Nicholas Chillura Nuccio (October 24, 1901 – August 26, 1989) was a two-time mayor of

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

in the 1950s and 60s. He was the Tampa's first mayor of "Latin" (specifically Sicilian) descent, having been born and raised in the immigrant neighborhood of

Ybor City Ybor City ( ) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mai ...

Early life and career

Nick Nuccio was the son of Sicilian immigrants who were among the earliest settlers of

, an immigrant-founded neighborhood in

originally based on the

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...

industry. Like most Sicilians who arrived in Ybor City in the late 1800s, Nuccio's mother was from the town of Santo Stefano Quisquina, while his father was from nearby

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. The many Cuban,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, and Sicilian residents of Ybor City were often referred to as "Latins" by Tampa's "

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

" community, and as the disparate immigrants worked, went to school, and socialized together in their largely self-sufficient neighborhood, they formed a common identity strong enough that their descendants still call themselves by that term over a century later. As was common at the time, Nuccio took a job to earn money for his family before earning a high school diploma, quitting Hillsborough High School after 10th grade to work as a ship fitter in the Tampa shipyards during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After the war, Nuccio dabbled in real estate and

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sales before becoming a clerk at the Ybor City

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in 1926.Nick Chillura Nuccio - 47th and 49th Mayor of Tampa
/ref> Nuccio married Concetta Licata on July 6, 1924 and they had three children.

Early political career

In 1929, Nuccio successfully ran for a seat on the

Tampa City Council The Tampa City Council is the legislative body of the municipal government of the U.S. city of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida. The City Council consists of seven members, each representing one of seven corresponding districts from which ...

as a representative from Ybor City. He was reelected several times before moving on to the Hillsborough County Commission in 1937, a post he held continuously until 1956. While serving as chairman of the county commission, Nuccio found a novel method of increasing his local name recognition. A strong proponent of neighborhood improvements, Nuccio managed to get the words "Nick C. Nuccio, County Commissioner" stamped on every public works project he had approved. For several subsequent decades, his name was visible on sidewalks, park benches, seawalls, and virtually every other piece of concrete laid by Hillsborough County during his long tenure.1959: The natural vs. the athlete
/ref> Nick Nuccio statue

Mayor

Unsuccessful run

By the mid-1950s, Nuccio had built up substantial support in Tampa, especially among Latin voters in Ybor City and

West Tampa West Tampa is one of the oldest neighborhoods within the city limits of Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States. It was an independently incorporation (municipal government), incorporated city from 1895 until 1925, when it was annexed by Ta ...

, and decided to run for mayor. In 1955, he challenged

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

Curtis Hixon, who had been in office since 1943. Hixon easily defeated Nuccio, winning reelection after national newspaper coverage alleged that Nuccio had close ties to

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

. Hixon died in 1956 before finishing the term, and Nuccio ran for the office again against interim mayor J.L. Young. Although the

Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

again endorsed Nuccio's opponent, Nuccio won in an extremely close

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

(50.1% to 49.9%) to become Tampa's first "Latin" mayor.

First term

While in the mayor's office, Nuccio continued his enthusiasm for public works projects and strove to keep his neighborhood constituents happy by personally helping to solve problems, believing that government's role was to "have a positive influence in people's lives." Nuccio successfully pushed for the construction of many libraries, bridges, fire and police stations, public pools, and parks (most notably Lowry Park Zoo), among other projects, many of which are still in use today.Hillsborough: Tampa honors Nuccio
/ref> Nuccio was also known for his unconventional governing style and unusual daily schedule. He regularly ate a breakfast of toasted Cuban bread and Café con leche at a small cafe in West Tampa, sometimes moving on to another cafe in Ybor City later in the morning. Constituents were welcome to sit and talk with the mayor about their issues in English, Spanish, or Italian, and they often left with a promise of help from the city. These conversations could continue into lunchtime, which Nuccio usually ate in his own home, often bringing home visitors to share his wife's home-cooked meal. After lunch, Nuccio often enjoyed a short nap at home, after which the mayor would finally arrive at his downtown office, where he would stay late into the evening.

Second Term

Nuccio was immensely popular among Tampa's Latin residents but was equally disliked by others in Tampa's "Anglo" community. During his 1959 reelection campaign, challenger Julian Lane depicted him as an old-fashioned machine-era politician and easily defeated the incumbent with a pledge of "honest government" and "sound business practices". Racial unrest and problems with flooding along the Hillsborough River had damaged Lane's popularity by 1963, when he sought a second term. Nuccio came out of retirement for an electoral rematch and won a close election to regain the mayor's office. Times had changed by the late 1960s. Nuccio's personal political style was not as effective in what was Tampa's first mass-media election campaign, and he lost his 1967 reelection bid to the much younger and more media-savvy Dick Greco, Jr., another native of Ybor City whom Nuccio had long regarded as a political protégé. In 1971, Nuccio again ran against Greco for the mayor's office but was again defeated, at which point he retired from political life.Greco vs. Nuccio , Cigar City Magazine
Despite these losses, Nuccio was still extremely popular in Tampa's Latin community in retirement. He died in 1989, and a large bronze statue of the former mayor holding his trademark hat and large Tampa cigar was dedicated in Ybor City's Centennial Park in 1999.

References

External links

Official bio from City of Tampa

Bio from collection of "Ybor City notables"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuccio, Nick 1901 births 1989 deaths Mayors of Tampa, Florida Florida city council members American people of Italian descent 20th-century mayors of places in Florida