Fiesta San Antonio- April 23-27, 2008

Fiesta San Antonio is a 10 day festival that takes place every April and celebrates the heroes that died defending the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto where Texas won independence from Mexico in April of 1836. It is one of the largest festivals in the country, drawing over 2 million during the 10 days not to mention millions in economic impact and charity donations. As they say, everything is bigger in Texas!

This is our visiting dignitary group (without Queens who were off doing their thing!)

Aquatennial and Fiesta have had a long-standing relationship....the folks from San Antonio attend Aquatennial every year and we return the favor. I was fortunate to be able to represent Minneapolis this year along with our Queen of the Lakes, Charissa Pederson. We spent Wednesday through Sunday at Fiesta along with representatives from Macon, Georgia’s Cherry Blossom Festival, The Tournament of Roses in Pasadena (I believe you’ve heard of that one!) plus St. Paul Winter Carnival and a few other visiting festivals from Texas. We did a LOT during the five days so this will be a long one!

After arriving Wednesday and getting checked into the hotel, it was time to get ready to attend coronation. They have several types of coronations....there’s Miss Fiesta, the Queen of Soul, Fiesta Queen, etc. To be honest, I couldn’t really keep track. One of the things about Fiesta is it incorporates everyone in the community. They have over 100 organizations involved in some aspect and they all have their individual events. Fiesta is massive.

Anyway, the coronation we attended was the Coronation of the Order of the Alamo and it was quite the spectacle. First, the gowns are like nothing you’ve ever seen. They are elaborate and all based on a theme which is different every year. This year, they were based on the famous courts of Europe and Asia (think Peter the Great in Russia or King Ferdinand’s Court in Spain). They include a train...and not just any train, the longest, heaviest, most expensive train I’ve ever heard of. They take the entire year to design and then craft, cost tens of thousands (I was told they start at $40,000 but I’m not sure how accurate that is....they look like they cost a ton so that’s as good a number as any. We were fortunate to be able to see them laid out on tables before the coronation.

Charissa and Lindsey with our favorite "Aquatennial Style" train...yes, those are ALL jewels

In addition to the gowns, the set design, the escorts, and the girls that assist with the trains....all of it is over the top and made to resemble the excesses of Renaissance-era Europe. And it succeeds.

Here's a couple different shots...the Queen's is the longest with the fur-like lining
The girl in the front on the first photo is doing a curtsy that takes them all the way to the floor. Ouch.

Thursday, Charissa and I were split up as the visiting Queens have a separate itinerary from us on this trip which is different from other festivals. The Queen’s spend Thursday visiting schools, hospitals and nursing homes with King Antonio. King Antonio, one of the longest-standing Fiesta traditions, is a member of the royalty who reign over the merriment of Fiesta. King Antonio is selected each year from the ranks of the Texas Cavaliers, a patriotic and civic organization, and his public investiture takes place at sunset in front of the Alamo Saturday evening.

As for the rest of us, spend the day with our hosts (each visiting festival is assigned a host, usually a couple, which has been involved in the festival for a significant time and can show us the ropes. Aquatennial was assigned to Bill and Virginia Van Cleave. Bill is a lawyer in San Antonio and Virginia an American History Professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio. Bill and Virginia were a wealth of knowledge and we were fortunate to spend the week with them.

First order of business Thursday was a visit to El Mercado which is the Hispanic market in San Antonio. San Antonio is about half Hispanic and it is a culture celebrated here as much as Texas itself. El Mercado is full of shops with handmade Mexican crafts and gifts plus lots of restaurants and booths with the street foods of Mexico. And nothing beats a taco stand!

After spending some time shopping (gotta bring back gifts, right?) and learning more about their Hispanic culture, it was off the Mission San Jose, one of five Spanish colonial missions in the San Antonio area. San Antonio was a significant stop on the Spanish held area of what is now the U.S. The San Antonio river springs from just north of town and runs about 200 miles (give or take) to the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christie. The five Missions sprung up about 3 miles apart along the river going south of what is now downtown. One of the things the Spanish brought to the New World was irrigation and that was the idea behind their placement. The Alamo was initially one of those Missions although it became famous as a military base in later years (it initially went by the name San Antonio de Valero Mission).

