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    Texas Citrus Fiesta
    Texas Citrus Fiesta
    Texas Citrus Fiesta
    Ebook241 pages1 hour

    Texas Citrus Fiesta

    By Karen Gerhardt Fort and Mission Historical Museum, Inc.

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    About this ebook

    The Texas Citrus Fiesta has remained an exciting celebration since its beginnings in 1932. At that time, Mission civic leaders decided to promote the citrus industry through a festival featuring decorated streets and store windows, a parade, coronation of a king and queen, a court with ladies-in-waiting, a queen's ball, exhibits for citrus growers, and a variety of contests and activities. Social leaders, working through their clubs, added a style show of costumes covered with fruit, vegetable, and flower pieces. Children marched in their own unique parade. The Golden Grapefruit Golf Tournament was added in 1934. Today, directors of the Texas Citrus Fiesta continue these traditional events and others added since 1932. The creativity inspired by the festival, the recognition of regional participants, and the experienced planning needed to accommodate thousands of residents and visitors combine to make Mission's annual Texas Citrus Fiesta a premier event in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJan 12, 2015
    ISBN9781439649305
    Texas Citrus Fiesta
    Author

    Karen Gerhardt Fort

    Images from the archives of the Mission Historical Museum, Inc., illustrate the first 50 years of the Texas Citrus Fiesta (1932-1982). Author Karen Gerhardt Fort, a native Texan, has written many books and articles on Texas history and four previously published titles for Arcadia.

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      Book preview

      Texas Citrus Fiesta - Karen Gerhardt Fort

      (Edinburg).

      INTRODUCTION

      In 1912, John H. Shary (1872–1945), a registered pharmacist from Nebraska, arrived in the young city of Mission with big dreams. He had already enjoyed financial success as a salesman of redwood lumber in California, which allowed him to travel widely. Between 1904 and 1911, he and a partner bought and sold some 268,000 acres near Corpus Christi, Texas. With their land holdings depleted, in 1912, the partners went their separate ways, one to Colorado and the other to the Rio Grande Valley.

      In 1913, Shary bought 16,000 acres at Mission and built an irrigation system, and he planted the first commercial grapefruit orchard in 1915. By 1922, he owned more than 49,000 acres, a development he named Sharyland. That year, he harvested the first commercial grapefruit crop. Workers sorted, cleaned, and graded the fruit by hand. In November 1922, he married longtime friend and business associate Mary E. O’Brien.

      The next year, Shary visited California to study the more developed citrus industry there. He returned to Mission to build a large citrus-packing plant and to establish the Texas Citrus Fruit Growers Exchange for the marketing and distribution of citrus crops.

      According to author Cleo Dawson Smith in a 1963 article that appears in the 26th Annual Citrus Fiesta Edition of the Mission Times, the idea for a festival to celebrate a successful crop and promote Mission and Hidalgo County was first suggested by Judge Dennis B. Chapin around 1910. Bermuda onions were his crop of choice. However, due to a hard-hitting freeze, the Onion Fair never materialized.

      The highly successful crop of 1922 led to the celebration of the citrus industry with a fair and rodeo in early 1923. According to Dawson, fruit packers competed to see who was the quickest, and ladies from the area competed with their special pastries, cakes, preserves and handwork (decorative sewing) for first-, second-, and third-place prizes. The committee that was planning the event invited John Shary to be the Grapefruit King and Emogene (Mrs. A.Y.) Baker to be the queen.

      Within a few years, the success of Mission’s citrus industry had become well established. Conversations during a December 1930 party held at the Shary mansion inspired Mission leaders to promote the marketing and sale of citrus products by holding a community-wide event. Paul Ord, chairman of the Young Men’s Business League, an affiliate of the Mission Chamber of Commerce, became general chairman of the event, and the league served as the committee in charge of events (and again in 1934), with the help of additional volunteer committees.

      After a year of planning, the first Texas Citrus Fiesta took place on December 9, 1932, with Shary honored as the father of the Texas citrus industry. Since 1932, governance of the fiesta by a volunteer executive committee and apportionment of work to various committees of volunteers have remained essential parts of the fiesta’s success. Several events of the first fiesta have become traditions: contests involving the entire community, citrus product exhibits, the coronation of Queen Citrianna and King Citrus, the Parade of Oranges with a float for fiesta royalty, printed programs, and the naming of Queen Citrianna for the following year. Also begun in 1932 was a program of entertainment during the coronation, followed by the Queen’s Ball.

      Some newspaper articles state that the first style show occurred in 1932, but it is not clear whether the garments were made from valley-grown products. Other articles from the 1930s are silent on the subject. It is definite, however, that in 1934, costumes made of fruits and vegetables were a prominent feature of the fiesta. In 1935, the style show became a well-publicized highlight.

      Hispanic residents of Mission were represented in 1932 by dance director Carmen Barrera, numerous dancers, and high school band members. In future years, beautiful Hispanic girls and women participated as committee members, duchesses, princesses, queens, and style show models. Handsome Hispanic boys and men served on committees, escorted the duchesses, contributed musical fanfares at the coronation, placed citrus exhibits in their store windows, and performed many tasks. A few even served as models for the product costume shows.

      The success of the first Texas Citrus Fiesta led to larger, more elaborate events and greater involvement of individuals and sponsors. The first local golf tournament took place in 1933 and became an official part of the Fiesta in 1934 as the Golden Grapefruit Golf Tournament. Duchesses representing cities throughout the Rio Grande Valley joined the queen’s court. The governor of Texas announced Texas Citrus Week with an official proclamation. Newsreel cameramen, newspaper reporters, and radio newsmen provided coverage of the fiesta. Major periodicals and, later, television expanded that coverage. The lively and colorful Texas Citrus Fiesta lightened the dark days of the Great Depression across the country.

      With the exception of 1933 (hurricane) and 1942–1946 (World War II), the fiesta has taken place each winter since 1932. Only images from the first 50 years (1932–1982) are presented here.

      All of the photographs are from the Maureen Duncan Nickolaus Collection at the Mission Historical Museum, Inc. The reader is asked to remember that this was a personal collection of photographs. Neither all years and nor all events are represented. This is also an extensive collection, and information is not available about many of the images. Some could not be used because of damage or fading.

      Many of the photographs appeared in the Mission Times, and details about the images between 1932 and 1972 come from that newspaper. Information about photographs dating between 1973 and 1982 come from the Upper Valley Progress, fiesta programs, and the Mission Historical Museum’s archives.

      In more recent times, some events have been dropped (the golf tournament, window and street decorations, and flower exhibits). But the fiesta continues to hold the Princess Anna contest (begun in 1951); the coronation of King Citrus and Queen Citrianna; the Queen’s Ball; citrus exhibits by students in Future Farmers of America and 4-H organizations; the product costume style show; and the Parade of Oranges. Since the 1930s, the governor of Texas formally proclaims Texas Citrus Week each year.

      Newer events include a one-day Fun Fair and Vaquero Cook-off Contest,

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