Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out

-It's said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Welcome to "Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out."

Today we're steppin' out in Tampa Bay, Florida -- a blend of yesterday and today to follow in my grandfather's footsteps through Cigar City and to join in celebration with the pirates of the Gasparilla Festival.

-"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" is made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel in the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

-There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach "the beach."

There are 60 miles of wide sandy beaches along South Carolina's Grand Strand coast.

This vacation destination has golf courses, attractions, food, wine, and southern sun.

-Tampa, Florida, is located midway up the state's west coast.

In the late 19th century, when my grandfather Carlos Lazo y Lazo arrived from Cuba, it had just 600 residents.

Today, it's home to more than 400,000 people, and it's stepping into the future, powered by a revitalized downtown, complete with its Riverwalk, fine-dining eateries, condos, and hotels.

With all this modernity, it still reveres its beginnings and preserves its heritage.

One such honored blast from the past is the 120-year-old Gasparilla Festival, which does tribute to a mythical swashbuckler with barrels of rum, float-tossed beads, and even political kidnappings?

-We're here for you one more time.

-Don't give it up, mayor!

-Never!

I'll never negotiate with this incredible city with you gnarly, no-good... [ Pirates shouting ] It's not gonna happen!

We are keeping Tampa!

It's the most amazing city in the world, and it will not be given to the pirates!

-Well, the mayor has refused to give up the key to the city.

You know what that means -- in five days, the pirates will be back with their ship, their guns, their flotilla of boats that come in with them, and a wonderful, joyous parade.

While I'm waiting for the colorful cutthroats to return, I step back and follow in my abuelito's footsteps in Ybor City, the historic home of cigar factories and the Cuban immigrants who, along with Spanish, Italian, and German new arrivals, gave Ybor City its unique, diverse character and earned Tampa its Cigar City title.

Parque Amigos de Jos Mart.

This is the park of the Friends of Jos Mart.

This is Cuban ground.

This one place where America can travel to Cuba without a visa or without any problem whatsoever.

You can sit here and be in Cuba.

There's the Cuban flag, and then there's the American flag flying together -- something devoutly to be wished.

It's a wonderful place to come in the middle of Ybor City.

I'm touched to my soul when I imagine that, as I sip my caf Cubano and enjoy my Cuban cigar, my smoke commingles with the energetic traces of my grandfather's here along the street where he walked more than a hundred years ago.

-Here he stands, the founder of Ybor City, Mr. Ybor himself.

He was born in Valencia, Spain, in the year 1818, but he came to Cuba at the age of 14, and he got into the cigar industry and became more and more accustomed to the Cuban culture.

-Was it cigars that brought him here, too?

-Well, opportunity brought him here because he was going around the nation looking for a place to open a cigar factory, and he looked at this is like the peak of business to have a whole town working for an industry.

When he came here, he wrote to everybody in the cigar industry he's ever had competition with and said, "Let's put our differences aside.

Come build a brand-new factory in my new city, and we'll make this the next big-industry town."

And overnight, it exploded to become one of the biggest industry towns in America.

To get more on the subject of the immigrants that came this way, there were social clubs and mutual aid societies built all around.

And this one here was the first one built in 1892 and given to the people that year as a place for the Spaniards to gather and talk a little bit about Spanish things.

-The whole idea of the social clubs or the mutual aid societies, with support for the immigrants coming from the different cultures, from Spanish, Italian.

There's an Italian one.

The Cuban one -- Circulo de Cubano.

-I would call it maybe one of the very first leg-up programs that we had in America here.

[ Car horn honks ] So, as we approach Mr. Ybor's cigar factory, a little bit about the cigar rollers' lifestyle.

These guys weren't just people off the street.

You had to have a year's apprenticeship before you could roll the cigars.

These were probably the best-educated workforce in the entire United States of America because of the readers, the lectores of the factories.

Before there was audiobooks and podcasts, there were the lectores that were reading the newspaper and reading books to the people who mostly were illiterate when they arrived here.

But suddenly they're coming home and going, "Kids, do you want to hear the story of 'The Count of Monte Cristo'?"

-Yeah, that's where you get the Montecristo cigars in Cuba.

