Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 22/Fernando Lemos

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Fernando Limos
Born
Calzada del Cerro, Havana, Cuba
Cause of deathUnknown
Occupation
  • Cigar-maker
  • Furniture mover
OrganizationLa Caridad del Cerro
Spouse(s)unknown
Children0

Overview[edit | edit source]

Fernando Limos was a Cuban cigar-factory worker that born in the late 19th century. Lemos was part of the first wave of Latin immigrants that helped establish the Ybor City neighborhood. Lemos lived to see the neighborhood flourish and eventually fall in prosperity due to the Great Depression. Lemos was interviewed by the Federal Writer's Project on January 9th, 1939.[1]

Biography[edit | edit source]

Early Life[edit | edit source]

Fernando Limos was born on May 30th, 1870, in Havana, Cuba, to truck-driver Manuel del Pilar. Lemos grew up attending an upper-class school known as “La Caridad Cerro” until the age of 13, when his father sent him to become an apprentice in a Havana cigar factory. After training for a year, Lemos worked for five years in the factory of Antonio belle in Arroyo Naranja, a Havana suburb. Lemos immigrated to Ybor City, Tampa, with his uncle in 1888 at the age of 18.[2]

Work in Cigar Factory[edit | edit source]

In Ybor City, Lemos immediately started working at Vicente Martinez's first cigar factory. Lemos married his wife on November 18th, 1889.[3]With both of their incomes, Lemos was able to buy a house through a home loan, which he paid back at a rate of $7.51 a month. [4]As the Federal Writer's Project's article reports, Lemos grew to dislike the racially biased nature of the cigar industry and the new cigar-making machines, which led to the firing of numerous cigar makers.[5] Due to preference of employment given to white Spaniards over Cubans, Lemos was never able to hold a substantial income in the factory.

Later Life[edit | edit source]

Lemos worked at the factory for 32 years continuously, excluding 1921, when he worked moving furniture due to widespread strikes in Tampa. As a result of moving heavy furniture, Lemos ruptured his vein and was unable to work for the remainder of his life. Lemos never had children, and as a result, relied on government relief for support in old age.[6]His date of death is unknown.

Social Issues[edit | edit source]

Ybor City's architecture reflects the city's strong Latin presence, with the downtown area being more reminiscent of Havana than Tampa. [7]

Race Relations in Cigar Factories[edit | edit source]

Unlike other cities in the American South, Ybor City held a great amount of ethnic and linguistic diversity.[8]As a New York correspondent reports when visiting Ybor City and Key West, "the Cubans run the island to a very great extent” and that “there is such a conglomeration of American colored and white folks, Cubans, colored immigrants from Nassau and Conchs . . . that it is impossible to determine where the line begins and where it ends.”[9]The Ybor Factory Building, established by the Spaniard, Vicente Martinez Ybor, brought large scale immigration of cigar makers from Cuba, Italy, and Spain.[10] Despite the racial diversity, Jim Crow laws divided whites and blacks, and made it difficult for many Cubans to find employment. Furthermore, social clubs and unions often excluded Afro-Cubans and catered to those of Spanish descent. Specifically, the best paid cigar positions, such as lectors and selectors, were given exclusively to Spaniards or white Cubans.[11]

Race relations greatly deteriorated in Ybor City during the 1930s. With the economic decline due to the Great Depression, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups took over the city and terrorized the multi-racial working class population.[12]Due to these conditions, many cigar-factory workers abandoned Tampa, leading to the decline of Ybor City.[13]

Labor Rights and Economic Decline[edit | edit source]

Ybor City's growth was severely undermined by the tense relationship between the cigar factory workers and the factory owners.[14]Factory owners often limited the rights of their workers and labor unions due to fears of worker radicalization.[15]Due to the economic hardships during the early years of the Great Depression, several unions in Ybor City began to show communist sentiment. As a result, factory owners banned lectors, who they attributed with spreading the communist agenda among the workers. Lectors were the main source of diversion for the factory workers as they read aloud the daily news, music, and literature.[16]The workers, in return, revolted, leading to the Tampa Strike of 1931.The end of the strike resulted in the permanent expulsion of the lector workers, leading to a general decline in the number of workers and the industry itself.[17]

