By virtue of geography and sociology, Florida has often had as much of a connection to the Caribbean as to the United States. Tampa and Havana represent that connection well; people and goods have been traveling between the two port cities for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
1528-39: The expeditions of Pánfilo de Narváez and Hernando DeSoto
Narváez departed Spain in late 1527 and arrived first in Havana, Cuba, to resupply and recruit more sailors and adventurers for his final destination — La Florida. He reached the shores of today’s Pinellas peninsula in 1528 and made his way to the north end of Tampa Bay. Hernando DeSoto, who traveled via Havana to the west coast of Florida in 1539, made landfall on the southern shore of Tampa Bay near the mouth of the Manatee River.
Late 1700s-early 1800s: The fishing rancho
For over 200 years there was very little interaction between the Spanish and the American Indians of Tampa Bay. This changed as fishermen from Cuba traveled north to the Tampa Bay area and set up camp to fish in the region’s abundant waters. When soldiers from the United States Army, led by Colonel George Mercer Brooke, arrived in the area, they encountered one such rancho near the mouth of the Hillsborough and dubbed it “Spanishtown” and the adjacent creek “Spanishtown Creek.” The creek eventually became part of Hyde Park and was filled in by the city of Tampa in the 1910s.
1850s: The cattle trade
Scottish-born entrepreneur Captain James McKay knew that the Cuban market was desperate for beef and that Florida’s hardy and lean “yellow hammer” cows could survive the journey to the island. Other cattle ranchers, like the Lesleys, Hendrys, and Hookers, followed suit and soon a thriving trade took hold. The Civil War interrupted this trade, but it resumed after the end of hostilities. McKay’s daughter Almeria married Howell Tyson Lykes, and Lykes and his seven sons greatly expanded on the cattle trade between Florida and Cuba.
1868-1878: The Ten Years’ War
Joseph Fry, born at Fort Brooke on the banks of the Hillsborough River in 1826, grew up to fight with the Confederate States Navy. Left without a country and a job after the war, he was hired in 1873 to captain the Virginius to run supplies into Cuba for the revolutionary army during the Ten Years’ War. The ship was captured by a Spanish vessel and Fry was executed, becoming one of the first martyrs for Cuban liberty.
1886: The first cigar factories
Vicente Martinez Ybor and Ignacio Haya both opened cigar factories in a new company town just to the northeast of downtown Tampa in April 1886. They chose Tampa because it was close enough to Cuba, the source of both the tobacco and the craftsmen to make those cigars. Henry B. Plant had just connected Tampa to the rest of the east coast via railroad, and his steamships further connected Tampa to the Caribbean. The change in Tampa was dramatic; the town’s population in 1880 was 720; by 1890 Tampa had over 5,500 citizens.
1895-1898: The Cuban revolution and the Spanish-American War
Often called the Apostle of Cuban Liberty, José Marti traveled to Tampa at least 20 different times in the early 1890s to raise money and support for the coming war with Spain. It is said that his message containing the date that he wanted the new revolution to begin was sent to Cuba by way of Tampa, wrapped inside a cigar. The 1895 revolution turned into the 1898 Spanish-American War, and Tampa was the main point of embarkation for U.S. troops headed to fight in Cuba.
1910s: The streets of Palma Ceia
Angel Cuesta, Sr., one of Tampa’s prominent cigar manufacturers, had just returned from a trip to Cuba when he met with James Taylor, developer of South Tampa’s Palma Ceia neighborhood. Asked for his advice on street names, Cuesta gave Taylor his map of Old Havana. The result? Streets named San Pedro, San Isidro, El Prado, Obispo, all straight off the map.
1955: Trafficante & Castro
Tampa’s Santo Trafficante, Jr. ran numerous businesses in Cuba during Fulgencio Batista’s presidency. One of Batista’s many outspoken critics was a young baseball player-turned attorney, Fidel Castro, who traveled to Tampa to raise money and awareness for his political cause, following (in his mind, at least) in the footsteps of Jose Martí.
1959: The Cuban revolution
Castro’s revolutionary rhetoric had seemed like fantasy in 1955, but it came to reality in 1959. Many of Tampa’s businessmen lost money and property in Cuba, including Trafficante (who was briefly jailed by Castro as well). Thousands fled Cuba after Castro took power.
1962: Cigars & the trade embargo
The cigar industry survived strikes, economic depression and world wars, but could not survive the Cuban trade embargo placed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Today, there is only one large-scale cigar factory remaining in Tampa.
Fast-forward past the momentous events that have generated Cuba-related headlines in the late 1900s and early 2000s — from the embargo to the missile crisis, from Elián González to Marco Rubio, from Guantanamo Bay to Barack Obama — it is easy to see a time when Tampa and Cuba are reconnected. Only time will tell when and how it happens, and who will benefit.
Rodney Kite-Powell is Saunders Foundation Curator of History at the Tampa Bay History Center.
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2015.