Celebrating History
by Hattie Beresford
Last Call for Historical Trifecta
In the 1920s, Santa Barbarans invented Old Spanish Days Fiesta to celebrate its heritage
A
perfect trifecta of historical exhibits is slated to end on October 16 at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. This year’s edition of Project Fiesta, the exhibit of early California paintings, and Hidden Treasures showcase the connections of Spanish, Mexican, and early American influences to the traditions we celebrate today. In Project Fiesta’s third year, the museum features the women and children who have played the traditional roles of Saint Barbara, Spirit of Fiesta, Junior Spirit of Fiesta, and Flower Girls. Beautiful costumes loaned by past participants adorn the four corners of the room. Helen Latham Cornell, Saint Barbara from 1954, remembers, “We always used to have Fiesta in the full of the moon… You start out in the sunshine and then the sun goes down and pretty soon you have this beautiful moon that just seemed to shine down on us.” From small hometown celebration in 1924, Fiesta quickly grew to include celebrities and political figures and thousands of out-of-town guests. As far back as the 1930s, local society columnist Litti Pauling wrote, “La Fiesta Buena! Salude! There is the music. It
Ed Borein helped organize the first Old Spanish Day’s Fiesta and rode his white mule in the parades in his Mexican Charro suit
goes all night and day. Dancing never stops. Nobody sleeps much. And State Street is a crowd of merrymakers. It is Fiesta!” The exhibit also features photographs and posters from each decade and historic video creatively screened on a large fan. The passengers in a flower-bedecked jump buggy for El The jump carriage, on loan from the Carriage Museum, is filled with festively dressed mannequins whose embroidered and beaded costumes reveal intricate and beautiful details
28 MONTECITO JOURNAL
• The Voice of the Village •
8 – 15 September 2016