{"id":257659,"date":"2026-05-04T12:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257659\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T12:53:13","slug":"legacy-roots-culture-that-built-tampas-ybor-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257659\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy, roots, culture that built Tampa\u2019s Ybor City"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 As the nation marks 250 years of history, we\u2019re looking back at the roots of our own.<\/p>\n

Here in Tampa, so much of that story begins on the brick streets and the smoke-filled factories in Ybor City.<\/p>\n

In the late 1800s, a cigar maker named Vicente Martinez Ybor came to Tampa by way of Cuba and Key West, bringing with him a vision that quickly grew into an industry. Partnering with Ignacio Haya they didn\u2019t just build cigar factories they built a city. It became a place where immigrants from Cuba, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Jewish families from Europe came chasing the same idea, \u201cOpportunity.\u201d
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\u201cThat\u2019s part of the history of Tampa,\u201d said Victor DiMaio.<\/p>\n

DiMaio is the president of the Hillsborough Democratic Hispanic Caucus. He not only grew up here, but his grandparents were also part of the original families who worked in the cigar industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us would be here today if it wasn’t for\u00a0those people\u00a0back 100,\u00a0150 years ago,\u00a0you know,\u00a0they all came here as immigrants for a better life,\u201d said DiMaio.<\/p>\n

At its peak, Tampa wasn\u2019t just making cigars, it was leading the world. Hundreds of factories, thousands of works, entire families turning tobacco into survival. Some worked in factories, others at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncluding my grandmother,\u00a0who\u00a0they would get\u00a0half a dozen people together at the kitchen table,\u00a0buy tobacco\u00a0from some guy who would sell it to them,\u00a0and they would make, Um,\u00a0and it was called a Buckeye.\u00a0In English it’s called a Buckeye,\u00a0and my mother Mercedes had her own little label,\u00a0and my grandmother would sell cigars.\u00a0It was a super popular thing to do right from home,\u201d said DiMaio.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight from home,\u00a0like completely homemade cigar homemade cigars,\u201d said LaGrone.
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That history is still alive inside the J.C. Newman Cigar Factory. A place where stepping into the elevator feels like stepping into another century.
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\u201cNow they would store a lot of the tobacco in the basement because it was cooler,\u201d explained DiMaio. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Upstairs, the place hasn\u2019t changed much in 100 years. Hands still roll cigars, one at a time. In fact, the week we came was the 140th anniversary of the first cigar ever rolled in Tampa in 1886.
\u201cThe reason we’re here is because of\u00a0the cigar workers that you are sitting behind us today.\u00a0It’s the last largest\u00a0cigar working cigar factory in the whole United States.\u00a0It’s still alive and it’s still. You know,\u00a0done worldwide,\u00a0but we’re still\u00a0the king right now,\u201d explained DiMaio.
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Inside the factories, workers prepared the leaves and they had a name that still gets a laugh today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were thousands of workers that used to strip the vine. I have a lot of friends I grew up with who say, \u2018Yes,\u00a0my grandmother was a stripper,\u00a0and we don’t mean Mons Venus,\u2019\u00a0We mean they were an integral part of the cigar making industry\u00a0that employed hundreds of thousands of Cubans back in the day,\u201d said DiMaio.<\/p>\n

Today, Ybor City is one of Tampa\u2019s most visited destinations with nightlife, restaurants, unmistakable character. But beneath the music and neon is the foundation as solid as the bricks, immigrant families who took a chance on themselves and a risk on a city that didn\u2019t exist yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandparents came here from Cuba\u00a0to make cigars.\u00a0I mean that was,\u00a0that was,\u00a0they came here as immigrants.\u00a0I know\u00a0immigration is kind of a bad word nowadays,\u00a0sadly,\u00a0but the fact is,\u00a0you know,\u00a0Tampa was a little sleepy town of a few 100 people until\u00a0Mr.\u00a0Ybor from Ybor City\u00a0brought his cigar factory and left Havana for Key West,\u201d said DiMaio.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s story stretches back 250 years. Tampa\u2019s story didn\u2019t start that long ago, built by the hands of immigrants and still rising in the smoke today.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Paul

Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Paul LaGrone grew up in Plant City, so he\u2019s seen firsthand how that part of Hillsborough County has changed over the years. As Tampa Bay 28\u2019s leading political anchor he knows state and local politics impact decisions we make at home. Paul wants to hear how state policies impact you. Just use the form below to send him a message.
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Petition calls for safety overhaul at Avalon Heights after 2 students killed<\/p>\n

A University of South Florida student has launched a petition calling for safety reforms at Avalon Heights apartments in Tampa following the deaths of two USF doctoral students, Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy.<\/p>\n

Petition calls for safety overhaul at Avalon Heights after 2 USF doctoral students were killed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 As the nation marks 250 years of history, we\u2019re looking back at the roots of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[52302,1920,53643,135,5910,137,136,208,10364],"class_list":["post-257659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-america-250","tag-cigar","tag-legacy","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts","tag-ybor-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257659","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=257659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}