A cochineal crisis caused a large part of the Canarian population to be forced to emigrate to the Americas, the preferred destinations being Cuba and Venezuela. Thus, Secundino Delgado, like many Canarians, emigrated to Cuba in 1885. On the Caribbean island, Secundino joined the Cuban independence movement, establishing contact with anarchist sectors of the independentist groups in Tampa. He began to work in a tobacco factory and participated in the writing of the workers' newspaper "El Esclavo" (The Slave), an anarchist weekly that defended the independence of Cuba.