Maximo Hernandez and the Fishing Ranchos of Tampa Bay

Maximo was a fisherman, a guide for the U.S. Army, a husband and father, and ultimately the owner of a fishing rancho. Fishing ranchos were seasonal settlements where fishermen from Havana harvested fish in Tampa Bay and sent dried, salted, and live catch to the Havana market. Spanish fishermen intermarried with Indigenous people of Florida, including descendants of the Calusa and, later, Seminoles. These unions created a distinctive hybrid society identified in historical records as “Spanish Indians” or “Spanish Seminoles.”

Maximo married a Native American woman and had a family with her. Research indicates that his wife and three children were removed to the western territories under the federal Indian removal policy of the 1830s. Maximo and others signed an 1838 petition to the U.S. Army requesting the return of their removed “Spanish Indian” families. The petition was denied. He was later listed in census records as a widower.

In 1847, Maximo married Dominga Montes de Oca. A year later, their son was born, Maximo died, and the “Gale of ’48” struck the Tampa Bay area, destroying the rancho. After years of effort, Dominga gained title to the land Maximo had claimed.

Dominga sold the land twice: first to the notorious plume hunter Jean Lechevalier and later to a Baltimore investor group. After the property remained dormant for years, it was purchased by Roy Hanna, St. Petersburg’s postmaster and later sold to the City of St. Petersburg. Maximo Park is the legacy of that history.