Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History [Hardcover]

Robert P. Ingalls (Author), Louis A. Perez Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2003

From the founding of Ybor City in 1886 to the dispersal of Tampa's Latin population in the years following World War II, this book documents the history of the Cuban, Spanish, and Italian immigrants who created the cigar industry in Tampa and the extraordinary multi-ethnic community that flourished around it. Over 200 photos capture this community's personalities and way of life while commentary drawn from newspaper accounts, oral histories, and archival documents identifies and explains each photograph's historical place and significance. In linking the photographs with historical text, the authors allow the cigar workers to tell their own story, in the language of their day.

The rich photographic record around which the book is organized documents the lives of the immigrant cigar workers not only in the workplace but also in their vibrant neighborhoods in Ybor City and West Tampa. Highlighting the diversity of the cigar workers' community, the book depicts the making of cigars, the work culture, local support for the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898), unions and strikes, community institutions such as mutual aid clubs, leisure activities, and social practices surrounding courtship, marriage, and death.

Focusing on the public spaces of work and society as well the private sphere of the home, Tampa's Cigar Workers tells an inspiring and deeply moving story of how immigrant cigar workers from Cuba, Spain, and Italy carved out their space in Tampa while struggling to survive economically and defending their ideals and way of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Popular history in its truest and finest form. -- H-Net Reviews, February 2004

About the Author

Robert P. Ingalls is professor of history at the University of South Florida. Louis A. Perez, Jr., is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Florida; 1st edition (March 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813026024
• ISBN-13: 978-0813026022
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars priceless!, February 11, 2010

By 

Judy A. Rosynsky (homosassa, fl USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History (Hardcover)

Some members of my mother's family left Spain for Cuba and finally settled in Florida...Tampa and Key West. I recently gifted my 64 year old cousin with this book after recent surgery. He is a cigar aficionado and the only magazines and books in his home seem to be about cigars. I gave him this book and one on cigars and upon his opening this book there was no stopping the conversation about our family. It was a wonderful 2-1/2 hour visit and it certainly cheered him up. When I called the next day his wife said he hadn't put the book down yet.

Our family is rich in history in Tampa. I was born in Ybor City and still visit there frequently even though I am about two hours away. Its still home. My grandmothers, grandfathers, great aunts and great uncles were all cigarmakers. My grandmother Elisa Simon was still handrolling cigars in Ybor City when she passed away in 1989. Even though most of the older generation in my family are all gone, books like this still bring the memories rushing back.

This book is indeed priceless. I think its the best gift I have ever given anyone judging by its reception. I'm glad I chose it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars suprisingly content-rich, January 24, 2010

By 

Steve (Tampa, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History (Hardcover)

These kind of books are usually full of great photographs with very little explanation of what they display. I was expected the same with this book, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a good amount of actual context and content along with the photographs.

This is a great read + a perfect coffee table book for anyone interested in Tampa / Ybor City history. It serves as a perfect companion piece to another recent history of the area, the more informative Frank Lastra's Ybor City: The Making of a Landmark Town.