Solidarity means inclusion: race, class, and ethnicity within Tampa's transnational Cigar Workers' Union

Abstract

This study analyzes the transnational migration of interracial cigar workers from Cuba to Tampa, Florida, from the 1880s to the early 1900s, focusing on the cigar workers' attempt to transplant union movement, La Resistencia, from Cuba to the agrarian, nativist, anti-union, Jim Crow American South. By the turn of the century the Cuban émigré workforce accounted for 20% of Tampa's population. The 6000 Cuban cigar makers, about 15% of them Afro-Cubans, toiled in 147 factories and produced almost 148 million cigars, or 20% of the nation's production. This case study also demonstrates an unusual south-to-north immigrant migration that brought with it a need for scholars to further explore, in David Montgomery's memorable phrase, the “racialized nature” of transnational trade unionism. Ultimately, the study argues that racialized union policies transplanted from the Cuban homeland to Florida subverted racial, class, and ethnic norms on which working-class solidarity was grounded in the new “Cigar-Making Capital of the World,” and, indeed, in the South generally. While racial divides existed in Cuba based on phenotypes, the migration to the Jim Crow South expedited the transplantation of the racialized aspects of the Cuban workforce. Finally, this study is intended to broaden and enrich scholars' understanding of the forces that shaped labor movements and their transnational migration and anchoring in new locations based on past and present challenges to worker solidarity.

Keywords::

• transnational
• Cubans
• cigar workers
• union solidarity

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the following scholars for their editorial assistance with this long-unfolding project: Paul Ortiz, Leonard R. Lempel, David B. Mock, Betsy L. Winsboro, Joe Knetsch, Dena Ewing, and Ronald L. Lewis. They also wish to acknowledge the insightful and helpful comments of Labor History's anonymous reviewers.

Notes

^1. Key works on this transfer and its economic, social, and political implications can be found in: Long, “La Resistencia,” 193, for La Sociedad de Torcedores de Tabaco de Tampa; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 265, for the relative size of Tampa's black population; Greenbaum, “Afro-Cubans in Exile”; Greenbaum, More Than Black; Pérez, “Cubans in Tampa”; Pérez, Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution; Long, “Labor Relations”; Mirabal, “The Afro-Cuban Community,” 20, for the “Havana of America”; Montgomery, “Empire, Race, and Working-class Mobilization,” 14; Fink, American Labor History, 1, 2; Fink, Workers across the Americas, xi–v, quotation xi; see Van Der Linden, Transnational Labour History, 143–53.

^2.Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 43–5; Lastra and Mathews, Ybor City, 4–44, 90; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 63–96; Pérez, “Cubans in Tampa,” 25–8; Cooper, Once a Cigar Maker, 16; Pérez, “Reminiscences of a Lector,” 443. By the mid-1880s, cigar manufacturing represented Key West's major industry which produced 100,000,000 cigars annually with a weekly payroll of $60,000; see Bensel's Key West Directory,1888, 42–4; Tindall, The Ethnic Southerners, 1–21, 63; Tindall, Natives and Newcomers, for patterns of white supremacy in the South, and Fink and Reed, Race, Class, and Community, for evidence that most blacks in the South, when employed, worked primarily in the cotton and textiles industries.

^3.Montgomery, Workers' Control in America, 153; see Montgomery, The Fall of the House, 58–111, 370–410; Zieger, Organized Labor, 5, 6, quotation 5; Zieger, For Jobs and Freedom, 9–42; on the theory of race and the workforce, see Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness, 6–17.

^4.Tobacco Leaf, October 7, 1886, Arsenio Sanchez Papers; Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 58.

^5. See “Jacksonville-Tampa-Key West Railroad Schedule,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, April 11, 1893. General information on the construction of this railroad can be found in many histories of Florida, in particular Tebeau and Marina, A History of Florida, 268, 269.

^6.Twelfth Census of the United States,1900: “Native and Foreign Born and White and Colored Populations, Classified By Sex, For Places Having 2,500 Inhabitants Or More: 1900,” 527, 612, 650, 742; Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 43–6, 55, 58, Table 45, 129; “Cigar Production in Tampa in 1900,” and “Beautiful Tampa By the Gulf: A Short History of Its Marvelous Growth and Present Business Activity,” Tampa Morning News, February 27, 1895, January 10, 1901; Borio, “Tobacco Timeline”; “Little Havana,” Tampa Morning News, June 30, 1895; Cooper, Once a Cigar Maker, 69; Long, “Labor Relations,” 551; Greenbaum, “Afro-Cubans in Exile,” 62–3; Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 338; Solomon, “The 1900s: Immigrant Cigar-Makers,” 98–9; Adler, “Black Violence,” 209.

