Historically, a hospital, cemetery and health insurance all came with membership, and the purpose of the club was to take care of members from before birth until after they died.

In Havana, there were many organizations, representing various regions of Spain, whose sole mission was to provide health assistance and “a little taste of home” for their members.

The Centro Asturiano de La Habana was founded on May 2, 1886, to provide medical assistance, social activities, education, and recreational opportunities.

Antonio Gonzales Prado, the first president of the Havana club, traveled to Tampa at the end of the century and was appointed chair of a committee whose purpose was to rectify the problem of no health care for the cigar workers.

Cigar manufacturers, local doctors and pharmacists had formed the Latin Medical Association to prevent the new club's creation.

By 1903, the society had grown so large that hotel space was leased to keep up with the growing medical needs until the first Covadonga Sanitarium was opened in 1905; it boasted 54 beds.

It is located along Tampa's eastern border, just outside city limits and immediately north of the Grant Park neighborhood at 5400 East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Among them is U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Baldomero López, who gave his own life to save fellow soldiers during the Korean War, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

They both served Spanish immigrants along with the Centro Asturiano Memorial Park of today located at 5400 E Martin Luther King Blvd, Tampa.

The ballroom was and still is, to a lesser extent, used for public dances that were a main social interaction between young club members or their children.

When the building was opened in 1914, the Tampa Daily Times ran an article on the architecture and features of the new club headquarters: “It is a monument to the memory of those who have devoted their best endeavors to the welfare of the institution, and a palace to those who stand faithful to its noble ideals” (May 16, 1914).