A plot of free Cuban soil can be found in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area's Ybor City.

Cuba Libre
A plot of free Cuban soil can be found in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area's
Ybor City.
By Andrea Gross

Parque Amigos de Jose Marti, aka Jose Marti Park, is one of the most
unusual plots of land in the world. Measuring less than half a city
block and sitting not far from the downtown area of Tampa, Fla., it is
the only patch of free Cuban soil in the world.

In 1956 the owners of the property deeded it to Estado Cubano, the
Republic of Cuba. The transaction was approved by the American
representative in Havana, and plans were made to build a memorial to
Marti, who was a leader in Cuba's 19th-century fight for independence
from Spain.

But three years later, Fidel Castro came to power, the free Republic of
Cuba became a communist state and the small park in Tampa became an
anomaly—truly a bit of Cuba within the borders of the U.S.

Home to Immigrants
A large wall painted with a map of Cuba stands at the rear of the park.
A life-size statue of Marti, flanked by two flags (one of the U.S., the
other of Cuba), stands in front. On the ground are six mounds of dirt,
each of which was brought from one of the six provinces of Cuba.

It's altogether fitting that this tiny park is in Tampa's Ybor City
(pronounced EE-bor), the neighborhood that many of the early Cuban
immigrants called home. Today it is a National Historic Landmark District.

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