The press was one of the most effective ways for immigrants to connect with their community; newspapers and periodicals disseminated information about native values, American culture, and the immigrants’ connection to both. Tampa’s immigrants wasted no time in establishing newspapers to serve the ethnic enclaves of Ybor City and West Tampa.

Founded in 1922, La Gaceta is a relative latecomer to Tampa’s newspaper scene. It is also the only surviving Latin newspaper of the era, and still publishes in Tampa’s three traditional languages: Spanish, English, and Italian. La Revista magazine was founded early in the Twentieth Century by Rafael Martinez Ybor, the son of cigar magnate Don Vicente Martinez-Ybor. Its writers discussed “literature, science, and art” according to its own motto. Although the surviving run of La Revista is short, it covers crucial boom-time years from 1903 to 1905 and often provides unique perspectives impossible to find in more traditional newspapers. Tampa Ilustrado was a short-lived newspaper with 31 surviving issues from 1912 and 1913. Bohemia’s run includes 24 issues from 1916, while that of El Audaz is limited to 1907. Interesting items include the colorful centennial issue of Cuba’s Diario de la Marina (1932) and a paper observing the fiftieth anniversary of Centro Espanol de Tampa (1941).

These periodicals are extremely rare, and are a treasured part of our Floridiana collections. We are working diligently to digitize other local Hispanic periodicals and monographs to make them more easily available for researchers worldwide.