Lector (cigar manufacture)

In cigar manufacture, a lector or reader is an employee hired by fellow workers to entertain them by reading books or newspapers aloud.[1][2]

The practice began in Cuba,[3][4] in 1865, in part to relieve worker boredom. The custom also spread to areas with Cuban influence, such as Ybor City, Tampa.[2]

In practice, lectors often read left-wing publications, and often took on extra-official roles and formerly acted as "spurs to dissent",[1] becoming a part of union advocacy. In the United States, the lector tradition ended in the aftermath of the Ybor City cigar makers' strike of 1931.[2] The lector tradition still continues in Cuba, however, and as of 2017, UNESCO was considering designating the profession a form of "intangible cultural heritage".[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "The people who read to Cuban cigar-factory workers". The Economist. 12 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b c El Lector, the Cigar Factory Reader of Ybor City
  3. ^ "The Jobs Of Yesteryear: Obsolete Occupations". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  4. ^ 20 Jobs That Have Disappeared Archived 2010-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, By Miranda Marquit, Main Street, thestreet.com, May 3, 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.