Gavino Gutierrez

Gavino Gutierrez (26 October 1849 – 8 March 1919), a Spanish immigrant to the United States, was an importer, architect, civil engineer, and surveyor.

Gutierrez was born on October 26, 1849, in San Vicente de la Barquera, located in the northern Spanish province of Santander.

[1] During his first month in New York, he worked as a bellhop[1] and established an import-export business, selling goods from Spain, Cuba, and Mexico.

Gutierrez had a friend named Bernardino Gargol, who owned marmalade and guava paste factories in Cuba, and was also a native Cuban who lived in New York and ran an import-export business.

[1][2] Gargol told Gutierrez that there were many wild guava trees growing in the Tampa Bay area.

[2] Gargol wanted to establish a factory in Tampa for the manufacture of guava paste, in order to not have to import the products.

[1][3] After Gutierrez and Gargol explored Tampa, they planned to return to New York by boat, with a stop in Key West.

[1] While there, they met a man named Vincente M. Ybor, who owned a large cigar factory that he planned to move elsewhere,[1] due to labor disputes and the fact that Key West could only be reached by boat.

[2] In a short amount of time, the new city grew to 10,000 people, and had numerous factories, restaurants, social clubs, hotels, stores, and homes.

[12] The Gutierrez building, designed by him and located at 1603 East Seventh Avenue in Ybor City,[13] was built in 1904.

Gavino Junior married a native of Santander named Lolita Del Corro, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

In 1919, Gutierrez was sailing around the world on the ship of a Scottish friend, when they docked in a Spanish port.