“Why is your Krewe newsletter called ‘El Lector’?”
A tradition that the cigar rollers brought with them from cigar factories in Cuba was that of El Lector or The Reader. The job of rolling cigar after cigar would become monotonous and the workers wanted something to both occupy and stimulate the mind. Hence the tradition and history of “lectors”, who sat perched on an elevated platform in the cigar factory, reading to the workers, was born.
Typically, the lector would read from local Spanish newspapers and fiction novels. However, since most residents of Ybor City were interested in politics, the lector would move on to more political writings about current events in Cuba, Spain or other countries. Because of the lector, even cigar workers who could not read were exposed to classic literature and were able to converse on political events both in Ybor City and around the world.
Lectors were well respected and often highly educated. Most could look at text written in English or Italian and read it aloud in Spanish to the cigar rollers. The lectors were hired and fired by the cigar rollers, not the factory owners. Their salary was paid directly by the workers through a small deduction from everyone’s weekly earnings.
Most factory owners were less supportive of the lectors. They felt that the lectors stirred up their workforce by reading news of labor conditions or problems in other locations which led to worker walkouts and protests on many occasions. More than one owner tried to ban lectors from their factory, leading to bitter strikes as the employees fought to have their lector.
The lectors remained a fixture in the cigar factories until 1921, when several factory owners negotiated for the removal of the lectors as part of an agreement to end a labor strike. At the end of a bitter strike in 1931, workers in all Ybor City and West Tampa cigar factories were forced to agree to the removal of the lectors.
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