Biography
Angel Cabrera was a Tampa tobacco-worker defendant imprisoned during Florida's crackdown on the 1931 strike. At the Indiantown State Road Camp, he and Ismael Cruz led a twenty-four-hour prisoners' strike against poor food, living conditions and the punishment of four men in a sweatbox. Guards subsequently confined Cabrera in the sweatbox, and he was transferred to Raiford by December 1932. A February 1933 letter from Tampa reported that he had completed his prison term and had been deported.
The November 2, 1932 Indiantown dispatch published November 3 explicitly identifies Cabrera and Cruz as Tampa tobacco-strike prisoners in the Florida State Road Camp. It describes Cabrera leading a one-day prison strike against food, conditions and sweatbox punishment. Cabrera and one unnamed prisoner were then kept in sweatboxes for four days; the unnamed person is not automatically Cruz. Threats to shoot them during a proposed hearing transfer and an anticipated January end of term were not accomplished killings or actual releases. Four days describes the punishment episode, not either prisoner’s complete incarceration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n263-NY-nov-03-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 16, 1932 Tampa account describes Cruz and Cabrera participating in a twenty-four-hour prisoners’ strike at the Indiantown road camp against conditions and sweatbox punishment. It explicitly says Cabrera had been transferred to Raiford. The twenty-four hours describes the protest, not either man’s whole jail stay; transfer was not release, and the sentencing-list M. Cabrera is not automatically identified as Angel. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n300-NY-dec-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Page 4’s Tampa letter individually lists Ismael Cruz, Jose Campos and Angel Cabrera as already deported. It says Cabrera had completed his term after several weeks in a sweatbox on hardtack and water and that guards withheld fruit and books. That punishment account is individually Cabrera’s and is not assigned to all three. The undated letter supplies no exact deportation day, destination or later custody endpoint for this individual. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n049-NY-feb-26-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
Bernard Ades’s prison-visit account places Cabrera and Cruz on the road gang at Indian Town, Florida, under Captain Peter Thomas Ello. It describes Cabrera’s bleeding eczema while required to work and harsh prison conditions. This is a historical confinement location and attributed treatment in the existing Tampa case, not an additional sentence or a new exact custody interval. Labor Defender, June 1932, original PDF page 15. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n06-jun-1932-LD.pdf#page=15
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 147 and 158 (PDF pages 8 and 23): Hy Kravif's Our Prisoners Are Well Treated describes harsh conditions for the Tampa labor prisoners. It prints Carbrero and reports him with Cruz on an Everglades road gang, doing manual road grading. The Tampa cohort supports the spelling match; no exact transfer day is provided. These treatment allegations remain attributed to the defense magazine and are not measured complete imprisonment totals. The Arthur Maillefert sweatbox death is an example concerning another inmate, not this prisoner's death. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
The Tampa prisoners’ letter identifies Cabrera and Ismael Cruz at the Indiantown road camp and reports both put in sweatboxes after protesting treatment and food. It says a joint Black and white prisoners’ strike forced their removal from sweatbox punishment. This differs in individual assignment from an earlier report identifying Cabrera and an unnamed companion; both accounts remain attributed, without a guessed day or new case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n02-feb-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=9
Page 8 describes Cabrera at Indiantown unable to maintain the forced-labor pace, placed in a sweatbox while sick and weak, and a hunger strike demanding prisoners' release from the boxes. The twelve-to-fourteen-hour workdays concern camp conditions, not an individually measured sentence. No exact transfer or deportation date is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/pamphlets/tampa-terror.pdf
The January 16, 1932 report individually names the sixteen workers actually arrested November 7, 1931 at the Tampa anniversary meeting after a police and American Legion attack. It reports criminal-syndicalism, inciting-to-riot and unlawful-assembly proceedings and a federal injunction. The January trial was ongoing; no exact physical discharge, individual final sentence or completed duration is established. Daily Worker, January 16, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n014-NY-jan-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Daily Worker, February 27, 1933; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The visitor’s letter attributes to Cabrera and Ismael Cruz an account that Cabrera defended an ill Cruz from a beating and broke a guard’s stick, then received fifty-two days in a sweatbox with a slice of bread and little tepid water daily. This is a reported disciplinary punishment during existing custody; it is not added as fifty-two days beyond his prison term and does not override the separately reported four-day sweatbox episode after an Indiantown prison strike.
Cabrera’s interview says the Indiantown prisoners stopped work for twenty-four hours after Cruz and three others were put in a sweatbox. After officials promised a fair hearing, Cabrera and nine others received five days in the sweatbox on bread and water; all except Cruz were then transferred to Raiford and placed in solitary. Page1 dates Cabrera’s Raiford solitary from November11. The reporter describes severe illness, weight loss, a guarded ten-minute interview and refusal of newspapers. Five disciplinary days are part of existing custody, not an added overall term or a contradiction silently substituted for another reported sweatbox interval.
