Inventing the Fiesta City: Heritage and Carnival in San Antonio

Laura Hernández-Ehrisman

University of New Mexico Press, 2016 - History - 248 pages

Fiesta San Antonio began in 1891 and through the twentieth century expanded from a single parade to over two hundred events spanning a ten-day period. Laura Hernández-Ehrisman examines Fiesta's development as part of San Antonio's culture of power relations between men and women, Anglos and Mexicanos.

In some ways Fiesta resembles hundreds of urban celebrations across the country, but San Antonio offers a unique fusion of Southern, Western, and Mexican cultures that articulates a distinct community identity. From its beginning as a celebration of a new social order in San Antonio controlled by a German and Anglo elite to the citywide spectacle of today, Hernández-Ehrisman traces the connections between Fiesta and the construction of the city's tourist industry and social change in San Antonio.

Contents

• Rey Feo and the Politics of Inclusion: 135
• La Semana de Carnaval: 169
• Conclusion: 194

About the author

Laura Hernandez-Ehrisman is an assistant professor at St. Edward's University, USA.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Inventing the Fiesta City: Heritage and Carnival in San Antonio
• Author: Laura Hernández-Ehrisman
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2016
• ISBN: 0826343112, 9780826343116
• Length: 248 pages
• Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / Social History; History / United States / State & Local / General; History / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY); Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / Customs & Traditions; Social Science / Holidays (non-religious)