\u2019s Fourth District consists of Ybor City, which houses\u00a06,000\u00a0people,\u00a0the majority of\u00a0them Cuban. Anyone walking along Seventh Avenue or Fourteenth Street would scarcely believe they were in the United States, given the sheer number of native-born Cubans one\u00a0encounters\u00a0and the establishments of every kind where one sees nothing but signs in Spanish.\u201d\u00a0He noted in detail that\u00a0there were\u00a0a thousand homes, thirty physicians, ten pharmacists, eight dentists, six lawyers and dozens of Cuban intellectuals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was precisely these Spaniards and Cubans\u00a0\u2014\u00a0many of them political refugees\u00a0\u2014\u00a0who worked in those factories who\u00a0were\u00a0the pioneers of that immigrant settlement. Later, Italians, Jews and Chinese arrived. Each immigrant group brought with it memories of their homelands,\u00a0traditions\u00a0and talents, weaving an intercultural tapestry that transformed Ybor City into a land of opportunity\u00a0\u2014\u00a0an identity forged in hard work, community\u00a0solidarity\u00a0and ancestral values.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Pr\u00edncipe de Gales<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Industrialization reigned supreme in Ybor City. Hundreds of corporations\u00a0established\u00a0a vast manufacturing complex that elevated the region to the status of\u00a0an\u00a0industrial empire. Once the flame was lit, this bustling industry went on to generate and export millions in annual revenue, earning the city,\u00a0in its heyday,\u00a0the title of the Cigar Capital of the World.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world of Ybor City revolved around El Pr\u00edncipe de Gales\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the renowned brand that the old administrator\u00a0established\u00a0within a sprawling,\u00a0cottage-style wooden structure on Seventh Avenue.\u00a0Operations commenced in April 1886.\u00a0Drawing upon\u00a0lessons learned from the past, Mart\u00ednez Ybor\u00a0sought\u00a0to foster employee retention and avert labor strikes. To this end, he offered improved working conditions, sold modest employee\u00a0\u201csmall houses\u201d\u00a0at affordable\u00a0prices\u00a0and opened\u00a0the\u00a0doors to Black\u00a0cigar\u00a0makers, who worked side by side with their white counterparts and earned equal wages.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The plan paid off. By the end of its inaugural year, they were producing 900,000 cigars a month. The factory\u2019s prosperity led them to\u00a0seek\u00a0more spacious quarters in a brand-new\u00a0three-story-high\u00a0red-brick building\u00a0with\u00a0many windows. According to\u00a0<\/span>Cuba y Am\u00e9rica<\/span><\/i>, by mid-1897, 400 workers and 200 leaf-stemmers were employed there. The building housed various\u00a0departments\u00a0and,\u00a0on the top floor, the cigar\u00a0makers\u2019\u00a0tables were arranged alongside the indispensable podium for the reader.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a time, the cigar factory reader served as the primary\u00a0spokesperson\u00a0in Ybor City. The first to hold this position at the Pr\u00edncipe de Gales factory was Jos\u00e9 Dolores\u00a0Poyo, another arrival from the Key West exodus.\u00a0Poyo\u00a0seized the opportunity to relaunch his newspaper,\u00a0<\/span>El Yara<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which he read aloud to the cigar makers\u00a0\u2014\u00a0making it the first Spanish-language newspaper published in Tampa. His stay in the city was limited to just a few months, however, as he eventually returned to Key West. He was\u00a0succeeded by\u00a0also\u00a0journalist and patriot\u00a0Ram\u00f3n Rivero.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After moving to the new facility, Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0donated the original building to the cigar makers to be used for parties and meetings. In 1890, the\u00a0Liceo\u00a0Cubano was\u00a0established\u00a0there\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a society dedicated to hosting artistic,\u00a0literary\u00a0and patriotic gatherings.\u00a0It\u00a0was adorned with coats of arms, flags and portraits of illustrious Cubans, modeled after the Club San Carlos in Key West. Furthermore,\u00a0it\u00a0functioned as a night school directed by N\u00e9stor\u00a0Leonelo\u00a0Carbonell\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a veteran of the Ten Years\u2019\u00a0War and a factory\u00a0reader himself. Dozens of unemployed workers, exiled\u00a0patriots\u00a0and separatist clubs found support under the roof of the wealthy Spaniard.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a\u00a0suffering Cuba<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

At the invitation of N\u00e9stor L. Carbonell,\u00a0president of the Club Ignacio Agramonte,\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed arrived in Tampa just after midnight on November 26, 1891. A crowd of enthusiastic Cubans awaited him at the Ybor City train station. The following morning, he visited the Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0factory. The workers greeted his presence with a prolonged clatter of their cutting knives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hours later, the\u00a0inspiring\u00a0orator stirred the audience that packed the\u00a0Liceo:\u00a0\u201cTo Cuba, which suffers,\u00a0the first word. Cuba must be taken as an altar, upon which to offer our lives\u00a0\u2014\u00a0not as a pedestal, upon which to elevate ourselves.\u201d\u00a0He concluded that speech,\u00a0which would go down in\u00a0history books\u00a0with the phrase:\u00a0\u201cWith all, and for the good of all.