The Gasparilla Festival started in 1904. It is the event of the year in the City of Tampa. Every year, on an unspecified Saturday in late January or early February, 400,000 people gather along Bayshore Avenue to catch beads tossed to them from pirates on floats that are decorated to resemble pirate ships. In between begging and screaming for beads, and chasing after said beads, there is the requisite pounding of booze. And I'm not talking about a beer or two on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I'm talking about drinking enough to get a lazy eye and a severe limp. I'm talking about drinking to the point where you think it is a good idea to sit down in a ditch while you eat a foot long hot dog that you may or may not have picked up off the ground. (All of which I saw more times than I wanted to while attending this years' Gasparilla Festival.)
Actually, the first thing I saw when I started walking down Bayshore Ave was a girl throwing up next to a Port-o-John while ten to fifteen people stood around her cheering it on. Great way to kick off the event.
Anyway, back to the logistics of the festival. The shin-dig kicks off at 11am when a mock pirate ship, The Gasparilla, sails into the harbor and docks in Downtown Tampa. The pirate ship is met by the Mayor of the city, who hands over the key to the city to the horde of pirates. At that point, the city officially belongs to the pirates -- i.e. the drunks -- and the parade of floats, bead tossing, and boozing begins shortly after.
The whole thing sounds like a pretty cool tradition. That is, until you start asking people where the tradition came from. Most people don't really know where it came from. And all they really know is that "Gasparilla" is the name of a pirate that used to hang out in the Gulf. His real name was Jose Gaspar. And most people just assume that he must have sacked the city at some point. Because that is sort of implied with the whole Mayor and key to the city thing. But it turns out that the city of Tampa was never sacked by Jose Gaspar. Turns out that Jose Gaspar never even sailed into Tampa. Never been here. And he certainly never sacked the city.
The legend states that he controlled the Gulf of Mexico from the 1780's to the early 1800's. And he had a hideout near Port Charlotte. (Port Charlotte is about 100 miles to the south of Tampa.) No where does any legend state that he was ever in the city of Tampa; nor in Tampa Bay for that matter.
I also tried to ask people why Jose Gaspar was known as "Gasparilla". But no one in Florida seemed to know. No one in Florida seemed to care. Everyone was too drunk to figure it out. And they were too busy cheering for the girl throwing up next to the port-o-john to answer my pointless questions.
Same goes for the bead tossing/catching aspect of the tradition. Is that something Gasparilla used to do? Did he toss beads to his crew after a successful plundering? Maybe. Maybe not. Once again, no one knows, no one cares. Except for me. I wanted so badly to find out why the mock pirates were throwing beads. And why were the commoners trying to catch them? It wasn't like Mardi Gras where people expose themselves to earn their beads. No one exposed themselves at Gasparilla. And to add to my state of perplexity, people seemed to be offended when I suggested that they might expose themselves for beads. Like they were too sophisticated, or too respectable, to expose themselves in public. Yet, we were all drinking warm booze out of plastic cups on the streets of Tampa in the middle of the afternoon. Dodging large coolers on wheels below and girls in bikini tops falling off their boyfriend's shoulders above. All the while, stepping in and around puddles of urine and vomit. I certainly didn't feel too sophisticated to expose myself for some loot.
But I suppose it isn't a big deal that Jose Gaspar never sacked Tampa. And it is not a big deal that he most likely never even existed at all. (No record in US, Spain, England, or France of a pirate named Jose Gaspar.) And it is not important to know why we must beg and scream for plastic beads. What is most important is that the City of Tampa has a tradition that gives it an identity. And the people of Tampa love that identity. It is the identity of a pirate. And all Floridians love the idea of being a pirate. Even before Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean captured the imaginations of the entire country, the Floridians were gazing out into the Caribbean and dreaming of leaving the swamp behind and sailing out into the emerald blue waters to find their treasure. They long for the good ol' days when pirates controlled the region. And every year for the last one hundred years, they have celebrated the life and conquests of the legendary Spanish pirate, Jose Gaspar. Known, for no reason at all, as Gasparilla!
I may never get to the bottom of this pointless tradition. It seems to be a bit like Halloween and St Patricks Day. No one really cares what they are celebrating, they are just happy that they have an excuse to dress up and drink a gallon of cheap vodka and throw up in a public place.
Oh well. I'm not going to act like I am above it. These are just the things that I tend to think about while I'm sitting in a ditch and eating a hot dog that I may or may not have picked up off the ground.
