Centro Español de Tampa collection

Centro Español, established in April 1891 as Tampa’s first mutual aid society, offered social and recreational activities, education and low-cost health care to Spanish immigrants drawn to the area by the cigar industry. Funded by 10 dollar stock pledges provided by the first 186 charter members, the mutual aid society built their first club building at 1526 7^th Avenue. Cigar manufacturer Ignacio Haya, who also served as the club’s first president, donated the land on which the club was constructed. In 1905, with growing interest in cooperative medicine, the organization erected its sanatorio at the corner of Jackson and Ola streets. The sanatorio was a full-service medical hospital that provided members with low cost healthcare. For a small weekly fee, members received medical care, unemployment insurance, and assess to the club’s libraries, ball rooms, cantinas, billiard rooms, and theatres.

The club’s constitution required all applicants to be “Spaniards by birth and by patriotic inclination” or “loyal to Spain and to its prestige in America.” The society quickly outgrew its first building and in 1912 built a new club at the corner of 7^th avenue and Broadway Avenue (in the current Centro Ybor development). With membership in the thousands, the society also decided to build a West Tampa extension of the club at 2306 N. Howard Avenue, which included the Royal Theatre, in 1912. Both buildings are registered on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and still stand to this day. As the social safety net of the federal government expanded from the 1930s to the 1950s, and as second and third generation Spaniards integrated into American culture, society membership dwindled. The Centro Español de Tampa functioned as the focal point for the community of Spaniards in the area, providing an avenue in which to preserve their cultural heritage, which can still be seen in Ybor City to this day.

Note written by Joe Tamargo, 2011