-Now, right in front of you here at Mr. Ybor's factory is one of the more famous spots where Jos Mart gave one of his most famous speeches in 1893.

Over 3,000 Cuban immigrants gathered to hear him speak.

-Wow.

-After his speech was over, they were so moved they ran up the stairs and hoisted him on their shoulders, chanting "Cuba libre" and carrying him through the streets.

-[ Laughs ] Fabulous.

-So Mr. Ybor got a lot of the cigar manufacturers to come this way by offering factories, but he had to get workers.

Mr. Ybor offered them something they couldn't get anywhere else.

He offered them a home of their own.

-Wow.

-And here you see three that are preserved out of the hundreds Mr. Ybor built up and down this block.

-Fabulous.

This could have been one of the houses that my grandmother and grandfather moved into when they first came to Tampa.

Near the end of the Spanish-American War, my grandfather goes to Key West.

He meets my grandmother, who was born in Key West.

They got married and they came to Tampa and had their family.

And then from there they ended up in Miami.

So this could very well have been.

You know, Max, in Miami, which is when I knew my grandparents, Maria and Carlos, on their porch in Miami, they had rocking chairs.

And I'm sure that was a continuation of their life here in Tampa.

I can see my grandfather smoking one of his big cigars, ash burning down on it, me and my cousins sitting around him betting on whether that ash was gonna fall onto his shirt before he flicked it off.

-That's so classic.

That's so great.

Well, the building we're approaching right here is one of the more important ones in Ybor City, one of the mutual aid societies for the Cubans, the Cuban Club, or El Circulo Cubano.

-Yes.

This is a very important place for me to come.

It's a connection with my grandfather.

-Oh, wow.

-And I'm going to take a second to kind of reconnect with that.

and I'll see you inside.

-Okay.

I'll see you in there.

-I'm here at the corner of Avenida Republica de Cuba y Palm Avenue in Ybor City, and this plaque here depicts an incident that took place in the life of Jos Mart, who is considered the liberator of Cuba.

And everyone knows about the Spanish-American war, perhaps.

Uh, I like to say that it's the Spanish-Cuban war.

It was one of many revolutions.

Uh, this is a very important place for me because my grandfather was born in Pinar del Ro, the center of Cuba tobacco growing.

Learned the craft of blending Cuban tobaccos, came to Tampa just after the so-called Spanish-American war, and he was a founder of the Circulo de Cubano, which was a place where Cuban immigrants could come to get support.

In a sense, coming here is like a pilgrimage to me, to Cuba, to Mart, to Ybor City, and to, of course, particularly my family and my grandfather.

-Huh.

Boy, I've looked at this picture thousands of times and wondering the faces behind it.

It's amazing.

-So this looks like we're going to a movie.

-Oh, well, the ticket booth, of course, was for the theater.

Remember, nobody had a radio in their house back then, so every song and story and joke that you learned came from the social club theater stage.

And as you know from being at the Cuban island before, you know that they have great performers over there, and you can imagine what they saw on this stage here.

-Wow.

-They really do an amazing job of maintaining this since 1917 -- What's that?

105 years now?

-By now, yeah.

-Incredible.

The very top floor is where you want to go do some dancing.

-Oh, nice mirrors so you can, uh, check yourself out, make sure you're cool.

-Oh, yeah.

You never know.

You might get your first kiss up there.

-Exactly.

-But you can imagine in another timeline, this room is full of Cubans hand in hand dancing 'cause they knew the same songs.

-Filled with energy and love.

-And I think that this building still has a lot of energy and love in it.

-Yeah, I can feel it.

And if you got a little hot dancing, you could always, uh, step out into the fresh air of Ybor City.

-Well, I'm sure your grandfather probably stood right here on this balcony and looked over the city thinking, "wow, I can't believe we really built this."

-Yeah, I can see that this would be a great place for my grandfather to hang out.

He was just that kind of guy.

I could see him smoking a cigar, having a grand old time because that's who he was.

I was kind of privileged with him because I was the first male child, so I was called Machungo.

-Ah, yeah.

Of course, you know the young masculine child.

-So I got a few benefits from that.

-Yeah, well, I would have gotten along fine with him, too, if he smoked cigars.

-Yes!