^7. See de la Cova, “Cuban Exiles in Key West”; Muñiz, “Tampa at the Close”; Muñiz, The Ybor City Story, 9–16; Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 43–6, 58; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 63–96; Bretos, Cuba and Florida, 73–6; Long, “The Historical Beginnings”; Fink, In Search of the Working Class, 16.

^8. “Beautiful Tampa By the Gulf”; Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 44; Solomon, “The 1900s: Immigrant Cigar-Makers,” 99; Mormino and Pozzetta, TheImmigrant World, 67; Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 339; Ingalls and Pérez, Tampa Cigar Workers, 3, 4.

^9.War Department, Report of the Census, 96–7.

^10.James, Holding Aloft, 239.

^11.Helg, Our Rightful Share, 3, see 1–90.

^12.Martinez-Alier, Marriage, Class, and Colour, 67; McGillivray, Blazing Cane, 25.

^13. Ibid.; Corwin, Spain and the Abolition, 215–37; Aimes, A History of Slavery, 196–221; Pérez, Cuba: Between Reform, 3–27, 92–3; Casanovas, Bread, or Bullets!, 97–146; Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba, 127–279.

^14.Pérez, Cuba: Between Reform, 3–27, 92; Casanovas, Bread, or Bullets! 97–146; Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba, 127–279; see Foner, The Spanish-Cuban-American War.

^15.Muñiz, The Ybor City Story, 48; Martí, “With All, for the Good of All,”; Martí, “My Race, 152, 173, 174; Martí, La Cuestion Racial, 25–9; Mirabal, “The Afro-Cuban Community,” 20, 21; Appel, “The Unionization of Florida,” 43; Helg, “Race and Black Mobilization”; Helg, Our Rightful Share; Bretos, Cuba and Florida, 79–90; James, Holding Aloft, 243–7.

^16.War Department, Report of the Census, 69; Greenbaum, More Than Black, 121; “Wanted to Wed Negro,” Tampa Tribune, August 3, 1902; Grillo, Black Cuban, Black American, 7; Muñiz, The Ybor City Story, 130; Mormino and Pizzo, Tampa, 100; Greenbaum, “Afro-Cubans in Exile,” 66; Johnson, “Origin of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano,” 4–42; Muñiz, The Ybor City Story, 128.

^17.Appel, “The Unionization of Florida,” 46, 47; on Florida's history of racism and violence, see Winsboro, “Image, Illusion, and Reality.”

^18. See Greenbaum, More Than Black, 8, 56, 87–95, 224–59; Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 346; Mormino and Pozzetta, TheImmigrant World, 57, 79, 101, 153, 186; Knetsch and Wynne, Florida in the Spanish-American War, 23–34, 129–34; James, Holding Aloft, 32, 37–9, and 250, for the racial divisions of Tampa during the Spanish-American War; “Man Murdered: Policeman McCormick Killed in the Scrub,” Tampa Morning News, September 27, 1895. By 1900, roughly 20% of the population of Tampa was black and nearly 15% of the Cuban population was Afro-Cuban.

^19. See Brown and Rivers, For a Great and Grand Purpose, 28–9; Rivers and Brown, Laborers in the Vineyard, 183, 186–7; Brady, Things Remembered, 29.

^20.Helg, Our Rightful Share, 64–5; Greenbaum, More Than Black, 55, 207, 208, 247.

^21.Greenbaum, More Than Black, 207–9.

^22. Ibid., 224–59.

^23.Mirabal, “The Afro-Cuban Community,” 20; Tinajero, El Lector, 65–142, especially 91–4, 97–9, 124; see Gonzalez-Llanes, Cigar City Stories, 54.

^24. See Alexander, A History of Organized, 1–35; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 175–209.

^25.“Proyecto de Bases,” Microfilm Reel 1, El Internacional Collection.

^26. “Origen Animale del Hombre,” La Federación 1, no. 16 (1899), 2–3, El Internacional Collection.

^27.Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 79; “Gonzalye's Great Game: A Slick Cuban Darkey and His Patent Basket,” Tampa Morning News, September 25, 1895; James, Holding Aloft, 243; Long, “La Resistencia”; Long, “Labor Relations”; Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 348–9; Thompson, “Political Nativism in Florida,” 39–65.

