Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Anthropology

Advisor

Alyshia Gálvez

Committee Members

Marc Edelman

Christopher Loperena

Yanique Hume

Subject Categories

Africana Studies | Caribbean Languages and Societies | Ethnomusicology | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Keywords

Cigarmakers, Ybor City, mutual aid, sound studies, Afro-Cuban music

Abstract

This project is a historical, ethnographic investigation of the role of sound, the voice, and live performance in the early Cuban enclaves of Florida. Sound fueled notions of autonomy and self-making for Cubans that formed the first mutual aid societies in Tampa during the nineteenth century. Vamos a Vencer-We Will Overcome examines the racial, diasporic politics of Afro-Cuban cigar makers that participated in mutual aid societies in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Key West, Tampa and New York City. Afro-Cuban cigar makers were skilled labor organizers who championed anti-colonial thought which in turn shaped the movement for Cuban independence. Cigar makers developed their politics by listening collectively to the lector, or factory reader. The lector was an artist who interpreted texts that circulated political ideologies that fostered labor solidarities between Cuban and immigrant cigar makers and American trade laborers. As such, given their contributions, my research questions why there has not been more recognition of the efforts made by early generations of black Cubans in Florida who lived through this pivotal moment of history.

My work aims to redress this historical silence in Cuban and American historiography through research about the achievements of Marcos Llerena, an Afro-Cuban cigar maker from Havana, and leader in the Sociedad Unión Martí Maceo and Club Cubano Inter-Americano (CCI). Afro-Cubans formed the Unión Martí-Maceo Society in 1904 in Ybor City, a historic tobacco district of Tampa, after they were expelled from the Círculo Cubano in 1899 due to racial segregation laws and social pressures that divided Cuban émigrés living in the South. As my research demonstrates, the Llerenas belonged to a large family network of Afro-Cuban cigar makers who moved frequently between Havana and Tampa during the political shifts caused by US military intervention from 1898-1902, and the new republican administration led by President Tomás Estrada Palma.

My research considers the effects of racial violence through a hemispheric, diasporic lens. I examine what happened when the newly formed Cuban republican administration did not provide economic, political or social opportunities for Afro-Cubans, many of whom had fought against Spanish colonialism and were now veterans residing in Key West and Tampa. When the state suppressed the protests through force in 1912, this research shows the ways the Llerenas and Afro-Cubans in Tampa faced intensifying racial violence. They responded by bonding together to form diasporic mutual aid organizations.

This study closely analyzes mutual aid societies and the meaning of the medical, social and economic benefits they provided to their members. In the Jim Crow South, Afro-Cubans faced unique forms of racial violence and discrimination in comparison to Cuban Americans that could assimilate into American whiteness. My project expands existing narratives by adding Afro-Cuban histories to the studies about Cuban Americans that lack in depth racial, gender analyses, and that solely focus on the Miami exile community rather than considering the earlier Cuban enclaves in Key West and Tampa.

The second aspect of my research investigates the performing arts as a vibrant layer of the mutual aid societies. The Llerenas supported artists who innovatively used sound and live performance on stage which fostered new collaborations with Afro-diasporic communities. In addition, my research examines the subversive messaging embedded in Afro-Cuban performing arts. While musicians developed anti-colonial art forms, they also had limited access to basic resources such as secure housing, health insurance, and steady income. Their social, economic realities made mutual aid important for their survival in the diaspora. Finally, this project illuminates how stigmatized genres such as rumba and Lucumí have influenced popular creative expression in Latino performing arts. Despite the cultural contributions that Afro-Latino artists have made, my research analyzes ongoing misrecognition and racist stigmas that still circulate about Afro-Cuban performance.

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