We then went over to the Fiesta Commission Offices to meet up with King Antonio and the Queens. We were able to meet a handful of volunteers who were working on Fiesta. It should be said that there are approximately 75,000 volunteers who work on Fiesta each year and it’s wonderful to see so many people willing to help an organization that has charitable work at the top of the list. They do a lot of work for the community.

NIOSA (Night in Old San Antonio) was our next stop. It’s an outside festival held in La Villita National Historic District - the 18th century Spanish neighborhood set on the banks of the San Antonio River in the heart of downtown San Antonio. It is a celebration of San Antonio’s diverse ethnic culture and while there is certainly a Hispanic section, San Antonio is populated by many cultures including a huge German contingent and it made us Minnesotan’s feel right at home! It was like the Minnesota State Fair and Taste of Minnesota rolled into one. And check out a treat called Anticuchos...a marinated, kind of spicy, beef on a stick. It's maybe the tastiest thing south of the border.

Grilling Anticuchos....this is at NIOSA

and horseshoe sausage....can't beat that

At this point, we were off to dinner. One of our hosts, Evangelina Flores, is a longtime volunteer for Fiesta and is carrying on the work of her deceased husband Roger. She was a wonderful host and treated us to a terrific dinner. She owns a restaurant along the Rivewalk called “Paloma”. Above her restaurant, she has a penthouse that has a beautiful deck and a view of the Riverwalk. She brought in some dinner (mmmm....oysters) and invited many of the Fiesta volunteers and it was a great way to spend an evening.

What a view...from Evangelina's penthouse deck in the heart of downtown San Antonio

After what was becoming a marathon day, most would be ready to turn in but not this group! It was off to Fiesta Gartenfest, a German style beer garden with a huge band playing polka music and why not top off the day with beer and brats. Yeah, we ate a lot. It’s Fiesta, you’re supposed to!

Looks like Oktoberfest in any town in Minnesota...not Fiesta in San Antonio!

Friday was our trip to see the Alamo. The Alamo was and is a sign of Texan independence....after serving as a Spanish mission, it became a military base during the Texas Revolution and where Texans and Tejanos fought and died together before falling to Santa Anna’s Mexican forces in March of 1836. The battle cry “Remember the Alamo” rang throughout Texas before they defeated Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto in April of 1836 and Texas won its independence.

The Alamo went through the next several decades it served as a military warehouse, a store and who knows what else before becoming the Texas Shrine that it is today. It is a place of reverence and great history and is worth a trip. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas now maintain the Alamo and are a great resource in their own right.

This is the long barracks of the Alamo...this is where the Tennessee Volunteers fought and Davey Crockett fell

As an aside, the Daughters are a sororal group of women who are dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Texas and to be a member, you have to prove your lineage traces back to Texas prior to U.S. annexation in 1846! That includes Stephen Austin’s original 300 settlers, to Spanish, Mexican or Texan military groups of that time or through land grants authorized by the Republic of Texas. You get the feeling sometimes that Texas is still its own country!

After our Alamo visit, we sat down in bleachers along the street in front of the mission for the “Battle of Flowers” parade. The Battle of Flowers Parade is the oldest event of Fiesta San Antonio attracting crowds of more than 350,000. It is the only parade in the United States produced entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers. These ladies, dressed on Parade day in yellow and wearing yellow hats, direct operations with the assistance of the Texas Army National Guard. When a float goes by the Alamo, a flower wreath is removed from the float and carried to the front of the Alamo as a tribute to its fallen heroes.

The Flowers laid out in front of the Alamo

Our Friday ended with the “Queen’s Garden Party”. This celebrates the girls who were involved in the Coronation of the Order of the Alamo and again, those amazing trains from their gowns were on full display!

Our final day of festivities began with the King William Festival and Parade which is held in one of the older neighborhoods in the city. It’s a bit of an “off the wall” type of parade...it’s much more neighborhood focused as opposed to the pomp of the Battle of the Flowers and Fiesta Lambeau (which you’ll hear about and see in a minute). The best part about the King William Parade was the dogs and I’m a sucker for a pooch!

After the King William Festival, it was off to a San Antonio favorite, lunch on the river! Many of the restaurants along the Riverwalk offer lunch or dinner on a small barge type of craft that takes you through the horseshoe shaped San Antonio River and the man-made canal that runs through downtown. We loaded up two barges and had a terrific Italian lunch courtesy of Luciano’s. The scenery along the Riverwalk was unbelievable. Definitely a highlight of the trip.

