Just why is this town covered in chickens? I walked by Centennial Park to Federation Coffee Co. just off E 8th Ave in Ybor City, Tampa this morning past probably two dozen roosters and hens. I ordered myself a chai latte and asked the baristas about the history of the chickens. One of them had no idea and the other, behind his mask, said something about how immigrants back in the day…something, something, something…celebration. That wasn’t very informative.

I returned to Hotel Haya and the woman at the front desk told me that Cuban immigrants brought chickens with them, presumably as a food source, when they arrived to Ybor City to work in the cigar factories in the late 1800’s. The chickens have been here ever since, are protected by the city of Tampa, and if you, or one, “messes with them, you could end up in jail.” The Tampa, Florida - Code of Ordinances, Chapter 14, Article IV - Animals, Section 14-176 outlines the following laws:

(a) The entire area now embraced within the boundaries known as the corporate limits of the city is hereby designated as a bird sanctuary.

(b) It is unlawful for any person to hunt, kill, maim or trap or in any manner attempt to kill, maim or trap or otherwise molest any domestic bird, song bird, migratory bird, wildfowl or waterfowl, except birds or fowl raised in captivity for human consumption, or to rob or otherwise molest the nests of birds nesting or located within the corporate limits of the city.

According to a local newspaper, there has been quite the clash between humans and fowl in Ybor City because of the chickens’ impunity. There are some who oppose the rooster’s rule of the terrain—mostly due fo the rampant droppings and incessant crowing—and those who claim the chickens arrived first and newcomers should accept it or kick rocks…as long as they don’t kick the fowl on their way out.

There is even an annual Mardi Gras-like Rooster Parade on March 5th down E 7th Ave in Ybor City. The parade celebrates fallen chickens including Massie Mae, described as “Ybor's matriarch,” who was killed by a hawk while protecting her young in 2018.

This town is cock crazy. The cafe at Hotel Haya is even named after the onomatopoetic sound of a rooster: Café Quiquiriqui. They serve Cuban inspired pastries like guava poptarts with pistachio glaze, passionfruit donuts, and cream cheese pastelitos that taste like a caramelized, buttery cigar filled with sweet cream. That’s a good thing. I think.

In effect, there are chickens here because of the wild guavas growing in Tampa. In the 19th century, Gavino Gutierrez, a Spanish civil engineer, went looking for wild guavas for his fruit packing company in New York to make guava paste. Since guavas rarely grew to maturity in Tampa, the expedition was fruitless (pun absolutely intended).

However, Gutierrez met with Vicente Martinez-Ybor, a friend and cigar manufacturer, and tipped him off on Tampa’s ideal climate for keeping tobacco pliable and the two went off and built the city. Cigar factories were constructed, immigrants arrived, and now chickens. And for some reason, Tampa was nicknamed The Big Guava despite its chicken problem. All I really wanted was a guava poptart and now I’m awoken by roosters at the crack of dawn.