It’s that time of year again! Fiesta! This yearly event in San Antonio commemorates the victory of Sam Houston in capturing Mexican dictator Santa Anna on April 21, 1836. During the Battle of San Jacinto (in present day Houston), the Texian army yelled "Remember the Alamo", "Remember Goliad." This victory freed Texas from Mexico. At that time, Texas became a republic, sort of a country of it’s own. Sam Houston became its first president. We are the only state in the union to have ever been a republic. That is why we are the Lone Star State.

Every year during the week of April 21, San Antonio throws a week long party! We have a lot of fun participating as best we can. Here are a few of the highlights during the week. On Monday night, the Texas Caveliers River Parade  floats down the San Antonio River! We got to go to our first one last year! More on that in a bit! On Thursday night the high school bands gather for Battle of the Bands.  On Friday all the public schools take a holiday for the Battle of Flowers held in the afternoon. Over a hundred years ago carriages were bedecked in flowers and everyone threw flowers at each other.  (We learned last year this is a tradition that originated with the Ancient Romans during the triumphal marches.) The Texas A&M band (boo hiss) come to play if they don’t have other commitments; one year my college band was featured. Of course all the high school bands and queens and other bands and various guests from around the country come too. We even have a drum and fife corps visit from VA! I have been to this several times, one time viewed from the top of a Victorian house and the other times in front of the Alamo. Then on Saturday night, we have the Fiesta Flambeau Parade which is the largest illuminated parade at night in the country!  It is led by the best college band of them all, The Texas Longhorn Band! Woo hoo!!! Hook ‘em Horns! Here is a video clip I found of them at the parade.  It's not the best audio or best setting.  This is the very start of the parade before dusk.  Maybe someone will post a better one after this week. Here's one with better quality sound, but being night time already, you can't see them.  Here's a memory from the Rose Bowl Champions!  Anyway, I got to see this parade once and it was a dream come true to see the Longhorn Band. The funny thing was I never got to see any of these parades until I was dating my future husband from upstate New York. He dragged me to my first Fiesta parades.

Last year the Caveliers, who host the river parade, honored the military with free tickets! We could never have afforded these otherwise! We arrived early to be assured of good parking down town and to beat the traffic. I was surprised that there was no traffic! The city offices must close early for the big party! Since we had plenty of time before the parade, we walked down to the Alamo. We were surprised to see a special ceremony there, called Pilgrimage to the Alamo. Various military and civic groups and schools lay flowers in front of the Alamo and have a special ceremony to honor those who died fighting for freedom.

Then we walked back to the part of the river where the Caveliers were honoring the military. We got free dinner, free medals, program, etc. These medals are a big deal. You collect all you can. My children were elated they now have a collection!

Here is the Fiesta stuff I've collected over the years.  The ladies all get decked out in colorful flowers and ribbons.  The top medal is from El Rey Feo (he collects the most money for charity) when I was a public school teacher.  The bottom two I got from the Caveliers last year.  The one on the left is their parade theme medal, "A Fiesta of Film."  The one on the right is the King Antonio medal.

Then we had free entertainment from one of the military bands playing jazz.

They found a helper in the audience!

Then we got our seats right on the edge of the river! We kept telling the lady in front of us not to worry, the water is only knee deep.

King Antonio!

Here we are!

US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson...

Fun float...

One of the queens...

Looks like a sailor?

More queens...

The weathermen floated down individually on innertubes!  Actually they had little motors on them. They could even shoot water at us!

This year we won’t go to the festivities. That’s not something I’d tackle with dh being TDY. So I have lots of Mexican food.  We’ll watch the parades on tv this week! Looks some of the parades are available for viewing through web cams in the links above.