¡Viva la Fiesta!

Yay. Drunks and rowdies, cascarones, third rate pseudo Mexican food in jam packed crowds. Maybe a stabbing or two. Cynical? Who me? Shut up and pour me another El Jimador!

What does fiesta commemorate?

Jeeezus what's next; celebrate the holocaust. Or as Sarah Silverman would say "you'll be saying guauschwitz."

DonMcDermott: are you implying that the Conquistadors mistreated the Chumash?

Not to digress...and perhaps thinking aloud, but why is it that while the Anglo conquest of the original inhabitants of the Western hemisphere is rightfully pointed out as being genocide Santa Barbara celebrates what the Spaniards did with its little three-day drunkfest?

Yeah. I am very grateful to be here. But I've noticed this is a politically correct coercive tradition of dancing on the steps of the mission. You'd have to be a drunken city to celebrate annihilators because if you think about it; it is just sick. The Chumash sponsors are at least finally getting some good old fashioned greenbacks off the casino fleecing.

Once again it is the season of Viva La Fiasco!
I challenge anyone to find me an ad by the Chumash Casino with the words "Viva La Fiesta!" in it.

Won't happen.
Think about it.

To continue celebrating the imperialistic religulous invasion of the Spanish in 2010 is ludicrous. As if they are responsible for "discovery" or "founding" or "establishing."

Why is there no festival honoring the indigenous people who lived here for almost 15,000 years before the Juanny Come Latelys sailed by and drove the cross of their delusional beliefs to the hilt into a culture that had thrived just nicely without them?

Every time I drive by that abominable "Mission," I remember what was used for the "red" in that tiled roof.
And to do otherwise, is to embrace denial.

Why is it not "Old Mexico Day's Fiesta"? I'm sure the attitude at the time was it sounds better to link it to the Spanish as though being European was more acceptable than the Mexicans from which we took California. Mexico has had a longer and more lasting influence on Santa Barbara culture.