An Afternoon in Spanish La Florida, 1703
By Ian Swaby
Last Valentine’s Day weekend, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at Mission San Luis and falling in love with the past. I watched a company called Theater with a Mission reconstruct the wedding of a Spanish soldier to a Native American bride in 1703. It was an entrancing experience that let me get up close and personal with Florida’s Spanish history.
The event, a Historic Indian/Spanish Wedding, was billed as “part living history, part farce, all drama.” That’s a diverse array of titles to live up to, but the Wedding delighted me in all these ways and more.
Mission San Luis, a “living history museum,” showcases a reconstruction of a Spanish mission where Spanish settlers and Apalachee Indians peacefully coexisted from 1656 to 1704. It’s a fascinating place to spend an afternoon, but it holds a special charm on a day when a guitar player dressed in period clothing is walking about remarking to visitors, “Lovely day for a wedding, don’t you think?”
As the event began, I stood among a group of actors assembled outside a small house, holding the Groom and his family. They invited me to process along with them to the massive Apalachee Council House where we were joined by the Bride, before finally heading to the church where the wedding would take place. All the while the families sang wedding songs in English, Spanish, and Quechua.
At the Church I witnessed the Nuptials, a series of extracts from the Catholic Matrimonial Mass. I watched as the Groom and Bride exchanged vows in Latin, just as they would have in Spanish Florida three hundred years ago, and was moved as the Groom presented his Bride with a ring “en señal de mi amor y mi fidelidad.”
Afterwards, I found myself enjoying a Fiesta with songs, dances, a toast, and more than enough horchata, tequeños, and churros for all. The delicious food was custom-made by Erika Rojas and Omar Perez of Samantha’s Gift.
Next came a one-act play, El retablo de las maravillas, by the great Miguel de Cervantes. Here I watched a brilliant tale of deception unfold, where two con artists perform a show whose wonders, they claim, can only be seen by people whose parents have been properly married by a priest. I found myself fascinated by this play within a play, where wedding guests performed a play about a wedding.
Finally, the event was tied up with a neat surprise. A letter arrived from San Agustín, with news of another attack by English invaders from the north and orders for the Mission’s soldiers to take up arms. This prompted another Spanish solider to pop the question to another Native sweetheart, bringing the story full-circle.
Sweet treats for the taste buds, sweet sights for the eyes (I particularly liked the dancers’ presentation of Chacona, “the dance that started spreading from a wedding”), and sweet stories for the soul; could it really be history as I stood with the actors at the church doors; as I toasted alongside the actors, as I shook the happy couple’s hands? Indeed it was. The whole experience is based on real documents, paintings, prayer books, musical scores, and play scripts from the 1600s. No wonder reception from the audience has been largely positive, with guests writing feedback such as, “Impressed with the amount of research” and “Energy of troupe is irresistible.”
If you missed the Historic Indian/Spanish Wedding, be sure to mark it on your calendar for next year. As I learned to say this Valentine’s Day: “Vivan las bodas!”
