Fiesta Photos and Memories

From its inception, Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta has generated a wealth of imagery. From the bright posters that herald the event to the abundance of amateur and professional photographs that document it, every season brings fresh efforts to record the costumes, customs, and cascarones of our city’s annual midsummer celebration.

Goleta Council member and former Presidente of Old Spanish Days Roger Aceves remembers attending the 1958 Desfile de los Niños as a nattily attired 3-year-old. Aceves’s Fiesta getup earned him not only a photo op with the News-Press photographer but also a magnanimous gesture from Prima Signor of Mom’s Italian Village. Upon seeing little Roger all dressed up for the parade, she went beyond the traditional free ice cream, boosting him onto a bar stool and telling her staff to “give him anything he wants.” 

This is just one of the Fiesta memories that have been collected by the Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s Fiesta Project, a multiyear exhibition and program designed to draw viewers into the organization’s mission of collecting and documenting everything and anything to do with Santa Barbara history. The Fiesta project mixes video, painting, and photography with some spectacular costumes and accessories to provide a comprehensive account of nearly a century of these celebrations.