Eron Jenkins
History of News Media
Jeff Johnson
November 28, 2011
Spanish-Language Newspapers in Ybor City and New Mexico In 1898, the Cuban War for Independence ended. 12 years later, the Mexican Revolution against the autocratic president Porfirio Díaz began. Not surprisingly, the ramifications of these two events were not limited to Cuba and Mexico. Thousands of Spanish speaking people came to the United States in search work and asylum. In Tampa, Florida, in a neighborhood called Ybor City, cigar manufacturers offered work to immigrants from Cuba and Spain. Conversely, in New Mexico, Spanish speaking people had lived in the region north of the Rio Grande for hundreds of years. However, growth and stability in the region offered new opportunities to Americans from the east and Mexican immigrants from the south. The goal of this paper will be to examine the development and content of Spanish language newspapers in these two areas from 1900-1910 by looking at two newspapers: El Diario de Tampa of Ybor City and La Estrella of La Cruces, New Mexico. To understand any aspect of any culture one must note the historical context in which the event occurs. In this case, the goal is to study the history of the news media, specifically newspapers, in Ybor City and New Mexico. Because of the corresponding migration and revolutionary atmosphere, the context of the development of the newspapers in these two places is similar. However, they diverge in terms of their perspective. The press in Ybor City is influenced by their emigrant community and more fixated on revolutionary advocacy. While the press in New Mexico is shaped by the effort to conserve, not transform, Hispanic culture.
The Development of Ybor City To understand the Spanish-language press in Tampa at the turn-of-the-century is to first see the city as a developing urban community with a booming niche industry. In fact, by 1900, Tampa was the leading manufacturing city in the state of Florida (Ybor City book 43). But unlike other manufacturing centers in the north, Tampa was not leading the way in making iron, steel, or automobiles. In Tampa, they made cigars. In the second half of the 19th century, capitalists from Havana, like Martinez Ybor, began bringing their successful business model of hand-rolling cigars to Tampa. With its growth and its labor-intensive nature, cigar manufacturing help create the stable working environment in Tampa that neither Spain nor Cuba could. The result was the development of a distinctly Spanish atmosphere in Tampa. And this is the climate that the Spanish news media in Ybor City developed in. Initially, the people immigrating from Cuba to Tampa and the rest of Florida were not seen as “immigrants” in purest sense of the word. Because of the obvious proximity of Cuba to Florida, Cuban immigrants, a significant number of whom were 2nd generation Spaniards, had more options in terms of mobility than say Italian immigrants arriving in New York City. Therefore, for the thousands of Cubans that came, working in Florida was seen as normal and not as leaving Cuba for good. In fact, in the 1890s, as many as 100,000 people passed between Cuba and the United States and back again each year (Ybor City book 76). Ramón Williams, the American consul general to Cuba in the 1890s explained to a congressional committee that “They go back and forward as those French laborers go from Canada into New England and work and then go back home. Sometimes the Cubans return, but a good many of them have remained there [in Florida]. The whole commerce of Cuba is with the United States” (RW link in email). The ethos of industry, capitalism, and consumption that began at the turn-of-the century was also the driving force that paved the way for establishment of Ybor City. In 1885, a Spanish born and Cuban immigrant business man named Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his cigar manufacturing plant from Key West to Tampa. In the spring of 1886, the first cigars were made at the factory of Mssr. V. Martinez Ybor and Co. And by 1910, there were almost 9,000 employees of cigar manufacturers in Ybor City; more than 7,000 of them were immigrants (Ybor City Book 109). However, the rise of the cigar factories in Ybor City was not a result of happenstance. In 1895, the Cuban War of Independence against Spain began. It ended in 1898 with an intervention from the United State and the subsequent Spanish-American war. The result was that places like Tampa were able to offer businessmen in Cuba the stability of peace, the prospect of growth, and workforce that had been exiled from its home country. The Cuban revolution changed migration to Ybor City. While there were thousands of people migrating between Cuba and Florida each year, the numbers were subject to fluctuation based the revolution. Also, the revolutionary atmosphere carried over into the sphere labor relations. Work stoppages in the cigar factories had been a part of Ybor City from the beginning, but the increased immigration brought on by the revolution cemented the need for labor organization.
