A Mother's Day tradition is on hold in Florida

TAMPA, Fla. – For seven decades, it was a Mother's Day tradition in Tampa to place flowers at the base of a 6-foot sculpture depicting a mother holding a baby while her two small children reach up to hand her flowers.

"It was sweet," said Robin Nigh, manager of arts and cultural affairs for the city of Tampa.

The tradition followed the sculpture, titled "Honor to Mothers of the World," through various locations. It started at the University of Tampa, moved to the city's Latin District, and its final stop was outside a city-owned building in the Ybor City neighborhood near downtown.

But it has been on hold since 2019, when the city sold the building to a health service and moved the sculpture to a warehouse.

Nigh hopes this Mother's Day is the last one the statue spends alone, held in a protective brace made of steel and plywood.

"She is so beautiful," Nigh said of the mother in the sculpture. "We want to find her a new home."

Tampa officials would like to rededicate it on Mother's Day 2022, Nigh said, but so far no location has been found.

"It has significant cultural value," Nigh said.

News archives report the limestone statue — painted white and with a marble base — was given to the city by Orden Caballero De La Luz, described as "a fraternal and benevolent order" with lodges in Cuba and Florida.

At the time, the Tampa lodge served as headquarters to the "Grand Lodge of Florida." The organization still exists, with a grand lodge in Miami but no Tampa chapter.

The sculptor, Teodoro Ramos Blanco, was considered "one of Cuba's most important artists," according to a history of the statue provided by the city. His artwork received a gold medal at the World's Fair in Seville, Spain, in 1929 and can be found in Baltimore's Museum of Modern Art.

At its dedication on Mother's Day 1948 at the University of Tampa, members of the lodge started the tradition of placing flowers at the statue's base, according to news archives.

An undated travel brochure featured the statue in an effort to promote the Latin District as family-friendly. It shows smiling parents with a child strolling past the statue as Flamenco dancers posed with it.

To make way for a redevelopment project, the sculpture was moved to the Ybor City neighborhood in 1998. That year, the city had the statue appraised at $65,000, but Nigh estimates it is worth around $90,000 today.

It was a good home, Nigh said, but its location did not receive the type of foot traffic that she believes the statue deserves.