The visiting Queen's by the Riverwalk...L to R: Emily Alston of the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival, Ashley Moreno, the 2005 Rose Queen and Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes Charissa Pederson

After lunch, a couple of us went to the Menger Hotel, which was built in 1859 and went into the bar. This is the bar where soon-to-be President Theodore Roosevelt recruited the famous "Rough Riders" who went on to fame in Cuba at the battle of San Juan Hill.

The Bar at the Menger...you see the photo of President Roosevelt in the middle

Saturday night was the Fiesta Flambeau Parade. The Flambeau is a nighttime parade where everything in the parade must be lit....every float, every horse and every band member. If you’re on the street, you are lighted. It was a massive crowd. I heard they draw over (sometimes well over) 600,000 people on a 2.6 mile parade route. It was huge.

We had probably the best seats in the house as we were stationed right in front of the Alamo and as the parade went by, the Alamo stood like a beacon behind it, lit up and almost glowing. It was an amazing sight.

The University of Texas Band

Following the parade, we went back to the hotel and the host committee and visiting festivals gathered in one of the rooms for a gift exchange. This leads me to a story I have to share because its one of the most memorable nights I’ve had in a while.

Traditionally, when we do this sort of thing (by thing I mean visiting festivals such as Winter Carnival, Festival Du Voyaguer, Cherry Blossom Festival, Fiesta, etc), we do a gift exchange at some point. Aquatennial gives a gift to Fiesta; Fiesta gives a gift to Aquatennial. We also usually give gifts to our specific hosts as thanks for showing us around and putting up with us!

Aquatennial’s hosts, Bill and Virginia Van Cleave (who I mentioned earlier) are both very knowledgeable about local history. Virginia is an American History teacher after all! She also is one of the “Daughters of the Republic of Texas” and was an Alamo tour guide at one point. I also mentioned earlier the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas winning its independence from Mexico in 1836. Well, it was April 21^st, 1836 to be exact. My birthday is April 25^th and someone (no, not me!) had spilled the beans to our hosts that I was celebrating my birthday at Fiesta. Fine...I’m not the Birthday kind of guy but it’s the first time I’ve had Happy Birthday sung to me in Spanish!

Anyway, after we exchanged gifts, Virginia says she has something special for my birthday. She tells the group about my interest in history (which I’m sure you can tell by reading this) and how I was already reading a book about the Alamo and quizzing her all week about things. Basically, just being interested.

Back to April 21^st...they raise a Texas state flag over the Capitol in Austin and over the Alamo every April 21^st commemorating the Battle of San Jacinto and winning Independence. Virginia gave me the flag that was raised over the Alamo along with a certificate from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas stating “This Flag was Proudly Raised over the Alamo, April 21^st, 2008”.

Here you see the Flag in the Upper Left...that's what she gave me.

I was speechless. Still kind of speechless. They gave a proud (and I do mean proud) Texas memento to me, a Yankee from Minnesota who had been there for 4 days? Really? Possibly the most meaningful gift I’ve ever received. Certainly the most unique and irreplaceable. It was folded military style (the triangle looking shape you see at military funerals) and I’m now looking into a way to get that framed with the certificate (unfolded it’s wall size in case you’re wondering). Of course someone said “How long till we see that on Ebay?” Not a chance!

That was it....in case that wasn’t enough, we were only there for about half of the Fiesta. If you want to go for ten day, pack an extra liver. It’s worth it though!

A couple of thanks....first, to Bill and Virginia, the best hosts a person could hope for. Evangelina Flores, David Reta and their families for welcoming all of us into their home. And the other hosts that I didn’t mention earlier....Danny, Janice, Les and everyone else (I’m so sorry if I’m forgetting people....the names are escaping me we met so many wonderful people). We need to thank to the Fiesta President, John Steen and their Executive Director Chuck Blische who did a terrific job pulling all of this together. And finally to the 75,000 plus volunteers who give up their time to make Fiesta the community-wide success it is. A huge job and they do it magnificently.

We’ve been back a few days and already I’ve had several former Aquatennial Ambassadors ask me about Fiesta and tell me it was their favorite trip. I can see why!

(FYI...TONS of pictures on my Facebook profile if you're interested)

Lindsey Peterson
2008 Aquatennial Captain