In their book The Immigrant World of Ybor City, authors Gary Mormino and George Pozzetta describe the atmosphere for Spanish immigrants as “Held together by a vibrant Latin culture, infused with a set of distinctive work rhythms, and accentuated by a heightened political consciousness, [offering] contrasting values and alternatives: solidarity buffered by individuality; an isolated community beset by revolution and unrest; and an elite work force challenged at every point by a Cuban proletariat” (75).
The Press in Ybor City Not surprisingly, as more people immigrated to Tampa, newspapers began gaining more popularity. Also, perhaps unique to the area at least in terms of popularity, lectors who read the newspapers in the cigar factories served as a catalyst for growth. In his article “A Socio-Historic Study of Hispanic Newspapers in the United States,” author Nicolás Kanellos explains how the newspapers in Ybor City reflected the divisions of race, class, and ethnicity there. He explains that “there were the periodicals that served the interests of the owners of the cigar factories, such as La Revista (The Magazine)…on the other side of the equation were the periodicals that served the interests of the workers and unions: Federacion (Federal), El International (The international), and Boletin Obrero (Worker Bulletin).” This is important to note because the goal of the newspapers in Ybor City was usually first to advocate, and then to inform. Another paper of the time was El Diario De Tampa (The Diary of Tampa) which began publication in 1908. “The periodical of political independence” was advertised in Ybor City as the only Spanish daily paper in Tampa (#10). The paper was always black and white with only a few pictures in their advertisements. Like the other papers, El Diario De Tampa covered labor relations in Ybor City. The letters to the editors were often about workers and the cigar manufacturers and other business like the shipping industry (#9). Also, even though newspapers like El International were published for much longer than El Diario De Tampa, which ended after only a few years of publication, because of their more varied coverage of national and international news, this paper seems to best represent the immigrant atmosphere previously described in Ybor City. In June of 1908, the paper began a correspondence with in Havana. On June 9th 1908, they published the following note from a Cuban newspaper called La Lucha (The Fight) under the headline “Cries and lamentations of Cuba.” Lo repetimos: es mas que lamentable, desconsolador, que existan miles de familias, como alguien asegura, que no tienen pan que llavar a la boca, pero esas son desdichas particulares, las cuales, debemos todos en comun, procurar que cesen, pero que en nada detienen la marcha progresiva economica de Cuba, cuyo porvenir es indudablemente risueño (8). [We repeat: it is more than regrettable or heartbreaking, thousands of families there, as someone said, have no bread to eat, but those are private misfortunes which we all in common, [they] try to stop it, but nothing stops the march of Cuba toward a progressive economy, whose future is undoubtedly smiling.]
In line with the advocacy style of journalism described by Kanellos, El Diario De Tampa went on to describe that note as optimistic and laud the effort of the citizens in Cuba. As would be expected, most of the papers in Tampa covered news from Cuba, sometimes exclusively, because of the large percentage of the population in Ybor City that had emigrated from Cuba or had a vested interest in the politics there. Furthermore, the sympathetic coverage of what was happening in Cuba helped bring the revolutionary spirit to Ybor City. Similarly, often on the second page of El Diario De Tampa the minutes from the Sociedad de Socorras Mutuos (the Mutual Aid Society) were published (#3). Mormino and Pozzetta offer some context regarding the development of mutual aid in Tampa. They explain that unlike immigrant neighborhoods in urban areas in the north, the people immigrating to Tampa arrived to city without the necessary infrastructure to support them. “Expansion often had to await sufficient housing; and, more important, there were no institutions, such as churches or charitable agencies, left behind [by previous immigrants] to minster to newly arrived immigrants” (176). Therefore, once again, newspapers like El Diario De Tampa seem to reflect and to serve as a catalyst for the developing community of immigrants. However, it is the coverage of news outside of Ybor City that is the most reflective of the atmosphere there because, despite the fact that it’s written exclusively in Spanish, a large portion of the issues were devoted to news from traditionally non-Spanish speaking countries such as the United States and Italy. In December of 1908, there was an earthquake in southern Italy; and while there were a large number of Italian immigrants in Ybor City, the details of the earthquake were front page news for several issues (11). Likewise, El Diario De Tampa covered new laws and regulations regarding working women in Spain and France (10). In almost every issue, there were updated statistics and standings, or in the offseason news, of baseball teams from across the southeast United States (4). They even updated their readers on the recent weather in New York City (1). Even the advertisements reflected the papers’ multiethnic character. There were advertisements for European style cafes and restaurants (2). There were often advertisements for business like the Cosmopolitan Bank and Trust Co. of Ybor City and the Cosmopolitan Drug Company of Ybor City (4). Therefore, the history of the news media in Ybor City seems analogous to the climate there. While the coverage was often of local or Latin importance, the content of El Diario De Tampa was diverse.

