The Party's Over, but what a party! Whew!

Today is 1 May, which a few generations back used to be called "May Day" and featured young women dancing around the Maypole. Then it lost popularity, due to Marxists taking it to celebrate "the worker" and communism. But a more significant meaning for the First of May is that on this date in A.D. 1718 Spanish Franciscan missionaries founded Mission San Antonio de Valero -- and thus began the settlement that became the eighth largest city in these United States. So, "Happy birthday, San Antonio!"

BTW, the mission, first of five founded by the Franciscans along the river here, later on became the fortress known as The Alamo.

But in this Year of Our Lord 2006, 1 May has yet another significance. It's the Monday following the final day of Fiesta San Antonio, the closing Sunday. And folks, what a party-to-end-all-parties it was! Indeed! I set new personal records: for attending at least one Fiesta event each of the ten days, and for attending a total of 27 events all together. I may also have set a new record for attending new events (not counting my first Fiesta as a resident of this city, A.D. 2002).

After Monday nite's River Parade (see earlier blog post) I had considered that that parade was challenging the Battle of Flowers Parade for being my favorite of all parades. But then came Friday, and the BoF itself. And it was THE BEST of the BoF parades I've seen! As custom, I took a folding chair with me on the bus, set it up at Third and Broadway (where the parade turns from the latter street to head toward The Alamo), and enjoyed a bit of the food being vended in the many nearby booths. Such as gorditas, which are puffy tortillas slit open and stuffed with meat, lettuce, tomato and other typical ingredients of an ordinary taco. And then the Battle of Flowers Parade passed by in all its glory.

For those who don't know, the Battle of Flowers Parade is the original Fiesta event, celebrated in 1891 when the city's society women chose the first visit of a U.S. President to San Antonio, Benjamin Harrison, to honor the heroes of The Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, by riding flower-bedecked horses-and-buggies in front of the shrine of Texas liberty and then throwing flowers at one another. No "flower-fights" nowadays, but still plenty of flower images and lots of color! LOTS of color!

I suppose the hi-lite of THIS parade (among all the parades of Fiesta) are the floats that carry the young ladies of the court of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo. Each year the court/royalty floats feature a specific theme, and this year's was Hollywood movies. The Queen's float arrives first, bearing only Her Majesty. (All other court floats each carry three royal ladies.) This year's Queen,a native of S.A., will graduate next month from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's in Art History. Her educational connection caught my attention because I, too, have a degree from Vandy. She smiled brightly at me when she heard me cheer for VU!

Well, folks, I could go on and on about the many events I attended. But let me cut to the chase, so to speak. Saturday nite, after leaving my work-shift on the train at Fiesta Texas themepark, I took the Express bus line into downtown, got off and walked the two block to Cattlemen's Square and Fiesta's "Tejano Explosion" event. This "explosion" of live Mexican-American music goes on every nite of the Fiesta, but Saturday's headline act was "La Tropa F", one of the most accomplished & popular of tejano music in its conjunto style. And they were terrific!

Then Sunday afternoon and evening I did my customary closing of Fiesta by attending Mission San Jose's Fiesta de la Familia. It's a gr-r-r-reat way to close out Fiesta, because it's a very relaxed block-party type activity, not terribly crowded, family-oriented with plenty of live music. And of course it's hosted by the church parish of the "Queen of the Missions"! But topping off this year's Mission San Jose Fiesta event was "Little Joe y la Familia" -- one of the greatest legends of Chicano music, a very leading group in the outbreak of popular Chicano music in the mid-to-late 1900s. So on the final two nites of Fiesta 2006 I partook of delightful & talented música a la mexicana. Or at least a la Mexican-American.

I should add that Little Joe earned a Grammy for his recent album "Chicanismo", from which he sang two or three songs. And I was impressed that on most of the songs, the crowd was singing right along! It was loudly evident that this legendary group is still quite popular with my Mexican-American neighbors!

This Fiesta shared two aspects with last year's. I was very conscious of the musical element (as I mentioned in e-mail reports last year, at that time I came to realize that the live music is one reason I cherish Fiesta). And as I walked away from the Fiesta de la Familia, to go around the historic mission compound's walls and catch the bus home, in my mind I could hear Willie Nelson singing:

"Turn out the lights, the party's over.
They say that all good things must end.
Call it a night, the party's over,
And tomorrow brings the same old thing again."

But he wasn't singing very loudly. After all, I was quite tired from all the ten days of busy partying. And Little Joe y la Familia were still singing away in Spanish, back there behind the mission compound and me.

Oh, I must conclude this with a remark I made to a fellow bus rider as I was going from one Fiesta event to another in the past day or two. Keep in mind that fiesta means "party" in Spanish. I told this fellow rider that I live at La Fiesta Apartments, I shop for groceries at La Fiesta Stores, I work seasonally at Fiesta Texas and I like to attend lots of Fiesta San Antonio. And I concluded, "This means that I'm a real 'party animal', I suppose." :-)