Hispanic Heritage at Bicentennial Birthday Bash
By Ben Gunter
This December, give your family a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Come to Tallahassee, and come face-to-face with Florida’s Hispanic Heritage 200 years ago.
You’ll get to meet history-making Hispanics from Florida’s multicultural past. The first Latino ever elected to the US Congress was José Mariona Hernández, who served as Florida Territory’s delegate to the US House of Representatives from 1822 to 1823. In 1824, Hernández stepped into the office of President of the first Florida legislature ever to meet in Tallahassee. Theater with a Mission’s bilingual actor Matias Diuorno brings this heritage to life, embodying President Hernández in a new play called Tales from the Log Cabin Capitol. In addition to hosting soul-stirring debates about election laws, land sales, and race relations 200 years ago, President Hernández will invite you to participate in pony-rides, sample delicious African desserts, and join in a Native American stick-ball game.
You’ll get to move to Hispanic dances that made Florida famous. Two daughters of two Florida governors testify to the loveliness and prominence of “The Spanish Dance” in Florida Territory festivities. Lizzie Brown, daughter of Gov. Thomas Brown, writes “We danced the Spanish dance and waltz long before it was allowed in America.” Ellen Call Long, daughter of Gov. Richard Keith Call, writes “The Spanish dance is peculiar to Florida. It is a gliding, swinging movement, particularly adapted to display of graceful action, but as intricate to me in its evolutions, as the labyrinth of Ariadne to her pursuers; but they dance it well here, and it is beautiful.” At Theater with a Mission’s Bicentennial Birthday Bash, you can learn “The Spanish Dance” under the expert tutelage of Susan de Guardiola, who enjoys international renown for showing people today how to have fun doing dances from 200 years ago.
You’ll get to celebrate Christmas with songs, processions, and plays which Spanish settlers brought to Florida. Historians believe that Tallahassee marks the first place in North America where people celebrated Christmas, during Hernando de Soto’s expedition back in 1539. To explore this side of Tallahassee’s Hispanic Heritage, Theater with a Mission is reviving the ancient Three Kings play Auto de los Reyes Magos, adding Lope de Vega’s charming Angels and Shepherds play Cristo nuestro bien, and reenacting Las Posadas, processing from door to door around the cottages at Goodwood Museum & Gardens to depict Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to shelter the birth of Christ. You can join workshops to make your own candle for Las Posadas, learn the carol that the shepherds sing during Cristo nuestro bien, and talk back to King Herod during the Auto de los Reyes Magos.
This gift comes to you perfectly priced and thoughtfully timed. Slated for December 27-29, TWAM’s Bicentennial Birthday Bash nestles into the sweet spot between Christmas and New Year, when the whole family is eager for adventuring together. And all these family-friendly activities are free. For more information, follow Theater with a Mission (TWAM) on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and visit www.theaterwithamission.com.
