This dissertation looks at the Cuban cigar making communities of Key West and Ybor City (in present-day Tampa) from 1868 to 1928. During this period, both cities represented two of largest Cuban exile centers and played critical roles in the Cuban independence movement and the Clear Havana cigar industry. I am charting how these communities wrestled with race, labor politics, and their own Cuban identity. Broadly speaking, my project makes contributions to the literature on Cuban history, Latino history, and transnational studies.
My narrative is broken into two chronological periods. The earlier period (1868-1898) looks at Southern Florida and Cuba as a permeable region where ideas, people, and goods flowed freely. I am showing how Southern Florida was constructed as an extension of Cuba and that workers were part of broader networks tied to Cuban nationalism and Caribbean radicalism. Borne out of Cuba’s independence struggles, both communities created a political and literary atmosphere that argued for an egalitarian view of a new republic. Concurrently, workers began to experiment with labor organizing. Cigar workers at first tried to reconcile the concepts of nationalism and working-class institutions, but there was considerable friction between the two ideas. Influenced by Spanish anarchism, many cigar workers began to identify the limits of Cuban nationalism and instead argued for a working-class internationalism.
The second period (1898-1928) examines how union busting and Jim Crow segregation greatly weakened the Cuban communities of Southern Florida. After the Cuban War of Independence, Cubans in Southern Florida built their most ambitious labor unions. However, manufacturers and city officials used intimidation and vigilantism to break up local unions. At the same time, I show how Jim Crow discrimination became a central facet of both communities. Mutual-aid societies, Cuban schools, and other cultural spaces became segregated. In the process, Cubans of color had to create their own institutions to support themselves. Black Cubans became ostracized during this period and were forced into communities with African Americans. Conversely, I explore how white Cubans used their race to better their positions in Florida society and become Cuban Americans.
