Inventing the Fiesta City: Heritage and Carnival in San Antonio

2: The Order of the Alamo: Heritage and Spring Carnival, 1900–27

44 in order to understand how much fiesta has changed in more than one hundred years, one must look at a few events that have changed very little. Here is one contemporary example. Ann Elizabeth of the House of Fisher, Duchess of Imperial Jewels in the Court of African Treasures, enters San Antonio’s municipal auditorium for Fiesta’s 2002 coronation. As the lord high chamberlain announces her name, she begins her slow walk on the elevated runway to the main stage. She has the audience’s full attention as she carefully moves forward, carrying the weight of a thirty-pound train, covered with beads and glass stones, and extending twelve feet behind her. Her arms are slightly raised at her waist, and her head moves from side to side, acknowledging the crowd. As she reaches the stage, she is met by her escort, who waits as she crosses the stage twice and pauses for her formal court bow. Modeled after the English curtsy to the British monarch, she points her right foot, then moves it in a semicircle to the back; she lowers her straight torso and bends her legs until she is sitting on them. Finally, she attempts the most difficult part of her task, a feat called the “Texas dip.” As she bends forward from the waist, she lowers her head as close to the floor as possible. She momentarily loses her balance, though, and performs a more abbreviated curtsy to avoid falling sideways on the stage. Though no one calls attention to this slight mistake, Duchess Ann is clearly upset as she moves up the stairs to join the . 2 . The order of the Alamo Heritage and Spring Carnival, 1900–27 the order of the alamo 45 figure 3. a duchess processing in the order of the alamo’s coronation, 1988. utsa’s institute of texan cultures at san antonio, the Zintgraff collection. chaPter two 46 rest of the court. Sitting on her pedestal and arranging her train, she briefly wipes tears from her eyes. Duchess Ann is following the footsteps of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother before her. She is carrying her family heritage on her back.1 Each year, as part of the city’s Fiesta celebrations, the Order of the Alamo, a private men’s organization, selects young women from local elite families to participate in this coronation. As duchesses, princesses, and queens of Fiesta, coronation debutantes wear elaborate gowns, attend multiple parties, and learn and perform these rituals to maintain the social position of their families in San Antonio’s upper class. Duchess Ann’s severe self-critique represents the larger pressures put upon San Antonio’s upper-class women. She felt that she had much to lose, as she followed a practice that has remained relatively unchanged since the coronation began in 1909. Yet if she could retrace her steps to the years before these rituals became traditions, she would find a time when much more was at stake. Two decades after Mrs. H. D. Kampmann chaired the first Battle of figure 4. duchesses of the order of the alamo riding in the Battle of flowers Parade, 1990. utsa’s institute of texan cultures at san antonio, The Zintgraff collection. the order of the alamo 47 Flowers Parade in 1891, her daughter, Miss Eda, became the first queen of the Order of the Alamo’s coronation. The middle-aged women in the Battle of Flowers Parade, challenging the limits of the domestic sphere, were a symbol of the first ten years of Fiesta. Their debutante daughters, sheltered in private ballrooms, were more appropriate symbols for the Fiesta of the next twenty years. As a battle was the metaphor for the initial Fiesta parades, the Order of the Alamo was the one of this new era. The enshrined fortress became the most prominent emblem of a solidifying social order. Patriotism and Commercial Culture After the success of San Antonio’s first Battle of Flowers Parade, elite women tried to maintain their control over the festive events that quickly grew around their famous procession. As early as 1895 the first challenge came as the city’s business leaders formed an organization called the San Antonio Businessmen’s Club, precursor to the Chamber of Commerce, organized to pursue investments and increase tourism in San Antonio. By the end of their first month, the club had more than four hundred members.2...