So, that was a well-attended fantastic Old Spanish Days Fiesta, with a lot of “extra” touches that made it classy … the archbishop here for Misa Del Presidente, the San Salvador in port, drones capturing the huge crowd at Mission Pequeña.
A lot of wonderful private parties shared in the theme: “Let’s Fiesta.”
Tracie and John Doordan reserved the Case de la Guerra porch area for a Fiesta reception attended by Rose and Addison Thompson, Jack Look, Marilyn and Llew Goodfield, Lori and Thad MacMillan, Sarah Pelton and Colleen Graffy, Sheila and Kevin Snow, Bob Rickard and Marianne Strange.
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Santa Barbara Women’s Club at Rockwood held its annual La Merienda luncheon chaired by long-time member Sue Ziliotto.
Club president Cevin Cethel welcomed the enthusiastic and costumed crowd, among them Dana Hansen, Sofie Langhorne, Diane Pannkuk, Brenda Blalock, Dolores Johnson, Mary Gates, Tara Ball and Chris Frisina.
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Did y’all get on board to check out the San Salvador — a wonderful replica of the ship Juan Cabrillo sailed through here in 1542 — just 50 years after Columbus?
That was an amazing silhouette to see up on our coast during El Desfile Histórico, and fascinating to visit. There were plenty of interpretive signage as to the history and customs on the ship of nearly 500 years ago!
Rick Oshay — the Pied Piper of Parties — held a fine festive fandango there on Saturday afternoon for his guests, including Bobby Montanes, Maranee Landau, Claire Carey, Jamie and Joel Danio Knee, Jane Perrin, Sylvia Perez, Kim Williamson, Jed Hirsch, Rochelle Mirabello and Guy Rivera.
Moreover — Ahoy Mateys! — Teresa Kuskey’s La Boheme Dancers walked the plank and shook their booties to the delight of the sailors, pirates and public gathered around.
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Another party — Catholic Charities held a Fiesta fundraiser at the Santa Barbara Club attended by supporters such as Wendy and Don Gragg, Maria McCall and Dirk Brants, Barbara Kummer, Vito Gioiello, and Angie and Michael Ferraro.
Among their many good works, Catholic Charities is especially focused on helping the working poor in our county.
What I especially loved: when the crowd was long gone, just a handful of us were still conviving at a table, and then turned to see Tina Korisheli and the rest of the club staff happily dancing on the patio. The Santa Barbara Club staff had worked overtime for numerous big events at the club that week, so it was fun watching them joyfully letting off steam.
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Fiesta People
Now a word or two about Jack Harwood — the history-making Spirit of Fiesta who started taking dance lesson when he was 4. He eschewed ballet class, but jumped (and clapped and stomped) into flamenco without hesitation.
He studied under his first hero, Timo Nuñez. He loved it, kept at it persistently and passionately, so that genuine cheers went up from his female competitors when he was announced winner for the 2023 Spirit title.
Now once upon a time, you could find on YouTube, a video showing Nuñez dancing at El Cid in Los Angeles — the famed Sunset Boulevard tapas bar and restaurant featuring flamenco professionals.
At one point in this occasion, he asked if anyone in the audience wanted to come up and dance with him.
Little 11-year-old Jack — curly red hair, freckled face, sporting his school-boy-casual T-shirt, khakis and tennis shoes, jumped up on the stage.
Then to the utter astonishment of the crowd, this kid adroitly started dancing flamenco with his teacher.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to watch that one. Olé!
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The Santa Barbara Historical Museum held its Fiesta del Musee a very popular event … filled with PEOPLE. What a crowd!
A fun day, a festive day, and a birthday as a matter of fact for Spirit of Fiesta Jack Harwood (the Spirit of Fiesta) and also Junior Spirit Olivia Nelson share the same birthday. Oh, and former board member Kevin Snow does as well, and even Michel Andrews, the lead singer of the dance band that night, Area 51.
We all loved seeing Santa Barbara’s “Burtness Boys” there — as George, Bill and Bob have been supporters and directors and donors at the Historical Museum since … forever.
Marlene Miller — 90 years young! — was honored for her many contributions to the Historical Museum, including time and advice and service on the board.
Miller, with her late husband, Warren, was the leading proponent of establishing a gallery at the museum to exhibit the works of Edward Borein.
