Susan D. Greenbaum, Afro-Cubans in Ybor City: A Centennial History (Tampa: [s.n.], 1986)

The Maldonado family left Tampa for New York in 1937. In the 1930s many Cubans moved from Tampa, where unemployment in the cigar industry was high after a failed strike and the replacement of workers with machines. More than half of the Afro-Cuban community left the city, mostly for New York. They settled mainly in East Harlem between 110th and 115th Streets. Some found work as cigarmakers; others were employed by hotels, restaurants, and the garment industry. Few returned to Tampa.