And I got along fine with him as well.

In the 1920s, when my mother, Edalia, and her sisters Lolita, Blanche, and Gloria, were growing up in Tampa, the town had more than 200 cigar factories producing 500 million cigars a year.

While you can still pick up a handmade cigar along Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, the Newman Cigar Company, located in the historic Reloj clock Building, is Tampa's last working cigar factory.

Drew, you're how many generations of cigar makers?

-Fourth generation.

My great-grandfather founded our company in 1895, and we still roll cigars today just like he did a century ago.

-Fabulous.

I'm a third-generation cigar smoker.

My grandfather actually worked in Ybor City.

-Well, this is the story of Tampa.

So your family's story is the same story that we hear over and over again.

If you've lived in Tampa for more than a couple generations, your mother, your father, your aunt, your uncle, your cousins rolled cigars or they made cigar boxes.

Tampa is Cigar City... -Right.

-...and everything was built for the cigar industry.

-I don't think people really understand the art of creating a great cigar.

-And this is how cigars were rolled in Tampa by Mr. Ybor in 1886, and this is how we're keeping the tradition alive.

This process is slow.

It's careful.

It's deliberate.

We're so fortunate that our team here is so skilled and dedicated.

And because we're the last factory still rolling in Tampa, we feel that we've got the obligation to keep this tradition alive and preserve it and share it with future generations.

And so all of us have a tremendous amount of pride, because we're keeping the cigar-making legacy that built Tampa alive for future generations.

-I think that's fabulous.

-But when most people think of a cigar, they think of a brown cylinder, and they don't realize that inside is a blend of different leaves.

-My grandfather was a blender of tobacco.

That's what he did for the Hav-A-Tampa cigar company.

-He's a real cigar expert.

-He was an expert.

He created a pretty darn good cigar because he knew what made the flavor that he wanted.

In this case, you're... -That's what we do.

-...blending cigars' taste to make the cigar that is Newman.

-Exactly.

-Now it's my chance to try to make a cigar.

Okay, Holden, this is no small thing, you know, because my grandfather was a cigar maker.

He was here in Tampa.

He did it for years, and he did it in Miami with his own Have-A-Miami tobacco company.

So he's -- he's kind of looking over my shoulder here.

-Yeah.

-Uh, you can't see him, but I can, and so...

Okay, I'm under the gun so to speak, but I'm going to have to, you know, kind of relax here.

Okay.

So here we go.

-Like right about here.

Start cutting and do a semicircle that goes all the way across.

-Okay.

So I'm going... -Near the top, make that shape that kind of looks like the island of Cuba.

-[ Grunts ] -Very nice.

So now this is your cigar, so just kind of tuck it in the leaf here.

See that?

You want that to be taut.

And then use one hand to control the cigar and the other hand to stretch the leaf so it continues to be taut and you don't have any wrinkles.

-I'm rolling right up on the leaf.

-And right on the edge of the tobacco leaf where the metal meets the tobacco, you're going to put some of that glue.

Perfect.

And just roll through, Joe.

-Just roll through, okay.

And roll through.

-Nice.

You're going to make a handkerchief for your cigar, and you turn the cigar, not the tobacco.

So just three times, pretty tight.

One, two, three.

Perfect.

And then just take your knife, your chaveta, and cut it right at the base of the pigtail clear through.

And now the final step, making a little hat for the cigar.

And then stick that glue side down onto the top of your cigar.

-Okay.

-Perfecto.

And then take your machine, your guillotine, and cut off the opposite end of the cigar.

The foot.

Beautiful.

-Uh, it's not as pretty as yours, but it's probably smokable.

-They all have that in common.

-[ Chuckles ] The Cuban population and the cigar legacy of Tampa is much more than Ybor City.

I'm on Union Street in West Tampa, which a lot of people don't know was a place where a lot of the Cuban population lived and ended up living after -- when Ybor City began to diminish in importance.

This is where I was told my grandparents lived before they moved to Miami.

West Tampa, where I am now, was also a center of cigar factories.

There's still 25 cigar factory buildings.

They're not cigar factories anymore.

They're schools or residences or office buildings.

But those beautiful cigar factory buildings still exist, and so you need to put this area into your travel plans as well.

