by Lauryn Chavez | staff writer
Fiesta is a city-wide celebration of cultural diversity, but some people don’t know the true history behind it. What’s also interesting is that people who consider themselves to be “native Texans” do not know what Fiesta is truly about either. People believe that Fiesta is just a huge party, but there’s more to it than food, fun, and flowers.
Many battles between 1835-1836, such as the Battle of the Flowers, Battle of the Alamo, and the Battle of San Jacinto are all prevalent in why we celebrate Fiesta today.
“So there’s no actual battle of the flowers because that’s ridiculous. The battle of the flowers symbolizes Texan independence in the 1800’s. During this there was the battle of the Alamo which is the most well known battle of the Texas revolution. And then there was the battle of San Jacinto. The battle of the Alamo was the major defeat of the Texan army; it acted as a battle cry for the Texans and the Battle of San Jacinto was the major victory against the Mexican army to win independence,” junior David Kent said.
While Kent knew why we celebrate Fiesta today, many people only seem to see it as a large party that lasts a few weeks.
“It’s a celebration in April. I don’t really know what it’s for. It’s a big party with a lot of parades and music and hispanic culture and funnel cake and a lot of confetti,” freshman Troy Guerra said.
Texans who were not educated about the history of Fiesta beyond kindergarten know as much about Fiesta as people who recently moved to Texas.
“From what my mom has told me, it’s just time to party,” new Texan Mikayla Medrano said.
Sometimes we lose sight of the true reasons we celebrate not only Fiesta but holidays in general.
“I think it has to do something with the Mexican-American wa,r but I’m not entirely sure,” Medrano said
It seems that the reason that we have fiesta is unclear to most people, but some people do know the true history of our independence.
“Fiesta is celebrating the battle of the Alamo and the independence of Texas. It started back in the 1800’s it represents the strong hispanic culture, the culture of San Antonio, the diversity. It’s a celebration obviously of San Antonio. There’s four parades, the king williams parade, fiesta flambeau, battle of the flowers, and the river parade,” junior Lauren Loveless said.
As someone who’s new to Texas I’m glad to understand why we do understand Fiesta because it brings a true meaning to the celebration. The Fiesta website has also resolved any confusion I had of the holiday.
It’s fun and we get a day off of school so I can’t really complain,” junior Nicholas Muncie said.