Labor exploitation and unsanitary conditions led to the growth of labor unions, which defended immigrant rights against factory owners.[18]

While strikes played a great part in the Ybor City's decline, the Great Depression and changes in cigar making collapsed the local economy. Mechanization and the establishment of cigar machines, led to the firing of many cigar makers, as the cigar rollers were no longer needed.[19]Furthermore, due to lower worker costs in other states, many factories moved north to states like New Jersey and Connecticut.[20]As a result of these factors, Ybor City's economic decline lead to an exodus of the immigrant population.[21]


Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Life History Form, Fernando Lemos, Jan. 9, 1939, Coll. 03709, Federal Writers Project Papers, The Southern Historical Collection, UNC University Libraries
  2. ↑ Ibid., 1443.
  3. ↑ Ibid., 1444.
  4. ↑ Ibid., 1445.
  5. ↑ Ibid., 1446.
  6. ↑ Ibid., 1444.
  7. ↑ Ibid., 26.
  8. ↑ Andrew Gomez (2017). "Jim Crow and the Caribbean South: Cubans and Race in South Florida, 1885–1930s". Journal of American Ethnic History 36 (4): 25. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.36.4.0025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerethnhist.36.4.0025. 
  9. ↑ Gomez, "Jim Crow and the Caribbean South: Cubans and Race in South Florida, 1885-1930s," 28.
  10. ↑ "Ybor City Historic District---American Latino Heritage: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  11. ↑ Ibid., 33.
  12. ↑ Fielder (2018). "Designing Latinidad: Gulf South Migration and Contemporary Gentrification in Ybor City, Florida". The Global South 12 (1): 89. doi:10.2979/globalsouth.12.1.06. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/globalsouth.12.1.06. , 105.
  13. ↑ Fielder, "Designing Latinidad: Gulf South Migration and Contemporary Gentrification in Ybor City, Florida," 105.
  14. ↑ "TAMPA DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION – 1930s". www.tampapix.com. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  15. ↑ McNamara (2019). "Borderland Unionism: Latina Activism in Ybor City and Tampa, Florida, 1935-1937". Journal of American Ethnic History 38 (4): 10. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.38.4.0010. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerethnhist.38.4.0010. , 11.
  16. ↑ "TAMPA DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION-1930s".
  17. ↑ ibdb.,
  18. ↑ Ibid., 33.
  19. ↑ Ibid., 1446
  20. ↑ Ibid., 1445.
  21. ↑ Ibid., 105.

References[edit | edit source]

  • GOMEZ, ANDREW. “Jim Crow and the Caribbean South: Cubans and Race in South Florida, 1885-1930s.” Journal of American Ethnic History 36, no. 4 (Summer 2017): 25-48. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.36.4.0025.
  • MCNAMARA, SARAH. “Borderland Unionism: Latina Activism in Ybor City and Tampa, Florida, 1935-1937.” Journal of American Ethnic History 38, no. 4 (Summer 2019): 10-32.doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.38.4.0010.
  • Fielder, Elizabeth Rodriguez. "Designing Latinidad: Gulf South Migration and Contemporary Gentrification in Ybor City, Florida." The Global South 12, no. 1 (2018): 89-111. Accessed March 9, 2021. doi:10.2979/globalsouth.12.1.06.
  • “Ybor City Historic District---American Latino Heritage: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed March 9, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/ybor_city_historic_district.html.
  • TAMPA DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION – 1930s. Accessed March 9, 2021. https://www.tampapix.com/tampa1940s1.htm#:~:text=Even%20the%20cigar%20industr%20suffered,Relief%20agencies%20were%20swamped.
  • Federal Writers Project Papers. Coll. 03709. The Southern Historical Collection, UNC University Libraries

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