A beautiful article about Fiesta and the dancing tradition. My daughter danced with Kathy Cota’s studio, and my mom took lessons from, and danced with, José Manero.
There, however, is one essential point about Fiesta left out:
While this paragraph in the story may be true — “Fiesta began in 1924 as a civic pageant celebrating the region’s Spanish, Mexican, and Indigenous roots — a romanticized nod to Santa Barbara’s rancho period, when families and neighbors gathered in the patios and plazas of this small pueblo, playing music and dancing. They were having a fiesta.” — my mom always said it was to draw tourists to S.B. in the off season, back when the rich people Back East wintered in S.B. It was a ghost town in the summer.
That’s when the S.B. civic leaders glommed on to “Let’s celebrate our Spanish and Mexican Heritage!” It was initially the full moon in August, but that was too variable. They needed a set time each year because if it was to draw tourists, they wanted the same time every year. Hence, the parade was on the first Friday in August, then it went to the first Thursday.
Initially, it was only a ploy to draw tourists, not the romanticized thing it’s now. My mom would hear, “Fiesta is so commercial, it’s not for the locals anymore!” and she’d be so irate. It never was “just for the locals,” she’d say. “It started as a way to bring tourists to Santa Barbara in what was considered the off season!” Maybe not a popular notion today, but she was correct.
