Inventing the Fiesta City

< 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.ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORSLaura Hernández-Ehrisman is an assistant professor at St. Edward's University.ACCLAIM...an excellent concise analysis of this ever-changing festival. --The Journal of American History...a solid contribution to the historical literature on heritage tourism public memory and historical commemoration in the American West....It will be essential reading for scholars interested in regional comparisons of tourism and economic development in the United States. --American Historical ReviewA vivid narrator and close observer of the passing scene...[Hernández-Ehrisman] has written a compelling analysis of a white-dominated community in the throes of massive social change. --New Mexico Historical ReviewInventing the Fiesta City is an authoritative work on the history of San Antonio's Fiesta. The book will enrich the reader's understanding of Fiesta in the context of other cultural celebrations such as New Orleans' Carnival and of San Antonio as a city the culture of which emerges from the rich diversity of its celebrations. --Texas Books in ReviewHernández-Ehrisman dissects her...subject thoroughly and objectively yielding a balanced perceptive study that will stand as a definitive treatment for many years to come. --Southwestern Historical Quarterly...well researched...provides a thorough examination of one of the South's most famous civic celebrations. --The Journal of Southern HistoryHernández-Ehrisman skillfully examines the role of San Antonio's social and political gendered and racial relations....Inventing the Fiesta City makes an important contribution to our understanding of how San Antonio's development fits within the narrative of the U.S. and how the various local communities responded to how they saw themselves as part of San Antonio's past. --Western Historical QuarterlyPublished in association with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies Southern Methodist University6 x 9 in. 248 pages 16 halftones