Assign one of the following roles to each member of your group. Each team member should research his/her role in preparation for
the group activity.
Role
Team Member Name
Rosa Ybarra, born in Cuba, wealthy daughter of cigar factory owner.
Guillermo Gonzalez, Cuban-American factory worker of African descent. Active in Cuban nationalist movement and trade union organizing.
Hector Villareal, Cuban-American Lector at cigar factory.
Aleara Taylor
Watson Wilson, Irish-American investor in cigar factory.
Gloria Cabrera, Cuban-American factory worker with several children, worried about job security.
The Scenario
The Ybarra Cigar Factory has been the backbone of economic and cultural life in Ybarra, Florida. Recently, there has been a great deal of turmoil at the factory. Factory management is concerned about revolutionary and unionizing activity among the workers, and wants to eliminate the position of “lector,” a worker who reads to others while they roll cigars. Management also wants workers to continue working long hours, six days a week, at the current pay rate, while workers are demanding a shift to five-day work weeks and overtime pay for days that exceed eight hours. All stakeholders are scheduled to hold a meeting to discuss the conflict.
About the lector: The lector held a role unique to cigar factories. This tradition was rooted in the factories of Cuba, and traveled to the United States as part of the wave of Cuban immigrants. Traditionally, the lector was a well-dressed man in a Panama hat who sat on a raised platform and read to workers as they rolled cigars. Workers would request works by favorite authors, such as Cervantes and Victor Hugo, as well as news and revolutionary writing, such as works by Karl Marx. The lector was generally an educated man who spoke several languages.
Questions to Consider
While you should draw on research about the historical period to help make sure that your answers to these questions are realistic, you will need to use your imagination to take on the perspective of your assigned character and fill in the gaps. Consider each of the following questions as you explore your assigned role. Use the space below each question to take notes.
1. What is this person’s “stake” in the factory dispute?
What evidence (from research) do you have to support your perspective?
2. What does this person have to lose? What does s/he have to gain?
What evidence (from research) do you have to support your perspective?
3. What is likely to be most important to this person? Why?
What evidence (from research) do you have to support your perspective?
4. What might this person be willing to compromise?
What evidence (from research) do you have to support your perspective?