^28.Cashman, America in the Gilded Age, 92–9; Hellwig, “Strangers in Their Own Land”; Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, 22 Stat. 58, 47th Cong., 1st sess. (May 6th, 1882); Higham, Strangers in the Land, 5–11, 35–105.

^29.Hewitt, Southern Discomfort, 44.

^30.Newton, The Invisible Empire, xv; Ortiz, Emancipation Betrayed, 11; see Shofner, “Customs, Law, and History”; Vandiver, Lethal Punishment, 22.

^31.Tebeau and Marina, A History of Florida, 294.

^32. Ibid.

^33.James, Holding Aloft, 240, 252; untitled article, Tampa Morning Tribune, September 4, 1901; “Tampa Observed Labor Day: Unions Made Fine Showing,” The Weekly Tribune, September 5, 1901.

^34.Brody, In Labor's Cause, 103–30, quotation 113; see Krause, The Battle for Homestead, 284–314; Long, “Labor Relations,” 552; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 117; Long, “La Resistencia,” 203, 205.

^35. “Wants Gambling Stopped,” and “Strikers Raid Gambling Houses; Extra Policemen Are On Duty,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 1, 1901.

^36.Ingalls, Urban Vigilantes, 72–84, 86; “Kidnappings Squelched Strike,” Tampa Tribune, August 8, 1901; “Stop the Strike,” Tampa Morning Tribune, August 8, 1901; “Ship Them to Distant Shores,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 8, 1901; Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 48; Gonzalez-Llanes, Cigar City Stories, ix.

^37. “Stop the Strike,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 8, 1901.

^38. “Cigar Workers of Tampa are Deported,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 8, 1901; “Cigar Strikers Agitators Deportation from Tampa Provokes Comments,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 15, 1901; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 117.

^39. “Cigar Strikers at Tampa Begin Exodus from City to Other Points,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, August 1, 1901; “Cigar Strike Ends: Resistencia Labor Union Officially Ends Disruption of Work,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, November 28, 1901; “Cigar Industry at Tampa Settling of Strike Good News for New Yorkers,” Tampa Weekly Tribune, December 5, 1901; Long, “Labor Relations,” 553; Long, “La Resistencia,” 209–212; see Campbell and McLendon, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, 45.

^40.Ingalls and Pérez, Tampa Cigar Workers, 4; cited in Poyo, “The Impact of Cuban,” 55.

^41. “They Indict Themselves,” La Federación, December, 2, no. 55 (1900): 4 (a press article published in English rather than Spanish; revised format).

^42. “Origen Animale del Hombre,” La Federación 1, no. 15 (1899): 3, El Internacional Collection.

^43. Cited in Long, “La Resistencia,” 198.

^44.Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 353, 354.

^45.Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 117, 118; “Ship Them to Distant Shores,” Weekly Tribune (Tampa), August 8, 1901; “Kidnappings Squelched Strike,” Tampa Tribune, November 6, 1994 (retrospective article).

^46. “To the Citizens of Tampa—Greetings,” Cigar Makers Official Journal (Chicago), May 15, 1904; Long, “La Resistencia,” 207, 211; Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World, 117–9; “Ship Them to Distant Shores,” Weekly Tribune (Tampa), August 8, 1901; “Kidnappings Squelched Strike,” Tampa Tribune, November 6, 1994 (retrospective article).

^47.Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 353–6.

^48.Pérez, “Cubans in Tampa,” 34; see Poyo, “The Impact of Cuban,” 58–60.

^49.James, Holding Aloft, 152–7, quotation 252.

^50. “They Indict Themselves,” La Federación, December, 2, no. 55 (1900): 4 (a press article published in English rather than Spanish; revised format).

^51. See Cooper, Once a Cigar Maker, 19–31, 55–6, 136, especially 28; Long, “La Resistencia,” 195–7; Interview with José Vega Diaz, cited in Mormino, “Tampa and the New Urban,” 353; Poyo, “The Impact of Cuban,” 58–60.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Irvin D.S. Winsboro

Irvin D. S. Winsboro is a tenured Professor of History and a recipient of the Senior Faculty Scholarship Excellence Award at Florida Gulf Coast University. His research centers on social history with a focus on protest praxis and movements and the African-American experience. He has published 7 books, 11 book chapters, and numerous scholarly articles in such journals as The Historian (two articles), Journal of Southern History, The Journal of African American History, and Hispanofila.

Alexander Jordan

Alexander Jordan is currently a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2014, he plans on pursuing his PhD in history at the University of Akron, where Walter Hixson, Distinguished University Professor of History, will serve as his major professor. Jordan's graduate research and scholarly interests address labor history and mass and micro social movements.