Did you know that Ybor City is home to the nation’s only trilingual newspaper? La Gaceta (The Gazette) has been publishing articles in English, Spanish and Italian since 1922. Its founder, Victoriano Patricio Manteiga, arrived in the United States from Cuba in 1913, where he was a reader in the Morgan Cigar Factory. He founded the newspaper to serve the diverse immigrant population living in the area at that time, who also attended OLPH and Our Lady of Mercy.
According to his granddaughter, Cathy Scionti Messina, “my grandfather was a constant voice for social change for the common man…he spoke Castilian Spanish as well as several other languages, read between 5-7 books weekly…and loved La Segunda Central’s guava pastries.”
He passed the newspaper to his son, Roland Manteiga, then subsequently the reins passed to his son Patrick Manteiga, who has run the newspaper since . The family’s OLPH roots run deep: Victoriano’s 3 children attended OLPH school, many of his grandchildren were baptized and married there, and several of his great grandchildren were also married there.
La Gaceta is Spanish for “The Gazette”, and is yet another one of Ybor City’s unique gems, with their main office at 3210 East 7 th Avenue.
