Rey Park: Peregrino Rey pursued a career in cigars from Havana to Atlanta then to a young West Tampa.
By MICHAEL CANNING
Published July 18, 2003
The Old West Tampa city park sits a block south of where Peregrino Rey would make a name for himself and spread it around the world.
Rey was born in Galicia, Spain, in 1863. He arrived in Havana as a young teen and apprenticed as a cigar maker. After that, in 1885, he found work at a cigar factory in the Four Corners area of Atlanta.
The factory belonged to another rising tabaquero from Spain, Angel Cuesta. Their partnership continued until the growing cigar industry in Tampa lured Cuesta away. Cuesta opened a factory in Port Tampa in 1893 but Rey stayed in Atlanta.
Within a few years Cuesta closed that venture and Rey joined him in West Tampa to form a new cigar business called Cuesta, Rey y Compania.
Their factory, at Howard Avenue and Beech Street (today spelled "Beach"), eventually became one of Tampa's largest producers. It also earned the distinction as the only U.S. factory appointed "purveyors of Havana cigars to the Royal Court of Spain" by King Alonso XIII in 1915.
Rey became involved in the politics of West Tampa, which incorporated as a city in 1895. By 1900, he was elected to its City Council. He held his council seat until 1909, when he was elected mayor.
After a two-year term, he returned to the council and served on it until his death in 1920. The city of West Tampa dedicated Rey Park in 1916.
Cuesta died in 1936. M and N Cigar Manufacturers (now called the J.C. Newman Co.) bought the Cuesta-Rey brand in 1959. Within a few years, the owners installed a red Cuesta-Rey neon sign on top of the M and N factory in Ybor City. The sign is still visible from Interstate 4.
Sources: E.J. Salcines, James Alfonso. Photo courtesy of James Alfonso.