For a contemporary view of Tampa, I head to the Riverwalk and go with the flow of the Hillsborough River.

-You know, the Riverwalk always looks like this -- at any given time, 1,000 people enjoying the Riverwalk.

-Right.

Running, walking, biking.

-This glass art panels here is called "Andante," which is the music direction term for "to play at a moving pace" or "a walking pace."

And folks can just give us a wave, and we pull in and give a tour of the city.

-So in the history of Tampa, how important has this river been to the populace?

-It's the veins of the city essentially.

-When the sun sets, Tampa's downtown plays host to couples, families, and visitors in a number of plazas, bars and fine-dining restaurants such as Boulon, which specializes in Florida favorites with a French flair.

-Thank you, thank you.

Thank you very much.

-That was really great.

-Alright.

-Thank you so much, Chef.

Well, this is the way to come to experience a restaurant like this, where you actually sit down with some friends and you get to taste a lot of different foods.

It's what I would recommend to you.

Order a lot of different dishes so you can have a full range of what the chef does.

The joie de vivre -- the joy of life.

This line actually was established back in 1892.

My grandfather probably rode this line.

The TECO Tampa streetcar line starts or ends here in the downtown area.

It takes you to Centennial Park in Ybor City, and it's absolutely, totally free!

Fabulous.

Well, here I am at the end of the line.

I took the cable car all the way to the center of Ybor City.

Going to the Columbia Restaurant, where they're going to teach me how to make a Tampa version of the Cuban sandwich.

-You got about a nine-inch piece of Cuban bread.

And we're going to start with the first layer.

-And that's very important, the different layers.

-And it's also important that when you layer it that you do it just like you're doing.

You want a very even layer, so that way each bite tastes almost exactly the same.

Each layer also has a meaning.

-Oh, it has a cultural meaning?

-Yes.

The ham represents the Spaniards that immigrated to Ybor City at the turn of the century.

-Oh!

-So the next layer is our mojo marinated pork, which represents the Cubans.

A Tampa sandwich has got to have the salami.

-Now, why is there salami in a Tampa sandwich?

There's not one in Miami.

-Because turn of the century, there were Sicilians that immigrated to Ybor City.

-Oh, of course.

-I say Swiss cheeses -- and this is my theory -- represents Ybor City and the melting pot... -Ah!

-...that it was that brought all of these different... -True or not -- -...ethnicities.

That's what I like to say.

-It's a good explanation.

-So we're going to do an even layer of mustard.

Not too much, not too little.

-Here?

-Now, the mustard and the pickles represent the Germans that came to Ybor.

Now we're going to take two pickles.

-Two?

-One on each side, and we're going to put its hat on.

-Okay.

Put the hat back on, as you call it.

Get your little point here.

Here.

Why don't you take the other half... -Okay.

-...and we'll try it together?

-And we'll complete the last step together.

-Yeah.

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

[ Chuckles ] Spanish Cuban immigrant Casimiro Hernandez Sr. opened what became the Columbia in 1903.

Five generations later, it is Florida's oldest restaurant, offering familial service, classic Spanish cuisine and surroundings.

The authentic bread for Columbia's Cuban sandwich is made at yet another century-old Tampa icon, La Segunda Bakery -- established in 1950 and still making baking history.

What is it about Cuban bread?

-You know, our recipe is extremely simple, but our process is very unique.

It's a very slow process, so the bread will sour some while it's developing, and it's a handmade bread that the bakers have to be able to adjust from day to day with the weather from the mixer all the way to the oven.

Our tradition, what my great-grandfather learned when he was in Cuba, was to use the palmetto leaf to score the bread.

If people around here get Cuban bread without a palmetto leaf, they know it's not Cuban bread.

-Copeland, during my visit here in Tampa, what's impressed me is how many businesses are like over 100 years old.

-I think there's deep roots in the Tampa Bay area and a lot of close-knit, family-run businesses.

When you have those traditions and close families, you know, they pass it on from generation to generation.

-As promised, as they have for more than 120 years, the pirates and the Gasparilla Festival overrun Tampa.

30 crews manning 120 floats toss tons of beads to more than 300,000 partying spectators.

