History

A popular account portrays José Gaspar as a well educated Spanish aristocrat and brilliant naval officer who turned into a swashbuckling buccaneer of the high seas when he became disenchanted with Spain in the 1770s. He was accused of stealing the crown jewels. When he jilted the daughter-in-law of King Charles III for a beautiful lady of the Court, the spurned woman and an accomplice stole the jewels and concocted the story accusing Gaspar.

Date: August 14, 1928

Time: Shortly after 9 p.m.

Place: Outside El Dorado Café, Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Ybor City

Surely someone had to have seen something.

Two men shouted violently at one another in a popular Ybor City café bustling with business. One of the men stormed from the room. The other soon followed.

A gunshot echoed throughout the establishment.

Moments later, a man lay on the sidewalk in front of the café bleeding to death from a gunshot to the abdomen.

In April 1980, the flood of Cuban refugees continued for several weeks from the port of Mariel. Cubans fled in a desperate flotilla, and Fidel Castro let them go. Family members in the United States suddenly saw hope for relatives still living under the Communist yoke. A desperate boatlift ensued, often undertaken by shrimp trawlers and fishing boats of questionable seaworthiness.

It was 1930, and the mood in Florida was bleak. Once a beacon of optimism, the state now lay in economic ruins. It had been pummeled by the real estate bust of 1926 and devastated by the Wall Street crash three years later. Crushed lives and dashed dreams haunted the Dust Bowl, but bad things weren't supposed to happen in sunshine states.

Tampa has had a long love affair with coffee: dark Cuban roasted coffee, often mixed with boiling milk. The birth of the cigar industry in the 1880s brought legions of coffee drinking Cuban, Spanish, and Sicilian immigrants to West Tampa and Ybor City.

Question: A “zarzuela” is (a) a royal palace in Spain, (b) a briar bush, (c) a Spanish operetta, (d) a seafood concoction or (e) a Spanish word guaranteed to throw non-Spanish speaking people for a loop?
Answer: All of the above.

January 10, 2011 marked the 150th anniversary of Florida’s secession from the United States. Florida followed South Carolina and Mississippi and was the third state to leave the Union. The Civil War began three months later when Southern forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The opening shots of the war were almost directed at Fort Pickens in Pensacola Harbor, but President Abraham Lincoln decided to resupply the South Carolina fort instead.

Check out the Firefighters Museum in downtown Tampa. Undoubtedly, fire shapes communities and Tampa is no exception. In 1908, block upon block in Ybor City were destroyed. The new museum, in the old #1 Fire Station on Zack Street, explores the devastating effects of fire on communities while stressing safety and preparedness.

Over eighty years ago, Victor Licata opened the Seabreeze Restaurant on the site, blending his beloved Italian cooking with Cuban and Cracker influences. The Seabreeze culled a blue-collar clientele from the workers of nearby industrial facilities. The Licata family arguably invented the deviled crab, a croquette spiked with spicy tomato sauce.

Memories Rediscovered, Remembered and Relived by some of our Tampa neighbors.