Originally published: May 8, 2025
There’s no shortage of Cuban restaurants in Florida. But one stands out for its commitment to the history and culture of Cubans of African descent.
At Soul de Cuba Cafe in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood, the decor includes dozens of framed family pictures—the ancestors of the restaurant’s founder and CEO, Jesus Puerto. On one wall, there’s a mural-size black-and-white photo from 1944 depicting dark-skinned people socializing and dancing—the women in dresses, the men in suit jackets and Panama hats. They were members of Martí-Maceo Society, a social club for Tampa’s Black Cubans, formed because segregation kept them from joining a similar group full of their lighter-skinned counterparts…