Ybor City's newly restored Centro Asturiano pays tribute to cigar workers who helped build Tampa

YBOR CITY, Fla. - In 1920, more than 1,000 striking cigar workers packed an Ybor City theater where union leaders were speaking. What if you could go back to that very place?

Amazingly, you can. 

The historic theater at Centro Asturiano has been restored to its historical brilliance and is now dedicated to the cigar workers who helped build Tampa. 

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"If there weren't a cigar industry, if this had not happened, the Cigar City, I don't believe Tampa would be what it is today," says Cristal Lastra, the president of the Board of Directors of the Mutual Aid Society, established in the early 1900s for immigrant cigar workers.

When we were here several months ago the theater was beginning to deteriorate. That's when the descendants of cigar workers went to work on a three-month renovation of the theater. 

In a project that restored the old and added new elements to match the period, some $800,000 has been spent. Even though Centro Asturiano is on the National Register of Historic Places, the funding was all through donations. No taxpayer funds or grant money was used.

While the cigar workers were a big part of Tampa, generally, the workers weren't big physically. People were smaller in the early 1900s than they are now. New seats that replaced the original ones are wider and more comfortable.

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Lastra said you can still "buy" one of the new seats as a donation.

"You can memorialize someone, you can pay tribute to someone, you can give it as a gift, a beautiful brass plate," she said.

The new cup holders may surprise old cigar workers, but otherwise Lastra believes they would be pleased.

"I would imagine we get the same feeling walking in today as they got 109 yeas ago when they walked in in 1914," she said. 

The theater has been used for shows and special events for more than a century. It will sparkle even more for special events, weddings and shows going forward. 

For more information, visit Centro Asturiano on social media or at www.centroasturiano.org.