Little more than a hundred years ago, Ybor was mostly swamp until Cuban cigar factories set up shop. Casey’s great grandfather, Casimiro Hernandez, quickly opened up the Columbia in 1905. Back then it was a working man’s lunch counter serving up “the taste of home” to factory workers, including arroz con pollo, plátano frito, ropa vieja, and eventually the “Cuban.” The sandwich layers smoked ham, pork and swiss cheese with salami (a nod to Ybor’s Italian immigrants), German pickles and mustard on freshly baked bread the Columbia gets fresh every day from the same bakery it did more than a century ago.

In the past hundred years, a lot has changed in Ybor and at the Columbia. Six-lane highways roar through Ybor and the Columbia, a one-time humble lunch counter is now a dining palace with multiple elegant rooms and franchises in several other cities. But the menu, down to the recipes themselves, remains largely unchanged. “When we want to go forward, we usually look back,” says Casey. The cigar factories and social clubs may be gone but it is still possible to taste old Ybor.

After Casey’s StoryCorps recording, the MobileBooth East team headed to the nearby Columbia to check things out. And it was bien rico.

–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}

Several states away in Tampa, Florida, poet Lizz Straight hosts a weekly radio show called “Poetry Is . . .” Lizz learned that her voice had been reaching a dedicated listenership at a nearby state prison when she received an invitation from the inmates to perform her poetry. At her first performance, she stood alone at the microphone, looking out at the 1,400 prisoners gathered in the yard to listen who appeared like a “sea of orange.” Their attention and enthusiasm helped inspire Lizz to organize an annual tour to multiple facilities around Florida with a group of poets. These experiences have reminded her of the deep connection between word and empowerment: “A lot of people firmly believe that what we speak out into the world comes to fruition. Poets are powerful people in the world . . . we tell the stories . . .”

_{Lance Newman and Lizz Straight at the MobileBooth in Tampa, FL}

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.