Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hello, I am Aida Blair. I was born in 1950 at Sanatorio del Centro Espanol (nee Nadine Aida Hampton) on Bayshore Dr Tampa Fl. My husband was a doctor in the military and we are now retired in Vancouver Wa. I am starting
work on my geneology and we want to take a trip to Asturias when I can get some concrete info about my Abuelo.

My Abuelo Jose Flores Rodriguez was born in Oviedo Spain--he left as a young man with his 2 brothers -they were triplets and went to an Aunt in Cuba. Jose came to Tampa and eventually becamae a chef at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. He died in 1968. My Abuela was Aida Alvarez Rodriguez and she died Sept 7 1994. They lived at 2508 Leroy St Tampa. I am trying to find out information about them, where they are buried and anything about Jose.

Gracias
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Hola:

Me llamo Aida Blair. Nací en 1950 en el Santatorio del Centro Español (Bayshore Dr., Tampa, Florida). Mi nombre de soltera Nadine Aida Hampton. Mi marido trabajó como médico en el ejército y ahora estamos jubilados y residimos en Vancouver. Estoy empezando a trabajar en mi árbol genealógico y queremos realizar un viaje a Asturias cuando tenga alguna información concreta sobre mi abuelo.

Mi abuelo, José Flores Rodríguez, nació en Oviedo. De joven se fue con sus 2 hermanos (eran trillizos) a Cuba, con una tía suya. José se trasladó a Tampa y, finalmente, trabajo como cocinero en el Columbia Restaurant, en Ybor City. Falleció en 1968. Mi abuela era Aida Álvarez Rodríguez y falleció el 7 de septiembre de 1994. Vivían en el 2058 de Leroy St., Tampa. Estoy intentado encontrar información sobre ellos, dónde están enterrados y cualquier dato sobre José.

Gracias

Hi Aida,

Welcome to our forum..it's a wonderful site and you will enjoy it.
My name is Anthony Carreno and we have much in common. I was born in the Sanatorio del Centro Espanol in Tampa as well, in 1948. I was raised at 2518 Abdella St in the "Los Cien" section of West Tampa, which had a particularly high concentration of Asturianos and Gallegos. This would be exactly 2 blocks south of your grandparents' house on Leroy. Unfortunately, I cannot recall knowing your grandparents, but I will ask my mom if she recalls. I had many relatives who worked at the Columbia and I will ask around. The Centro Espanol still exists (not the hospital, just the socila club/cemetery) but membership is very small, with an average age in the 70's. There has been some recent interest in trying to revive the club, but I'm not sure what's happening there.

Do you get to Tampa often? I am now on the Board of Directors of the Ybor City Museum Society and we are planning an exhibit on the Spaniards of Tampa, to run from March thru December of 2009. This will focus primarily on the Asturianos and Gallegos, but will adress the other Spaniards as well. We have just begun to formulate the "outline" of the project, but we anticipate broad-based participation from various groups, including the Centro Asturiano and possibly the Centro Espanol. Will try to keep you "in the loop".

Your grandparents' names were fairly common, which makes tracing them more difficult. You may want to search the archives of the USF Special Collections for any info . on the Centro Espanol. They have done a magnificent job of preserving these membership records. I can tell you that some of your grandparents' immediate neighbors would have been the Yglesias family and also the Vila family. Elaine Vila would be 1 year older than you...don't know if you went to school in Tampa, but if you happen to know Elaine she might be a good source of info. Her mom, Olgita Vila is alive and I could try to contact her for you (she still lives in the old neighborhood on LeRoy St.

Feel free to contact me directly at my e-mail button below.

Hope to hear from you!!

Anthony Carreno

Hi Anthony
Thankyou for the info. We are planning a trip to Clearwater in Sept for our 40th High School reunion. I remember that I used to play with Jerry and Fernando that lived behind our house on Dewy. I moved away in 1950. I am not sure which club Jose belonged to but I know they are buried in the cemetery that is associated with their club. I believe Boza was the funeral home. I have sent my Aunt a questionnaire but as yet have not heard back.
I think she should have some details but am not sure how reliable her facts are.

I will set aside a couple of days to do active research while in Clearwater. I hope to meet you then.

Aida
ps did not see your personal email on the reply.

Aida, we don't post email addresses in messages because they are harvested by spambots. You can use the email button below his message, although you will have to post a small number of messages before the system will allow you to use the forum's PM and email features. Once again, we had to institute that policy to prevent spammers from sending emails to members. Yeah, it's sad that there are a few creeps online.

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Aida, no pongamos direcciones de correo electrónico en los mensajes porque son cosechadas por spambots. Puedes utilizar el botón de correo electrónico que parece debajo de su mensaje, aunque tendrás que poner un pequeño número de mensajes antes de que el sistema te permitirá utilizar las características de PM y correo electrónico asociadas con el foro. Una vez más, tuvimos que instituir esa política para evitar que los spammers envíen correos electrónicos a nuestros miembros. Sí, es triste que hay unos pocos asquerosos en el Internet.