José Rodeiro TAMPA THE CRADLE OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE, enamel-on-mdo, 40’ x 20,’ 1990, (Property of the City of Tampa).

Sadly, after a dozen years of direct exposure to intense Florida sunlight and torrential rains and winds, the image faded. The work was removed in 2006. Nevertheless, the facts remain: José Martí raised money and weapons in Ybor City, Tampa for the Cuban cause (una Cuba Libre). Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders used Ybor City as the staging-area for their attack on the Spaniards in Cuba. Dr. Remember Maceo-Gomez (Maceo’s granddaughter) and her family, after departing Castro’s Cuba, settled in Tampa. (Photograph by J. Tomás López; the eminent Cuban-American photographer).