History

Café Con Leche & Don Quixote: Life in the Cigar Factories

El Lector reading to cigar factory workers

The cigar workers were a unique society in working America at the turn of the century. Although they worked in the factories and received wages, they were not what we would consider "blue collar workers". They were skilled labor and prided themselves on their professional abilities. They came to work dressed in white shirts and ties.

Ladies rolling cigars

An important institution in Ybor City was the "lector." The workers chose this reader and the literature that he read. The mornings were devoted to various newspapers. In the afternoons their attention turned to fiction. Frequently the choice was a great novel such as those by Cervantes, Emile Zola or Victor Hugo; or, upon request, the lector might read the libretto or script from an opera scheduled to be performed in Ybor City the following week.

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European Culture on the Banks of the Hillsborough River