Celebrate Spanish Florida This Christmas
By Ben Gunter
This Christmas, you’ll be getting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate Spanish Florida. Theater with a Mission (TWAM) is throwing a Bicentennial Birthday Bash for Florida’s Capital County on December 27, 28, and 29, giving you something spectacular to do in that what-now weekend right between Nativity and the New Year. The party is free, and it’s stuffed with activities that bring you face to face with Hispanic heroes from Florida’s history, Spanish-Florida dances, music, foods, and ideas, and Hispanic Christmas traditions woven deep into Florida’s identity.
José Mariona Hernández is one of the Hispanic heroes who will be showcased. Florida’s first delegate to the US House of Representatives, the first Hispanic ever to serve in Congress, and the first person in history to preside over a legislative meeting in Tallahassee, Hernández will be present all weekend, played by Theater with a Mission actor Matias Diuorno from Argentina. Hernández was pivotal in guiding Florida’s transition from Spanish colony to US territory 200 years ago. On Friday evening, December 27, President Hernández will guide you through two centuries of music, dance, and milestone achievements in Florida, as he presides over a party called Dance & Drama Through the Decades.
More dances, drama, foods, and ideas from Spanish Florida will shape the whole weekend. On Saturday, December 28, Native Americans will re-create the stickball game that Apalachee people played at Spanish Missions in the 1600s. After an expert lecture-demonstration, Natives will invite you to join them on the lawn and try playing a round of stick-ball yourself. Ranchers will let you see, touch, pet, and feed cracker cattle and Galiceño horses, descended from livestock that Spanish settlers brought to Florida in the 1700s. Vendors will talk you through recipes that our foremothers perfected in Spanish La Florida during the 1800s, storytellers will take you adventuring with Native, African, and Spanish folktales, and internationally renowned dance preceptor Susan de Guardiola will teach you the simple, swinging steps to The Spanish Dance – a contradance that came to Florida from Cuba 200 years ago and made Tallahassee famous for its Territorial Balls. In fact, Saturday night, December 28, invites you to dress up and step into 1824 with a Territorial Ball for All, punctuated by stories, songs, fights, and romances reenacted by TWAM.
Las Posadas add a Christmas tradition from Spanish Florida to the Bicentennial Birthday Bash. Initiated by St. John of the Cross in the late 1500s, Las Posadas takes you on a journey with Mary and Joseph from door to door around Goodwood Museum & Gardens, an authentic Territorial Florida historic site, seeking shelter for the birth of Christ. TWAM’s reenactment script comes from St. Augustine – birthplace of José Mariona Hernández – and makes space for everyone to join the procession, carry a candle, sing along on the ancient response “¿Dónde vamos a descansar?” and cheer the long-awaited welcome that the final innkeeper finally extends to Mary and Joseph. Candles play a central, unifying role in the Bash’s final day. Candlemakers will coach kids of all ages in decorating candles for Las Posadas and for Leon County’s 200th birthday cake. Candles wreathed in evergreen will provide centerpieces for the Family Frolic that teaches easy dances from Florida’s Hispanic past on Sunday afternoon. Candles will light the night scenes in TWAM’s play Tales from the Log Cabin Capitol, where President Hernández presides over the reenactment of three history-making debates from the first Florida legislature ever to convene in Tallahassee, in 1824. And 202 candles will stand on the cake that brings the Bash to a delicious conclusion.
This December, give your family the gift of reconnecting with your roots. Bring the whole family to TWAM’s Bicentennial Birthday Bash for free, family-friendly firsthand encounters with Spanish Florida. Visit theaterwithamission.com for details, and follow TWAM on Facebook, Instagram, and X for updates on how to register for activities and win prizes. ¡Feliz bicentenario!