In 1896, Wenceslao Gálvez y Delmonte fled the violence of Cuba’s war for independence and settled in Tampa. The Cuban-born lawyer and writer soon made his new home the focus of a work of “costumbrismo,” a Spanish-language literary genre built on closely observing the everyday manners and customs of a place. 

More than 100 years later, In 2001, Noel Smith, Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Art at the University of South Florida, was given a package to transport from Cuba to Tampa, and discovered it to be Galvez’s 1897 account, Tampa: Impressions of an Emigrant. In it, Galvez shares pre-1900 stories of Tampa, Ybor City and West Tampa, as well as his views on nationalism, politics, exile, race and gender. 

Smith discusses her recently-published translation of Galvez’s 19th-century narrative during this edition of Florida Conversations.

Florida Conversations is free and open to the public, and is co-sponsored by the USF Libraries Florida Studies Center and supported by WUSF Public Media, and features authors and presenters covering a variety of Florida topics, from politics to fiction, history to environmental issues.

For more information, contact the History Center at (813) 228-0097.