Party-to-end-all-parties, '07 edition

Yes, dear reader, the A.D. 2007 edition of Fiesta San Antonio, the Alamo City''s party-to-end-all-parties, is well under way! And as usual, I'm in the thick of it!

This year I won't go into detail about everything, since I covered Fiesta '06 rather well. If you missed my reports about last year, scroll down (i.e., back in time), looking at the dates of the postings, until you get around 21 April. That date is significant, because the ten days of Fiesta always include this, the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto victory of the rebel Texians under Sam Houston over the forces of Santa Anna.

But I shall cover a few specific and unique items of this year's Fiesta! First and foremost is that I have FAMILY living here, to introduce to Fiesta! When Patrick and his wife LaRae moved here in February, I asked specifically when my brother had been at Fort Sam Houston for his training to be a medic in the Army. He replied that it was August to December. I remarked at the time that he had missed all the best stuff: Rodeo, Folklife, and of course the party-to-end-all-parties. And LaRae hadn't ever been in this city prior to the recent move!

Yep, I was lickin' my lips and rubbin' my hands in anticipatory glee!

We three celebrated our first Fiesta event together by going to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens for "Walk across Texas" this past Saturday morning. The sky was cloudy, but it didn't rain. As in each year's Fiesta, this one-day event featured free coffee and homemade biscuits (with gravy or jelly) using the locally-milled Pioneer Flour. And there were demonstrations and guided exhibits around the three areas of the Botanical Gardens that present three of the major environmental areas of the state: the East Texas Piney Woods, the Hill Country and the South Texas chaparral. I could tell that LaRae really enjoyed some of the demonstrations/exhibits!

Then we drove across town to the Westside, for "Piñatas in the Barrio" at Guadalupe Plaza. I feared we would arrive late and miss opening ceremonies, but not to worry! Latin American types are always fashionably late, and "Piñatas" was no exception! I delighted to point out to the two new S.A. residents, that chicanos or Mexican-Americans are about THE MOST PATRIOTIC of all ethnic groups in these United States, and for instance have a disproportionate number of Congressional Medal of Honor earners among them. Such loyalty and dedication to US military service is the more remarkable, when one considers that a large percentage of them have ancestors who were already living in the area that is now the southwestern states when it was part of Mexico, and by force of war they were taken into the USA. As chicanos like to say, "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!"

It was also a great delight to introduce Patrick and LaRae to Council Member Patti Radle, who represents District 5 (the bulk of the Westside) on the S.A. City Council. Patti and I have known each other for about as long as she's been on the Council. She's been a good public servant, and was the only Council vote in December 2004 against permitting the PGA to build a luxury golf resort over the aquifer recharge zone. But alas! soon she will have to step down; our Council elections are coming up in just days, and she cannot run for re-election. By city law the Mayor and Council members serve two-year terms and can be re-elected only once.

After "Piñatas" we drove to another Fiesta event, a "Pow-Wow" in Mission County Park near Mission San Jose. It appeared to be typical of one-day Fiesta neighborhood events: some live performances in a stage area, surrounded by booths, mostly for typical Fiesta food items. These are: gorditas, funnel cakes, tacos, roast corn, etc. It didn't look interesting to my brother and sister-in-law, so we didn't go in. Instead I spent some afternoon time at their quarters on post.

Saturday evening, after resting, I attended a new Fiesta event, at La Villita Assembly Hall. New to me, that is; the "Patriotic and Historical Ball" has been held for some 88 years. I hesitated to go, even tho' I'd been trying to get a ticket to the free event for years (the ticket -- actually an invitation -- is for crowd control). I feared that I'd be to only attendee going stag, and that after a brief opening ceremony it would be all dancing, and also I wouldn't see anyone I knew (not counting Fiesta royalty). However, I saw a couple of other fellows attending stag, and also someone I knew thru Emmaus events. Best of all, the ceremony was rather lengthy, with numerous elements. Most impressive were the US Army Drill Team, in their dress blue uniforms, with chromed weapons, as they did their skillful precision drill maneuvers with these latter. In short, I was glad I attended, and even enjoyed observing the "Grand March" that commenced the dancing portion -- even tho' I was a "wallflower"!

Military was the emphasis again on Sunday afternoon, when Patrick and LaRae came and got me and took me back on post for the Fort Sam Fiesta & Fireworks. Part of the military ceremony of this Fiesta event (there was also a "county fair" area of a performance stage and food booths) included (again) the US Army Drill Team. Due to the damp weather the well-dressed soldiers could not do all the performance they had done the previous nite. Patrick and LaRae had never seen them live before (by contrast I had already seen them a couple of times prior to '07), so I filled them in on the missing elements. The 82d Airborne All-American Chorus of men singing a capella also performed, the same show they had done at the "Official Opening Ceremony" on Friday morning. I was glad that my two companions got to hear the skillful drill team and the excellent singing group!

After the "Pass in Review" parade the drizzle returned and edged toward rain. But we all kept on having Fiesta fun. And the fireworks went on, too. The pyrotechnics often disappeared into the cloud cover, to then let off a light sort of like colored sheet lightning. Sometimes sparks from the explosions would be seen coming down out of the clouds. And sometimes the clouds raised sufficiently to allow full view of the bursts. All in all, it was an interesting effect, thanks to soggy Mother Nature! And I was glad to be there, with Patrick and LaRae. Rain or shine!