Writer: Joshua Andino
2 min read April 2023 — In 1937, Ybor City hosted the Antifascist Women’s March. Today, a new mural celebrates that history.
Located on the western wall of the Ybor City Development Corporation building at 2015 E 7th Ave, the mural was unveiled Thursday and pays homage to the city’s radical leftist origins during the era of the Spanish Civil War in the Reconstructionist South.
According to Sarah McNamara, historian and Tampa Bay native, in her conversation with the Creative Loafing, the mural aims to help highlight the city’s heritage, noting that many of the issues faced today are not dissimilar to those of the 1930’s. “Learning how to understand history in a way that is critical can help us understand the moments we live in,” she said. McNamara’s latest book, ‘Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South’, comes out later this month, with the mural kicking off the book release cycle and providing a fitting end to Women’s History month.
The mural, funded both by the city and the Hillsborough County historical council and completed by local artist Michelle Sawyer, features Spanish Communist leader Dolores Ibárruri, Guatemalan labor organizer Luisa Moreno, and McNamara’s own great aunt and Ybor native Margot Falcón Blanco. Sawyer proposed the inclusion of Blanco, with McNamara saying, “To me, her inclusion represents the everyday political lives of Latinas in Ybor as well as the memories and histories that live in Tampa.” She added, “History, we often assume, is made by big names. But, the reality is that great movements, and great historical moments, are made and shaped by everyday people, including those as common as my Aunt Margot.”
The mural comes at a time when Hispanics and Latinos are an increasingly influential voting block and economic driver for both Tampa and the country. Across the state, Republicans have made huge strides within the community, and there is little left to be said about Governor Ron DeSantis’ re-election landslide that saw typically left-leaning cities and counties flip for the governor – including Tampa and South Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the country’s population, and are expected to make up over 30% of the U.S. population by 2060. In a study released at the end of 2021, McKinsey analysts noted that if barriers to capital were addressed – a perennial issue for minority businesses, the economic impact would be monumental. The McKinsey report notes, “In a situation of full parity, they could spend an extra $660 billion annually. Latino businesses could generate an additional $2.3 trillion in total revenue each year, and 735,000 new businesses could be created supporting 6.6 million new jobs.”
But Ybor City is no stranger to the entrepreneurial spirit of the community. Ybor City was founded, and became the Cigar Capital of the World, as a result of the city’s Cuban heritage and cigar factories that provided the area’s economic backbone. Often, factory workers would be kept up to date and informed by lectors such as Luisa Capetillo, a Puerto Rican labor organizer. “Ybor City really became this international nexus of political culture,” McNamara said, and even prior to the antifascist movement of the 1930’s, the city was a stop for Cuban independence leader and poet Jose Marti to rally support for freeing the island.
While the city was annexed by Tampa in 1887, the area kept its distinct character, and serves to this day as a popular district for both tourism and local businesses that continue to drive the regional economy forward, with Courtney Orr, manager for the Ybor City Redevelopment area telling Invest:Tampa Bay 2021, “We very much are a small business community and we want to keep it that way. This is a big factor in why people want to come and support the district. Ybor City regularly draws a lot of visitors so we must continue to make it distinctive and create the magical experience it offers.”
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