Cuban Sandwich - History

History

As with Cuban bread, the origin of the Cuban sandwich (sometimes called a "Cuban mix", a "mixto", a "Cuban pressed sandwich", or a "Cubano") is murky and somewhat controversial. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, travel between Cuba and Florida was easy, especially from Key West and Tampa, and Cubans frequently sailed back and forth for employment, pleasure, and family visits. Because of this constant and largely undocumented movement of people and culture and ideas, it's impossible to say exactly when or where the Cuban sandwich originated.

It is believed by some that the sandwich was a common lunch food for workers in both the cigar factories and sugar mills of Cuba (especially in big cities such as Havana or Santiago de Cuba) and the cigar factories of Key West by the 1860s. Historian Loy Glenn Westfall states that the sandwich was "born in Cuba and educated in Key West".

The cigar industry in Florida shifted to Tampa in the 1880s and the sandwich quickly appeared in workers' cafés in Ybor City and (later) West Tampa, leading other historians to theorize that the sandwich as now constituted first appeared there Historian Andrew Huse states that "the old 'mixtos' coalesced into something more distinct – the Cuban sandwiches we know and love – an original Tampa creation."

By the 1960s, Cuban sandwiches were also common on Miami cafeteria and restaurant menus, as the city had gained a large influx of Cuban residents after Fidel Castro's 1959 rise to power in their native land. The Communist Revolution caused a wave of Cuban expatriates to settle in other locations as well, and they brought their culture and cuisine with them. Cuban sandwiches and variations thereof are now served in various Cuban exile communities in places such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Puerto Rico, among others.