Vicente Martinez-Ybor ( C. 1818-1896)

Prepared by a friend of the River Walk Trail Selection Committee. For more information, please contact Andy Huse, ahuse @ usf.edu

Vicente Martinez-Ybor was born in a wealthy family in Valencia, Spain and was sent to Cuba at the age of 14. In 1848 he married Bernarda Pamela Learas. The couple had five children before they died in 1862.

He founded his own cigar company and by 1853 it expanded to a full size factory. Martinez - Yeball married Mercedes de la Sledvilas Sal Monte in 1866 and they have seven children.

When a ten - year war began in Cuba in 1868, Martinez - Yeball backed the rebels and fled to Key West to move his factory there. The island does not fully meet his needs, but Tampa has an ideal climate, a good harbor, a new railway and a low cost of living, and of course. In 1886, Martinez - Yeball led Tampa to the cigar industry, followed by Cubans and Spanish workers. The Latin region of Tampa's cigar production is soon known as Ybor City, Martinez-Ybor invested in the infrastructure of the town, established gas companies, paving companies, fire insurance companies and others.

He built a house and sold them to workers at a reasonable price. Martinez-Ybor will bring a doctor to secure a safe living environment. He built a street and a sidewalk. He handed his old wooden factory to his workers for use as a theater and gathering place. Martinez-Ybor invested in the tramway system when connecting Ybor City and Tampa. His successful Cigar City also promoted the improvement of Tampa's port facility

September 7, 2018 is the 200th birthday of Vicente Martinez-Ybor, the founder of Ybor City, Tampa's historic building. Ybor arrived in a sleepy Tampa fishing village at the age of 67 in 1885 and is the first company to establish a cigar industry in Ybor City. By 1886, the first cigar was produced, but at the factories of Sanchez and Haya, the starting point of his company's town was adequate. When he transferred his cigar business from Key West to Tampa, Ybor encouraged other cigar manufacturers to follow it as well. By the turn of the century, Tampa came to Tampa to work in the cigar industry, or from hundreds of inhabitants, including the various immigrant groups that came to provide products and services to those who did it It increased to 15,000 people.

In 1885, Vicente Martinez Ivor moved the cigar business from Key West to Tampa, Florida, to avoid labor disputes. Designed as a changed enterprise town, Ybor City immediately attracted thousands of Cuban workers from Key West and Cuba. West Tampa, a community that makes another cigar, was founded in 1892 and grew rapidly. Between these communities, the population of Cuba in the Tampa Bay area has only grown to the greatest city in Florida for more than a decade and grew, so the city grew to more than 16,000 in 1900.

Regarding the brief history of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, you first need to explain how Ybor was formed. It was founded in 1886 by Vicente Martinez Yeball and is currently one of the three historical buildings in Florida. It also won the title "World Cigar Capital" in 1900. By 1950, most cigar factories were closed due to their rich history, and now it attracts visitors from all over the world. It provides culture. Although the cigar factory may not have been in operation, the recent Renaissance in this area of ​​the 1990s gave the city its original spirit and natural vitality. There are still a lot of local people, museums and shops that can feel the memories of Vicente Martinez Ivor reflecting the majority of Ibō city's culture, but it is impossible to visit, I will better understand this area There is no way.