\u201d\u00a0That maxim\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the epitome of his revolutionary program and his ethical code\u00a0\u2014\u00a0still resonates today. On the night of the 27th, he returned to the spacious hall to deliver a tribute to the medical students executed by firing squad in 1871. It was another historic address, remembered as\u00a0\u201cThe New Pines,\u201d\u00a0in which he celebrated the unity between the young generation and the veteran warriors.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the wake of that first visit by Mart\u00ed, the cigar makers of Ybor City and West Tampa pledged to contribute between five and ten percent of their wages to the struggle. There is no need to dwell at length on the role played by the cigar makers in the War of\u00a01895. Mart\u00ed recognized them as the most solid and steadfast pillar of the independence cause. Their sweat served as the fuel for dozens of expeditions, and quite a few of them traded their cutting knives for machetes and rifles.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tampa was one of the U.S. cities most\u00a0frequently\u00a0visited by Mart\u00ed\u00a0and within it\u00a0Ibor\u2019s\u00a0factory. A well-known photograph captures him on the iron staircase at the entrance of the cigar factory, surrounded by\u00a0the humble\u00a0masses, during a visit in July 1892.\u00a0Regarding\u00a0that burgeoning neighborhood, he\u00a0had written\u00a0the following on October 31,\u00a01889\u00a0in a letter to F\u00e9lix Iznaga sent from New York:\u00a0\u201cThe secret to success lies in dedicating oneself entirely to\u00a0an\u00a0objective.\u00a0You will surely grow to like Ybor City; indeed, it might not be prudent to let it appear that you show a preference for Tampa.\u00a0I spoke at length with the\u00a0Ibors\u00a0here, and\u00a0I believe that no unpleasantness\u00a0awaits you there\u00a0\u2014\u00a0only cordiality and delight.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Ybor\u00a0City,\u00a0paradoxically,\u00a0Mart\u00ed\u00a0was\u00a0nearly\u00a0murdered\u00a0in late 1892.\u00a0\u201cIn\u00a0Ybor, Tampa, I took to my bed. My illness was not\u00a0natural, but\u00a0rather brought\u00a0on by a villain who\u00a0attempted\u00a0to finish me off by poisoning me,\u201d\u00a0he recorded. He spent his convalescence at the home of Paulina Pedroso, situated across from the cigar factory. She,\u00a0aided by her husband Ruperto,\u00a0provided him with maternal care until the horrific fire of the toxin ceased burning within his entrails.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0kindhearted\u00a0old man<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Volume 5 of the\u00a0<\/span>Obras\u00a0Completas<\/span><\/i>\u202ffeatures another impression penned by Mart\u00ed that captures the character of\u00a0the\u00a0generous industrialist:\u00a0\u201cOne morning, a certain traveler was in the office of the Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0manufactory\u00a0\u2014\u00a0down there in Tampa\u00a0\u2014\u00a0speaking with one of the workshop\u2019s laborers, who was seated at the owner\u2019s desk. An elderly man with a kindly face entered; the laborer rose to offer him\u00a0the\u00a0chair, but the old man placed both hands on his shoulders and left the worker seated in the owner\u2019s seat. It was Don Vicente Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He never truly left Cuba behind. Port arrival and departure records published in the\u00a0<\/span>Diario de la Marina<\/span><\/i>\u00a0confirm that, from the 1880s until 1895,\u00a0Ibor\u00a0continued to travel to Havana. In fact\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a detail provided by historian Ricardo D\u00edaz Murgas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0in March 1893 he\u00a0purchased\u00a0a family mausoleum in the Col\u00f3n\u00a0Necropolis;\u00a0who knows if he did so in the hope of finding his eternal resting place on Cuban soil. Curiously, in 1905, the musician Ignacio Cervantes would be interred in that very tomb\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but not its owner.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vicente Mart\u00ednez\u00a0Ibor\u00a0remained at Oaklawn Cemetery. He passed away at noon on December 14, 1896, in Hillsborough County, after spending several weeks critically\u00a0ill. He was 77 years old. In an obituary, the\u00a0<\/span>Tampa Tribune<\/span><\/i>\u00a0hailed him as a\u00a0\u201cGreat Benefactor.\u201d\u00a0His estate proved so vast that some came to believe there was not enough money in all of Tampa to\u00a0purchase\u00a0it. Without his visionary foresight\u00a0\u2014\u00a0without that model neighborhood centered around the\u00a0Pr\u00edncipe de Gales\u00a0factory\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tampa would be\u00a0a very different\u00a0place today. In tribute to his dedication, a bronze statue was erected in the commercial district of Ybor City\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the very place where the story began.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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A Spanish entrepreneur and exiled cigar makers founded Ybor City in the city\u2019s outskirts, a district that would exert a decisive influence on the progress of modern Tampa. It was there, at the Pr\u00edncipe de Gales factory, that Mart\u00ed\u2019s revolution was christened in smoke. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12346255,"featured_media":336970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13944],"tags":[14891,19256,12899,21374],"ppma_author":[34888],"class_list":["post-336964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba-usa","tag-cuba-usa-relations","tag-featured","tag-tampa-en","tag-ybor-city"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVicente Mart\u00ednez Ibor and the Cubans who built Tampa | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Spanish entrepreneur and exiled cigar makers founded Ybor City in the city\u2019s outskirts, a district that would exert a decisive influence on the progress of modern Tampa.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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