The third largest parade in the country, it's also one of the most joyous.

-Alright, here we go!

We're having best Gasparilla ever!

Let's get this party started!

-You were born here in Tampa?

-Born and raised.

-What do you think of Tampa, and what do you think of this festival?

-I love how much it's grown.

This is absolutely amazing.

-What was it like to be on the ship?

-Overwhelming.

It felt like a real pirate ship.

It felt like war.

There were cannons.

There were guns.

He was steering.

It was chaos.

-What about your history with this festival?

-Well, the Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla was founded in 1904, and our families were involved with the original inception of this.

My brother and I have been a member since 1986.

-Bill, what do you think about that longevity?

-Tampa has such a history, and it's such a tradition of the Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, and it's just been wonderful.

-I'm with the Krewe of Mambi.

-Mambi!

-My mother is from Pinar del Ro too, so look at that!

-Okay!

Here we go.

-We may be related.

-[ Speaking in Spanish ] -[ Speaking in Spanish ] Another wonderful province.

Okay, so I found my home with this group of Cubans here.

We -- How many of you were actually born in Cuba?

-Giddy up!

-[ Indistinct ] -Yeah.

That's great.

Alright!

Alright!

And how many of you are Cubans in your soul?

[ Cheering ] Doctor, what makes this krewe so special?

-This is a special krewe because we were the second oldest crew in Gasparilla.

It started when Lucille Cochran, a woman, decided that we needed to have women presented in these krewes.

-There weren't women before that?

-There were not women before that.

-What a waste!

-So she opened it up for women and changed the diversity of this whole parade.

Also, our krewe, since it originated in Mardi Gras, we started the throwing bead tradition.

-So you're responsible for the beads?

-Yes, we are!

-That's pretty great.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Happy Gasparilla!

-Yeah!

-Whoo!

-Thank you for joining me on my Tampa, Florida, episode.

"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" is about stretching boundaries and boldly going where we've never gone before, physically and personally.

Thanks a lot.

My Tampa adventure was all that and more.

During my visit, I explored the city and its many touristic attractions.

I cruised its waterways, sampled gourmet eateries, strolled the riverside, and joined thousands in celebration at its riotous Gasparilla Festival.

Yet I also took time to step back.

I followed in my grandfather's footsteps through Tampa's streets to cigar factories, rocking chairs, culture clubs, and to monuments where he heeded a Cuban poet's plea for freedom.

And along the way, I met others for whom the past means tradition and family connections that are a rock they stand on as they...

Cheers!

...serve sandwiches, make bread, craft cigars, or join a parade.

It's good to focus on the present and see our past as the wake we leave behind us, but it's also good to remember that our lives were made possible and we are soulfully bonded... -Thank you.

-...to those who forged the path before us.

Until we meet again, this is Joseph Rosendo reminding you of the words of Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

May your next adventure always be your best.

-"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" is made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel to the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

-There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach "the beach."

There are 60 miles of wide sandy beaches along South Carolina's Grand Strand coast.

This vacation destination has golf courses, attractions, food, wine, and southern sun.

-For a DVD of any of my "Steppin' Out" adventures, or my companion memoir and travel book "Musings: The Short Happy Pursuit of Pleasure and Other Journeys," call 888-876-3399 order online at josephrosendo.com, or e-mail me at [email protected].

- Mm, mm, steppin' out -Now that we've stepped out in Tampa Bay together, learn more at josephrosendo.com, where you can follow my worldwide adventures through my E-magazine, blog, podcast, and social media.

Stay in touch -- 888-876-3399 or e-mail me at [email protected].

Oh, here's the namesake of the Gasparilla Festival, Jos Gasparilla.

-That would be me, Jos Gaspar, the pirate King of Tampa.

Since 1904, we invade the city, loot it to the bedrock, and then every year, they invite us back.

These people are hospitable.

-Aren't they crazy?

They're something.

They're very hospitable.

Okay, guys, I'm with my sister DeeDee -- or Cookie -- and Oneida.

-Tampa was where we went to be Spanish.

It's like I was American in Miami and Spanish in Tampa.

It gave us an opportunity to be what we came from, what we were -- -Our roots, our heritage.

- Steppin' out Steppin' out...