Ybor city jazz club12/19/2023 ![]() Emigrants left the Magazzolo Valley in Sicily as Stefanesi and Alessandrini, to reemerge in Ybor City as Sicilians and Italians and later Latins. Immigration was forcing house of change, by which emigrants were recast with new identities. Text and photos for this section provided by The University of South Florida Library, Ybor City and West Tampa Collections Special Collections Department. But in 1935, the aggravation of depression and dispersion saw club rolls decline to 2,492.įor more information on the history of and current events at the Cuban Club please visit their website at Like a phoenix, the club thrived throughout the twenties, cresting at 5,000 in 1930. With characteristic vigor and flux, membership revived to 3,225 by 1919 but fell again due to labor unrest to 1,602. In 1909, membership stood at nearly a thousand but pitched to 125 by the end of strike-torn 1910. The vicissitudes of the cigar industry affected every club in Ybor City, but none manifested such stark contrasts between good times and bad as the Círculo Cubano. “I remember as a boy going to the free art classes summer evenings at the Círculo Cubano,” reminisced Jose Yglesias. Leaders also constructed a school which hosted a variety of cultural activities. In the rear of the club, members built a gymnasium and boxing arena. More than any of the other Latin societies, the Círculo Cubano promoted athletics. ![]() Imported tile, stained glass windows and marble accentuated this “cathedral for workers,” which still stands.Ĭuban youth, or at least young men, were attracted to the Cuban Club. Completed in 1918, the $60,000 structure featured a spacious theatre, cantina, pharmacy, library and a dancing floor (70 by 100 feet), lavishly decorated by Cuban painters. Mario Menocal, the President of Cuba, donated $2,000, while individual members pledged extra levies during a bond drive. In 1916 the original building burned, spurring the membership, then numbering 2,600, to rebuild with a more lasting monument. Dedication ceremonies brought out a number of American and Cuban dignitaries. The two-story building cost $18,000 and included most notably a 900 seat theatre. In 1907, Círculo Cubano erected its first clubhouse on Fourteenth Street and Tenth Avenue. ![]() The charter expressed the hope, “To bind all Cuban residents of Tampa into a fraternal group, to offer assistance and help the sick.” The by-laws also prohibited discussion within the society of labor, politics, or religion – surely a much violated provision. In honor of the new republic of Cuba, the society changed its name in 1902 to El Círculo Cubano. The welter of labor unrest in 1901 arrested early growth, but membership climbed after the strike to 3OO in 1902. The origin of El Círculo Cubano can be traced to the postwar milieu, specifically a recreational society El Club Nacional Cubano, founded October 10, 1899. The history of Cuban mutual aid life paralleled the time line of revolution and reconstitution. ![]() Thousands returned to Tampa, determined to reshape and invigorate their “Little Havana” in Ybor City. The end of the war in 1898 signaled a mass return to the homeland, only to discover the disillusionment of an unfulfilled revolution and a society in turmoil. Organizational talents funded the revolution with unceasing support, leaving a void in their community-based infrastructure. The emergence of voluntary associations among immigrants signified an organizing impulse which left its legacy in wooden dance floors, marble edifices and modern hospitals.ĭuring the formative decades of Ybor City, Cubans devoted their collective energies to the unremitting crusade of Cuba Libre. If the cigar factories functioned as the economic heart of Ybor City, mutual aid societies surely served as its soul.
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