Embracing Past & Future

To honor Hispanic Heritage Month, USF Libraries – Tampa Special Collections is excited to present an introduction to our more than forty collections documenting the history of local Hispanic and Latin American communities.

From personal papers to organizational records and cultural artifacts, the rich and diverse collections reflect how these vibrant and vital communities are interwoven into the past, present, and future of Tampa Bay.  

On this page, you will find six thematic areas with introductions to collections popular with our researchers in the past. If you are interested in working with us to use these resources for teaching, research, or personal interest, please email  spcinfo@usf.edu . 

Immigration has always defined the United States, and since roughly 1870, the state of Florida has attracted a large influx of pioneers, developers, tourists, entrepreneurs, and transplants from around the world. The immigrant experience is both timeless and timely, and Special Collections has a great variety of resources on the subject.

No single source documents the immigrant experience in Tampa better than the records of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program that employed writers to gather vital information on traditional ways of life (folklore, language, music, religion) that were quickly disappearing. In Tampa, WPA workers recorded the experiences of Cuban and Spanish immigrants in reports that describe the Ybor City and West Tampa communities and the social and recreational clubs and activities of Tampa's Latin populations. Some 50 years after the WPA's efforts, Dr. Gary Mormino captured twenty-three interviews about the culturally rich and diversified history of Tampa's Ybor City in the "Ybor City Oral History Project." The WPA Tampa Office Records and the Ybor City Oral History Project are complemented by family histories that document immigration to Tampa, such as the papers of José Luis Avellanal and the Gonzalez family.

For those interested in the flavors of immigrant Tampa, look no further than the Columbia Restaurant / Gonzmart Family Collection and the corresponding oral history project. Century-old manuscripts, photographs, club records, rare books, and oral history interviews make this collection a must-see for both scholars and casual users alike.

•  Works Progress Administration Records 
•  Ybor City Oral History Project 
•  Columbia Restaurant / Gonzmart Family Collection 
•  Wenceslao Galvez book, Tampa: Impresiones de Emigrado 
•  José Luis Avellanal Collection 
•  José Ramón Avellanal Collection 
•  Gonzalez Family Papers 
•  Francisco Arreola Collection 
•  Arsenio Sanchez Collection 

In the mid to late 1800s, unrest in Spain’s colony of Cuba and a U.S. tariff on Cuban cigars prompted much of its cigar industry to relocate. Dozens of firms and factories relocated first to Key West (1860s-80s) and then to the new town of Ybor City starting in 1886, which was quickly annexed by the nearby City of Tampa. The cigar industry and the skilled immigrant labor it depended on helped define the city’s early identity. 

Much of Tampa’s commerce and tax base depended on cigar workers Ybor City and West Tampa. Important industry sources such as the U.S. Tobacco Journal and Tobacco Leaf give an insider’s perspective of the tobacco industry. 

For other serious cigar sleuths, the research collections of Dr. Glenn Westfall and Armando Mendez are powerful pathfinders into the subject. Don’t miss the exquisite collections of cigar label lithographs and proof books, with their vintage imagery, bold designs, and luxurious colors.    

Cigar Industry

•  Glenn Westfall Cigar Research Collection 
•  Armando Mendez Papers 
•  Fred Bautz Cigar Label Collection 
•  John William Osterweil Collection of Tampa Cigar Box Labels 
•  Olivia Tobacco Company Collection 
•  Corral, Wodiska Y Ca. Cigar Factory Records 
•  McIntyre Cigar Band Collection 
•  Sanchez y Haya Company Papers 
•  Rick and Patricia Ballantyne Cigar Label Collection 
•  Tobacco Leaf Journal 

The Culture & People of Tampa Bay

•  Anthony "Tony" P. Pizzo Collection 
•  Ferdie Pacheco Collection 
•  Spanish Civil War Oral History Project 
•  Ybor City Rotary Club Records 
•  Ybor City Chamber Of Commerce Records 
•  Latin Quarter Art Gallery Records 
•  Cuentos de mi Familia Project Records 

A mutual aid society is an organization or club created for the social, cultural, economic, and political needs and interests of its members. Often, mutual aid societies provide members with medical services, educational opportunities, and recreational activities. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of mutual aid societies were established in Tampa as the city’s immigrant populations grew. Many of the organizations that formed during that period reflected the rich diversity of cultures and heritages brought to Tampa by immigrants from Cuba and Spain.  

Explore the images below to learn more.

