Afro-Cubans

Article:  "The Afro-Cuban Community in Ybor City and Tampa, 1886-1910" by Nancy Raquel Mirabal

http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/africanamerican/mirabal.html  

http://www.jstor.org/pss/25162907 

“While Afro Cubans moved freely within Ybor City and worked next to white Cubans in the cigar factories, Florida’s segregation laws sharpened racial realities for Cuban immigrants elsewhere in the area and state. Schools, hospitals, certain businesses and private clubs all subscribed to Florida’s Jim Crow laws Afro Cubans often travelled to the African American section of Tampa to attend school, receive medical attention or go to the only movie theater that was open to blacks.”

What this means for the genealogist is that when looking for Afro-Cuban relatives in Tampa, look for them in the black community, as well as Ybor City. 

Book:  More Than Black : Afro-Cubans in Tampa by  SUSAN D. GREENBAUM , HENRY ALAN GREEN , and  MARCIA KERSTEIN ZERIVITZ.   Available through Amazon.com. 

Port Tampa Cemetery, African American cemetery destroyed for MacDill Air Force Base.

(http://www.hillsboroughcountycemeteries.com/)