Cuban Heritage
Florida & Cuba From Colonization to Castro
According to Florida Trend, Cubans are the largest Hispanic group in Florida. Partially due to Cuba and Florida’s proximity to one another, Cubans have played a prominent role in our state’s history. This guide explores Cuban heritage in Florida and its influence on our state’s political, historical and cultural landscape.
Materials are generally available through interlibrary loan from the circulating collection of the State Library.
Links within the bibliographies take you to information in our State Library catalog or to more information at external sites.
- 1492-1897: Spain, Florida and Cuba
- 1898-1958: From war to revolution
- 1959-Present: Florida and Cuba after the revolution
1492-1897: Spain, Florida & Cuba
- Cortada, James W. “Florida’s Relations With Cuba During the Civil War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 59.1 (1980): 42–52.
- Covington, James W. “Trade Relations Between Southwestern Florida and Cuba: 1600-1840.” Florida Historical Quarterly 38.2 (1959): 114–128.
- Cueto, Emilio. Cuba in Old Maps. Miami, FL: Historical Museum of Southern Florida, 1999.
- De Quesada, Gonzalo, and Henry Davenport Northrop. The War in Cuba. Chicago, IL: Liberty Publishing Company, 1896.
- Florida Division of Historical Resources. Florida Cuban Heritage Trail. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of State, 1994.
- Johnson, Sherry. “Climate, Community, and Commerce Among Florida, Cuba, and the Atlantic World, 1784-1800.” Florida Historical Quarterly 80.4 (2002): 455–482.
- Kiple, Kenneth F. “The Case Against a Nineteenth-Century Cuba-Florida Slave Trade.” Florida Historical Quarterly 49.4 (1971): 346–355.
- A Winter in the West Indies and Florida. New York, NY: Wiley, 1839.
- Worth, John E. A History of Southeastern Indians in Cuba, 1513-1823. Gainesville, FL: Florida Museum of Natural History, 2004.
1898-1958: From war to revolution
- Dupont, C. H. “History of the Introduction and Culture of Cuba Tobacco in Florida.” Florida Historical Society Quarterly 6.3 (1928): 149–155.
- Florida Division of Historical Resources. Florida Cuban Heritage Trail. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of State, 1994.
- Greenbaum, Susan D. More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2002.
- Ingalls, Robert P. Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.
- Knetsch, Joe. Florida in the Spanish-American War. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011.
- Menocal, Narciso. Cuban Cigar Labels: The Tobacco Industry in Cuba and Florida: Its Golden Age in Lithography and Architecture. Coral Gables, FL: Cuban National Heritage, 1995.
- Pérez, Louis A. “Cubans in Tampa: From Exiles to Immigrants, 1892-1901.” Florida Historical Quarterly 57.2 (1978): 129–140.
- Pérez, Louis A. José Martí in the United States: The Florida Experience. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Center for Latin American Studies, 1995.
- Poyo, Gerald E. “Baseball in Key West and Havana, 1885-1910: The Career of Francisco A. Poyo.” Florida Historical Quarterly 87.4 (2009): 540–564.
- State Archives of Florida. “Florida and the Spanish-American War of 1898.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- State Archives of Florida. “The Cigar Industry in Florida.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- Tinajero, Araceli. El Lector: A History of the Cigar Factory Reader. Trans. Judith E. Grasberg. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010.
1959-Present: Florida & Cuba after the revolution
- Bardach, Ann Louise. Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana. New York, NY: Random House, 2002.
- Casavantes Bradford, Anita. The Revolution Is for the Children: The Politics of Childhood in Havana and Miami, 1959-1962. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
- De La Torre, Miguel A. La Lucha for Cuba: Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.
- Erikson, Daniel P. The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
- Florida Division of Historical Resources. Florida Cuban Heritage Trail. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of State, 1994.
- Levine, Robert M. Secret Missions to Cuba: Fidel Castro, Bernardo Benes, and Cuban Miami. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2001.
- Morell-Romero, José. Revolution in Cuba: Memoirs of a Combatant. Tallahassee, FL: Suncoast Professional Publishing, 1993.
- State Archives of Florida. “The Cuban Experience in Florida: Revolution and Exodus.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- Tietchen, Todd F. The Cubalogues: Beat Writers in Revolutionary Havana. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2010.
- Triay, Victor Andres. Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2001.
- Triay, Victor Andres. Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children’s Program. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998.
- Verdeja, Sam, and Guillermo Martínez. Cubans, an Epic Journey: The Struggle of Exiles for Truth and Freedom. Miami, FL: Reedy Press, 2011.