•  Centro Asturiano de Tampa Collection 
•  Centro Asturiano de Tampa Membership Records Photograph Collection 
•  Centro Español de Tampa Collection 
•  Cuban Club Records 
•  Sociedad la Unión Martí-Maceo Records 
•  El Porvenir Collection 
•  Anthony P. "Tony" Pizzo Collection 
•  Natalie Anderson Collection 
• Sociedad de Socorro Mutuos la Fraternidad

A number of non-English newspapers circulated throughout Tampa to better serve its diverse communities.  La Revista  and  La Gaceta  were two such publications, and print and digitized issues are available in Special Collections.

Rafael Martinez Ybor, son of Don Vicente Martinez-Ybor, the cigar manufacturer and Ybor City’s namesake, established La Revista in the early 20th century. The magazine’s tagline was "Semanario de literatura, ciencias, artes y sport," capturing the publication’s focus on literature, arts, science, and sports in the Tampa Bay area. Special Collections holds a run of issues from 1903-1905, with digitized issues available online.

La Gaceta was founded in 1922 by Victoriano Manteiga, a lector who worked in the Ybor City and West Tampa cigar industry. Nearly 100 years later, Victoriano’s grandson Patrick Manteiga still publishes the newspaper, which covers social, political, business, and community stories that involve Tampa’s Latin population. La Gaceta is the only trilingual newspaper published in the United States, with articles written in English, Spanish, and Italian. Special Collections holds print and microfilm editions of La Gaceta, spanning from the 1920s to 2020, with select digitized issues.

•  La Gaceta , USF Catalog Record
•  La Gaceta , USF Digital Collections
•  La Revista , USF Catalog Record
•  La Revista , USF Digital Collections
•  Nuevo Siglo 
•  El Sol 
•  Traducción-prensa: "The only Spanish morning daily paper published in the South" 
•  Latin American Ephemeral Publications Collection 

Excerpted from essays written for Special Collections by Dr. Harry Wohlmuth 

The University of South Florida Libraries is among a select group of research libraries outside of Bolivia that preserves and provides access to substantial holdings of rare and historical materials on Bolivia. With roughly 3000 books and pamphlets, a considerable number of newspapers and serial publications, and manuscript and archival materials, the Charles W. Arnade Collection of Boliviana emphasizes the Bolivian National Revolution, agrarian and mining economics, political and social sciences, pedagogical reform, and folkloric, linguistic, musical, anthropological, and archaeological studies. 

One of the major highlights of the collection is a number of single issues of the periodical El Condor de Bolivia, one of the earliest periodicals published in the new Republic of Bolivia. Other highlights include archival research materials concerning the botanist Thaddeus Haenke (1761-1817), a precursor of Alexander von Humboldt, who came to America in 1789 in the Malaspina expedition, and transcriptions of Dr. Arnade’s research at the Archivo y Biblioteca Nacional de Bolivia. 

•  Charles W. Arnade Collection of Boliviana 
•  Bolivana Book Collection 

Although Special Collections offers some targeted collecting areas that focus on Spain, Latin America, and their diaspora communities, these experiences are also reflected across other book collections. Beginning in the 17th century, early history books trace Spanish exploration of the Americas and periods of colonization. Additional collections follow the resulting centuries of social, political, and cultural history.

The Spanish American War collection and Latin America and the Caribbean collections cover the wars for independence before U.S. intervention, Cuba and the Caribbean conflict, and the Florida connection. More local accounts of Hispanic communities and their contributions to the Tampa Bay area can be found in the Floridiana book collection and Centro Asturiano Book Collection, which consists of the mutual aid society’s library, which covers Spain and its local immigrants.  

Contemporary book collections showcase the intellectual contributions of Hispanic American authors. Special Collections currently holds a near-comprehensive collection of science fiction from Cuba, a representative sampling of works from Argentina and Mexico, as well as a number of fine examples of the small press publications which, while difficult to locate in the United States, have formed the backbone of the Latin American Science Fiction resurgence in the latter 20th century. Publications in the Queer Literature Collection recognize the work of Latinx LGBTQ+ activists and the intersectionalities of their lived experiences. Similarly, works in the Ted Hipple Collection of Young Adult Literature capture the diverse adolescent coming of age experience of Latinx Americans. 

•  Explore the catalog Queer Literature Collection   Latin American Science Fiction   Latin American Collection   Spanish-American War Collection   Ted Hipple Collection of Young Adult Literature   Florida Studies Book Collection   Cuban Collection 

To learn more about these materials, please feel free to email us at spcinfo@usf.edu.