It's Fiesta Friday!
Fiesta is a 10-day party in San Antonio. It means food, parades, and for most people -- lots of drinking.
Sad-but-true Fiesta Fact: We've had 6 DWI fatalities in the last week.
Today was our Battle of Flowers parade. Kids get the day off school and city workers get a holiday. Of course, we never take a holiday in news but we look forward to Fiesta Friday every year because the station is just a couple blocks away from the parade route and we always walk over and watch a few floats go by and then pay way too much for some delicious fiesta food.
Another Fiesta Fact: The first Battle of Flowers® Parade took place in 1891 to honor the heroes of the Alamo and to commemorate the Battle at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, where Texas won its independence from Mexico. (fiesta-sa.org)
My Fiesta Friday started with a lapse in judgement. The street I exit to get to work is always closed on the parade day because it's where they stage the floats. I know this. I've experienced it for nearly a decade. But what did I do today? I took that exit anyway. Here is a picture of me stuck at an intersection while I waited for the floats to cross. (Yeah, I was 20 minutes late to work.)
Fiesta is a 10-day party in San Antonio. It means food, parades, and for most people -- lots of drinking.
Sad-but-true Fiesta Fact: We've had 6 DWI fatalities in the last week.
Today was our Battle of Flowers parade. Kids get the day off school and city workers get a holiday. Of course, we never take a holiday in news but we look forward to Fiesta Friday every year because the station is just a couple blocks away from the parade route and we always walk over and watch a few floats go by and then pay way too much for some delicious fiesta food.
Another Fiesta Fact: The first Battle of Flowers® Parade took place in 1891 to honor the heroes of the Alamo and to commemorate the Battle at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, where Texas won its independence from Mexico. (fiesta-sa.org)
My Fiesta Friday started with a lapse in judgement. The street I exit to get to work is always closed on the parade day because it's where they stage the floats. I know this. I've experienced it for nearly a decade. But what did I do today? I took that exit anyway. Here is a picture of me stuck at an intersection while I waited for the floats to cross. (Yeah, I was 20 minutes late to work.)
As I mentioned, at lunchtime my coworkers and I walk over to the parade route to enjoy the festivities.
We didn't get to see much of the parade -- but here's a glimpse at some of it:
There were horses ... and floats with Fiesta royalty:
It's tradition that the Fiesta beauty queens wear tennis shoes or other crazy footwear under their ball gowns. People yell, "Show us your shoes" and the girls lift their dresses to reveal what's on their feet. This girl had on cowboy boots, but some of them wear slippers, flip-flops, or tennis shoes.
You can find entertainment all around you. Many of the parade-goers are just as interesting as the people on the floats.
There are cute kids in cute Fiesta clothes like this:
And then there's the frightening Fiesta Fashion like this:
Everyone highly enjoys the very-fattening, way overpriced Fiesta food:
Tacos! Gorditas! Fajitas! Nachos! Roasted Corn! Turkey legs! Funnel Cakes!
And then some people (like Mario) eat the nasty Fiesta food like tripas:
(mmmm .. yummy. The small intestines of farm animals. Delicious!)
Funny Fiesta story. So I'm talking to some people running one of the food booths and they tell me to say hello to one of the reporters at my station.
"No problem," I say. "What's your name?" I ask.
"We are the Saldivar family," they answer, clearly emphasizing Saldivar -- so I'm thinking this must be someone I'm supposed to know. I think for a quick second and a lightbulb goes off -- Selena!
(OK, for those of you who have never lived in Texas -- Selena was a MAJOR star here and she was murdered by the president of her fan club. There was a movie starring Jennifer Lopez. google it.)
So I quickly blurt out "Saldivar???... as in Selena??"
They look a little taken back but nod, "yes."
Well -- here's the kicker ...
I had a brief moment of confusion and was thinking that Selena's family was Saldivar -- NOOOO .. the name of the woman who killed her was Yolanda Saldivar. That didn't hit me until about 10 minutes later and then I laughed and laughed and felt like an idiot. These were the siblings of the woman who murdered Selena.
I'm a dork and I can't believe I said "As in Selena??" to them. DUH!
I took a picture of them because they were nice and really because Yolanda's brother has a fabulous mullet that sadly you can't see from the picture.
(But imagine a long ponytail behind the feathered front on the guy on the left.)
Okay -- back to Fiesta Friday. Cascarones are a major tradition during Fiesta.
(That would be confetti eggs for you white folk.)
Here's a picture of me cracking one on the head of our unsuspecting intern:
Once you get someone with a cascarone, you can pretty much expect they will get you back.
It was actually my coworker, Sean who egged me. I'm a good target because my mass of curly hair makes it impossible to get all the confetti out.
Here's a picture of me cracking one on the head of our unsuspecting intern:
Once you get someone with a cascarone, you can pretty much expect they will get you back.
It was actually my coworker, Sean who egged me. I'm a good target because my mass of curly hair makes it impossible to get all the confetti out.
After the hot and humid parade outing and then the shaking the confetti out, I had CRAZY hair.
Viva Fiesta!
2 comments:
I love Fiesta. I miss it. How fun. It all makes San Antonio feel like such a small town.
And the Selena story... HI.LAR.IOUS.
I needed that story before I went to bed. I could totally picture you in that moment.
Thank you for documenting the Fiesta trek. I didn't want to be cascaroned AGAIN and have to deal with that and being sticky for the rest of my day! :)
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