![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSCN7861-scaled.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOdelma Matos rolls a 140-foot cigar. \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 4\/13\/2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOdelma Matos rolls a 140-foot cigar. \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 4\/13\/2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n
Monday is the 140th anniversary of Ybor City, and hundreds came out to celebrate the neighborhood\u2019s most iconic tradition: cigars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hundreds gathered inside and outside Ybor\u2019s Haya Hotel to celebrate the anniversary with a cultural showcase, cigar-rolling lessons, and the live rolling of a 140-foot-long cigar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Odelma Matos of La Faraona Cigar Factory sat outside the hotel rolling the giant cigar.<\/p>\n
Standing next to her, Rene Guerrero of La Faraona Cigar Factory said it\u2019s not the first time she\u2019s taken on a feat like this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she recently broke the record for the longest cigar ever rolled. March 21st she rolled a 469 foot cigar. So basically we closed from 13th through half of 15th, so two and a half blocks long. So this is like a mini version of that one.\u201d Guerrero told WMNF.<\/p>\n
Holden Rasmussen is the company historian for the J.C Newman Cigar Company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said it\u2019s incredible to see people celebrating one of Tampa\u2019s oldest and most historic industries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, the cigar industry might not be as large as it once was historically, but it still matters as far as the heritage and legacy of Tampa and why we\u2019re here. Why are we here? Cuban and Spanish immigrants began rolling cigars 140 years ago.\u201d Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n
Olivia Nixon said she was familiar with Ybor\u2019s history and came to the event to learn how to roll a cigar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot at the history museum, so it was just, I guess, icing on the cake coming here and physically doing it myself,\u201d Nixon said.<\/p>\n
Attendees also enjoyed food and drink samples from local Tampa vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Odelma Matos rolls a 140-foot cigar. \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 4\/13\/2026 Listen: Monday is the 140th anniversary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67498,135,137,136,28039,10364],"class_list":{"0":"post-230260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-cigars","9":"tag-tampa","10":"tag-tampa-headlines","11":"tag-tampa-news","12":"tag-ybor","13":"tag-ybor-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}