Yesterday, Runnin' Buddy and I spent the day at the HoLa Street Festival downtown. We were also in the parade (all 3 blocks
) It was an absolutely picture perfect, beautiful October day in East Tennessee. Low 80's, unusually low humidity, a light breeze that occasionally gusted a bit to cool things off, not a cloud in the sky!!!
It was a celebration of different Latin countries represented in the community. Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Venezuala, Columbia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Honduras, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Belize...I'm probably forgetting some of them.
Each country was represented by a booth, with pictures and various items that the country that are indigenous to the country. Also many countries had food booths....there must have been two dozen or more. There was some incredibly delicious food!!!
We were the representatives for the US and also we had stuff at our booth regarding Admiral David Farragut, who was the first admiral of the United States Navy. Admiral Farragut was born here, we have a high school named after him, in the town of Farragut, which is part of Knoxville but is actually an incorporated town that takes up the far southwest part of the county. Admiral Farragut's family was from Minorca Spain. His father was in the Revolutionary War, and later became a ferry operator just down the road from where RB and I live. RB started a one woman crusade to save Farragut's birthplace as a historic site. The current owner of the property decided to turn it into a subdivision, has already torn down the house, and though she's not willing to give it up, there's a monumnet placed by the DAR back in the early 1900's, that she doesn't really want either. The current owner was quite angry to say the least, when she found out all that "waterfront" property that borders her new development, is not hers. It belongs to the county as parkland, she does not own any private access to the water. Which changes the value of those quarter acre waterfront lots she's trying to sell for $500,000, down to about $125000, if that. Unfortunately, the monument is about 15 feet into her property instead of park property. RB's trying to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the monument. She is making some progress, but it has come from the Hispanic community. Raising the money to purchase the small amount of land, was the reason we went to a fundraiser a couple of weeks ago.
It was her involvement in the Farragut birthplace, that got her involved in the HoLa Festival. Being her BFF(
), I agreed to help her in the booth. That turned into me wearing a "flapper" costume and leading off the parade, behind a kid dressed up as Admiral Farragut, carrying the American flag. I had agreed to wear the Admiral's uniform - but she decided I should wear a flapper costume to represent Jazz music that is original to the US. I didn't even try the thing on. She went and got it, gave it to me Friday night with a "you're wearing this tomorrow!" She on the other hand, wore a cowgirl outfit. We had people ask if she was Annie Oakley and I was Miss Kitty...
We got hit on a whole bunch.....by women in "study shoes"....
This was taken towards the end of the afternoon.
These kids were representing Mexico. Their Spanish teacher at Farragut HS, was one of the organizers. They were in the both next to us. Fun bunch of kids.
These ladies represented Cuba...they were gorgeous.
These musicians stood in front of our booth for close to an hour. They were really good!
These were the Mayan dancers. They were incredible!! They made several "trips" up and down the street all afternoon. The last time we saw them, there was a little boy leading them playing the drums. He could not have been more than 4yes old!!! And just amazing on his little snare drum.
Leading off the Parade of Nations behind "Admiral Farragut" .... we did not know that we would be doing this, we thought we were walking with a whole bunch of people. We were....they were just behind us!!!
"Manning our booth" and handing out info on Admiral Farragut's birthplace. Don't know how well they show up, but RB made the posters.