Changes in New Mexico In some ways, turn-of-the-century New Mexico was very similar to what was happening in Florida at that time. Growth, this time with the expansion of the railroad through New Mexico, helped create new industries and a foreign revolution begot more immigration. However, a community of Spanish speaking people in New Mexico did not begin in the 19th century. In Speaking for Themselves, author Doris Meyer writes that “The Spanish-speaking residents of New Mexico in the late nineteenth century commonly referred to themselves as neomexicanos, a cultural identifier that both situates them and differentiates them from other Hispanics in the Southwest” (3). Meyer also explains that these people had lived in the region north of the Rio Grande prior to the creation of the United States. Therefore, the development of the Spanish-language press in New Mexico happened in significantly different context than in Ybor City. In the case of New Mexico, the context of the immigration itself is twofold. Not surprisingly, there is the immigration of people across the border from Mexico. But another significant factor is the immigration of Anglo people from the eastern part of the United States in anticipation of the first railroads lines in the territory which arrived in 1878. The sheer number of people migrating to the region between 1900 and 1920 is the most striking attribute of what was happening in New Mexico during this time. By 1910, more than one third of the total population of New Mexico was people that had migrated there from other parts of the United States (Meyer). Furthermore, much like Cubans going to and from Florida, the United States’ border with Mexico, one of the largest unfortified borders in the world, was an open one. Between 1911 and 1920, almost 900,000 people emigrated from Mexico to the United States (127 revolt on the border). In New Mexico, there were as many 12,000 Mexican immigrants each year, and by 1920, the number had increased to 20,000 (Meyer). In 1910, the Mexican revolution began. Perhaps the picture that best encapsulates the attitude that spurred the revolution was the popular saying “Mexico, mother to foreigners, stepmother to Mexicans” (USFP term paper). While this paper is not concerned with causes of the Mexican revolution, it is necessary to establish because it is this worldview that creates an atmosphere in which the goal is to conserve what had previously been established, even if it means doing so in another county. This important to note because, while there must have been numerous differences, the desire to maintain their culture would have been similar to that of the Hispanic people already in New Mexico. A professor at Brown University, Hispanic studies scholar Nicolás Kanellos explains that the people coming to New Mexico “intended that the culture, religion, politics, and ethos of Mexico were to be, if not duplicated, at least continued in the foreign land until the revolution ceased and the internal politics in Mexico changed sufficiently to allow them to return to their patria, or fatherland” (Kanellos 1993, 242). Furthermore, the arrival of Americans to territory helped create two distinct populations—an Anglo one and a Hispanic one. The resulting political atmosphere reflected this partition. For example, in 1912, New Mexico achieved statehood with their original constitution creating the only bilingual state in the Union. Meyer explains that “for neomexicanos, this massive influx of foreigners with a different social, political, and economic structure, a different language, religion, values, and ethnic origins, and a completely different understanding of land rights…would inevitably lead to conflict and hostility on many fronts” (11). Therefore, the press in New Mexico was influenced by three agendas: one of the Hispanic people already in, one of those emigrating from Mexico, and one of those migrating from the eastern United States.

