Ask Casey Gonzmart, fourth-generation owner and operator of Ybor (EE-bore) City’s Columbia Restaurant what to order and he’ll answer “The Cuban.” This is the now famous and widely imitated sandwich that, Casey explained during his StoryCorps recording, is not so much Cuban as it is Tampa. The sandwich itself embodies some of the history of Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood where the MobileBooth has been recording stories for the last month.
Posts from Tampa, Florida
Posted by Anna on January 13, 2009, from Tampa, Florida
Community Partners: Ybor City Development Corporation, Ybor Museum Society
Posted by Anna on January 6, 2009, from Tampa, Florida
Community Partners: Northampton Human Rights Commission
“I am from islands remote and untouched
from history sung
from genealogies passed down through generations.
I am from a place of no written word.”
–From Origin by Moana
Voices from Inside is an organization based in Western Massachusetts that brings writing workshops to women in prison and formerly incarcerated women. Moana, who participated in the program and now teaches the workshops, came to StoryCorps to record a conversation with her daughter. A keeper of journals her whole life, Moana wrote her first poem in prison and found it to be “an avenue to speak deeply about yourself which doesn’t expose too much of yourself.”
Moana and daughter Jillian after making her recording in Greenfield, MA
Member-sponsored Non-commercial FM
Posted by Whitney on December 16, 2008, from Tampa, Florida
It is such a joy to see communities working together to bring StoryCorps to their town. WMNF community run public radio (a member of Pacifica’s listener supported community radio stations) is our partner in Tampa, Florida to bring StoryCorps to the Ybor City neighborhood. Started in 1979, the station became Florida’s first community radio station. “WMNF celebrates and promotes the creative, cultural and political vitality of the local community.”
The East MobileBooth is parked in Ybor City, formed when Vicente Martinez Ybor opened a cigar factory in Florida to make his Cuban cigars. WMNF, the Ybor City State Museum, YCDC, Artist and Writers, and Tre Amici’s coffee all stepped forward to make StoryCorps feel welcome from great promotion and community outreach to restaurant recommendations and cafe con leche! The history and hospitality of this area is palpable, and we expect some great stories.