Borein, an internationally acclaimed cowboy artist, lived in Santa Barbara, and his studio was in El Paseo. (A plaque to this effect is outside his former studio today.)
Historical Museum director Dacia Harwood announced to the crowd that the Board of Trustees had passed a resolution declaring the main gallery of the Borein wing would henceforth be named in honor of the Miller family.
Many fine dancers performed that night — bravo Maria Bermuda, Danielle Zermeño, and several former Spirits of Fiesta — but a special treat was the WOW performance by Talia Ortega Vestal, the 2014 Spirit of Fiesta, that took my breath away. She now performs professionally.
Might I point out that because of Fiesta, our local teenagers have an advantage over other dancing students around the world, and the perfect training ground for those who dream of pursuing a professional career.
During the week of Fiesta (and events leading up to it), these dancers have a crash course in performance perfection.
They are dancing several events every day — ranging from a big stage before thousands of people at the historic Santa Barbara County Courthouse, to a small space at a rest home, to clubs and dinners … constantly having to adjust for the dancing area as well as and proximity of the audience.
SO our dancers here are not just “rehearsing” but “performing” over and over every day for days on end. These girls — and guys — quickly learn to hone their craft, and most will have had about 20 performances by the end of Fiesta week.
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Speaking of which, reminds me — Donna Tuttle of the locally renown “dancing Cotas” family and was Spirit of Fiesta in 1974.
She went on to dance professionally (under the stage name Rosal Ortega) all over the world, touring with Charo (the “Cuchi-cuchi” gal) and then with her own dance troupe.
Tuttle has returned every Fiesta to emcee the courthouse Noches de Ronda show and perform.
Now that she has retired to Santa Barbara, she is starting a flamenco class for adult beginners who always wanted a chance to try it, or for those former dancers who want to get together and get back into things!
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The John E. Profant Foundation for the Arts’ Fiesta Finale closed the week in sold-out style — with an elegantly dressed crowd.
El Paseo was cheerfully crowded with an amazing array of costumes and colorful décor with traditional banners that used to spring up on downtown stores during Fiesta decades ago.
The Fiesta Finale also had probably the best array of professional performing talent:
State Street Ballet; Argentine Tango; the crowd-pleasing baritone Myron Aguilar; flamenco by the celebrated Lakshmi “La Chimi” Basile-Ballaores with Richard Chavez; wonderful choreography in a Spanish classical styled piece with castanets by Marisol Cabrera with Chauncy Parsons; Luis Moreno, Ann Hefferman and Juan Zaragoza provided period music; and the popular Martinez Brothers (whose father was a featured performer at El Paseo 70 years ago) gave the crowd a great Latin beat for dancing.
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And finally, I love, love love that Fiesta El Presidente David Bolton chose to honor two very important women.
Bolton named Marge Romero as honorary presidente. Romero has been an unsung volunteer extraordinaire of Fiesta, having served on the board for more than 30 years.
Among her many many hats she has worn, she has been chairwoman of the Santa Barbra Arts & Crafts Show on Cabrillo Boulevard — finding and curating the vendors, collecting booth fees, organizing the layout and volunteers to mark the sidewalks. (For 60 years, this venue has been chaired by three women.)
It is a big concentrated job and Romero has been carrying the water on this for decades. When the board meetings were moved to 6 p.m. for 7:30 p.m., she cooked up a buffet dinner so directors (35 of them) could attend the meeting after work and still get dinner.
Romero has also lent her spare time on other Fiesta committees: Mercados, Fiesta Pequeña, Fiesta Ranchera, El Recepción del Presidente, Spirit auditions and several administrative committees.
Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto, beloved Chumash elder of the Barbareño Band of Chumash Indians, was named grand marshal of the Historical Parade.
She has been tireless in reaching out and teaching about Chumash culture and history, and in preserving the Chumash language (her mother was the last native Chumash speaker).
What brought this an extra “full circle” was that in the earliest fiesta parades, instead of floats, there were “walking units” of people dressed in costume. Fiesta’s then-head honcho, Charles Pressley, featured the Chumash Indians as Santa Barbara’s earliest residents in the historical parade.
This was perhaps the first time attention was specifically drawn to our original people. In turn, this created a curiosity and an interest in knowing more about the Chumash by the general public here.
And leaders like Ygnacio-De Soto help us to learn and understand what exceptional people they were.