The Press in New Mexico The result of the cultural division on the development of newspapers in New Mexico was an antagonistic perspective toward assimilation. However, this did not begin in 20th century. After the Mexican-American War, which ended in 1848, newspapers in the new U.S. territories began supporting, what they saw as, Mexican inhabitants (Kenllos 240). Similar, to the newspapers in Ybor City, the newspapers in New Mexico often lacked objectivity; and journalists for both Spanish and English-language newspapers were rarely held to very strict ethical standards (8). But regardless of their lack of objectivity, because they offered a variety of opinions, these newspapers became the medium for both progress and conservationism. As Meyer explains: Ironically, the Spanish-language press—despite being a harbinger of a new age of mass communication and industrialization—was the primary vehicle for articulating and galvanizing this counter-hegemonic cultural imperative. It was the neomexicano press, in fact that bridged the gap between tradition and modernity by establishing the intellectual connection between the remembered past and the anticipated future (Meyer 12). La Estrella (The Star) was advertised as the official paper of Doña Ana County holds the second largest city in New Mexico, Las Cruces, and shares a border with Mexico. The paper is printed similarly to El Diario De Tampa; it is all black and white with several stories on each page and pictures in the advertisements. However, one aesthetic difference, and a unique attribute of the Spanish-language newspapers in New Mexico, is that this perspective of antagonism is not most visible in their editorials or columns. Instead, they used poetry. Unlike bilingual or English newspapers, Spanish-language newspapers throughout the southwest turned to the poetry of both professional writers and armature citizens to provide cultural and political commentary (20). In almost every issue, on almost every page of La Estrella there are several poems. These poems usually have a patriotic message, but often with a very somber tone. In one issue the newspaper published a poem by a famous poet Juan de Dios Peza titled “Desolation.”
|Esperanzas y ensueños, |Hopes and dreams, |
|placer y afán, |pleasure and desire, |
|nada dura en la vida: |nothing lasts in life: |
|¡todo se va! |It all goes! |
|para el artero mundo, |for the cunning world |
|dicha ó pesar, |happiness or sorrow, |
|lágrimas ó sonrisas, |tears or smiles, |
|¡todo es igual! |All the same! |
|Hace bien el que lejos |It is good that far away |
|de los demás, |of others, |
|se huelga ó se lamenta |rejoice or lament |
|del bien y el mal. |good and evil. |
|Hace bien el que alivio |It is good that relief |
|pide jamás, |never asks, |
|y busca en sus pesares |and looking at their sorrows |
|la soledad. |the loneliness. |
|Bien hace el que disfraza |While you all disguise |
|su propio mal; |the evil thereof; |
|bien hace el que se esconde |While you all hide |
|para llorar. |for the mourning. (1) |

Other poems published in La Estrella like Patria discuss the greatness of Mexican history and the spirit of “the indomitable people of Mexico.” (2) But most of them sound more like Un Angel Mas which was written after a young girl named Josephina died in which the poet regrets the “world of terror and war” the girl was born in. Also, unlike what was happening in Ybor City, the historical context of the development of the Spanish-language press in New Mexico was confined to a much smaller geographic area. In New Mexico, there were no immigrants from Italy or Spain. Therefore, new migrants from the eastern part of the United States were outsiders in an established community as opposed to another group in a growing and diverse place. The effect is that the Spanish-language press in New Mexico focused exclusively on territorial news. La Estrella occasionally covered American politics, but only relative to how it affected their community. When the front pages of the paper were not filled with commentarial poetry, the newspaper usually covered the news and politics of the Mexican Revolution. They did cover a speech by then-President William Howard Taft in an effort to advocate against any intervention by the United States in the Revolution (4). The paper also published an editorial in which it encouraged its readers to pay tribute to Abraham Lincoln because he was “one of the greatest liberators of humanity.” (2). Finally, other parts of the paper also reflected this preference of locality. In El Diario de Tampa while none of the news was in English, many of the advertisements were. Most of the advertisements in La Estrella were in Spanish. There were advertisements which were titled “The Ideal” for a Spanish bookstore that noted they carried Mexican authors (7). Also, in one issue they published a list of dozens of contributors to the newspapers, all of whom appear to be average citizens. Therefore, the content of La Estrealla and other newspapers in New Mexico reflect the desire of the established community in which it developed to maintain their cultural identity.