The ball is also where Chapman had his first date with his wife. So, let's get to it! Im passionate about highlighting community efforts to improve the quality of care in our state and make it more accessible to all Floridians. 'Milo' Vega & Queen Shirley Morgan, King Ed K. Nelson Jr. & Queen Mary Louise Lee, King James L. Ferman & Queen Pamela Logan, King Blackburn W. Lowry & Queen Betsy Allison, King Fred S. Johnston & Queen Stella Louise Ferguson, King H. Grady Lester Jr. & Queen Lavinia Lee Witt, King Richard S. McKay & Queen Bonnie Grace Hall, King J.H. We went with these friends to find it", "Chamber Enlivened by Whiskey Creek, Pirate History", "The Jose Gasparilla and Pirates: Tampa's Own Buccaneer", "Gasparilla 2018: The history behind Tampa's pirate festival", "Ultimate Gasparilla Guide for 2023: Schedule, Parking, Where to Watch + MORE", "Gasparilla 2021 Parades Postponed Because of COVID-19", "Gasparilla 2021 canceled due to coronavirus concerns", A diverse Gasparilla appeases its critics, "A year away, Tampa prepares for back-to-back Gasparilla and Super Bowl weekends", "Meet the sober hands at the wheel of the Gasparilla pirate ship", "Diverse Gasparilla parade has transcended insult of racism", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gasparilla_Pirate_Festival&oldid=1142684736, About two weeks before the Parade of Pirates, a.
Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla - Inspired by the Legend of Pirate Jose The first seaborne "invasion" came in 1911, and YMKG has organized a theatrical pirate invasion and parade almost every year since. One of the most famous involves a Spanish princess (or Mexican, depending on the version) named Useppa who was a passenger on a captured ship. As the planning has become more complicated over the years, however, the parade has accepted corporate sponsorships to defray costs and hired EventFest to coordinate the event with the city. & Queen Anne Lawson Kelley, King William L. (Larry) Smith & Queen India Powell Stallings, King J. Rex Farrior, III & Queen Laura Elizabeth Straske, King Gary W. Harrod & Queen Margo Hall Ennis, King Christopher C. Lykes & Queen Courtney Laurens Farrior, King CVII James A. Turner III & Queen CVII Martha Davis Straske, King CVIII Richard McKinley Chapman III & Queen CVIII Caroline Grace Dearing Lackman, Copyright @ 2023 Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla - All Rights Reserved |. [18], As the scheduling of the Parade of Pirates has shifted over the years, the dates of the other two large parades of the season have generally shifted as well, with the Children's Parade held one week before and the Krewe of San'Yago Illuminated Knight Parade held two weeks after the main Gasparilla Parade. "[44] Among its many inaccuracies, the brochure stated that pirate's nickname "Gasparilla" means "Gaspar the outlaw" in Spanish when it is actually a form meaning "little Gaspar", that Gasparilla Island was named for the pirate when the name actually appears on Spanish and English maps from well before his supposed arrival, and that the "bleached bones" of Gaspar's victims along with many old coins had been discovered in local "Indian mounds" when no such find has ever been documented. Since 2005, the Parade of Pirates has taken place on the last Saturday in January. Girl "pirates," 1968, in the ratlines of a ship. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn meets with Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla members in 2019 to "negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city," part of the tradition leading up to the annual Parade of Pirates. . In the festivals early years the invasion was done on horseback. [30] However, none of these claims were true, as no treasure, murder victims, or other physical trace of Gaspar's exploits has ever been found in the area, and John Gmez drowned while fishing alone, making a deathbed confession impossible. [29] Assuming that the story of Gasparilla as described was authentic, Bradlee included many details in his book Piracy In The West Indies And Its Suppression without attempting to verify the information. To learn more, read this article. [9][54] Borrowed ships were used until the 1930s, when Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla bought an old merchant sloop and repurposed it as the Jose Gasparilla, which they use for about twenty years. The legend states that Gaspar terrorized the western coastal waters of Florida in the late 18th to early 19th century. Taliaferro, III & Queen Doris Knight, King Wallace O. Stovall & Queen Grace Freeman, King Otto Lee Henderson & Queen Mary Trice Clewis, King L. Walthugh Lee & Queen Mildred Taliaferro, King Joe Johnson & Queen Lillie Wall Honaker, King Collins Gillet & Queen Marion Harvey, King James W. Warren & Queen Sara Lykes Keller, King Curtis L. Sparkman & Queen Elizabeth Nelson, King J. MacDonell Thompson & Queen Carlotta Cuesta, King L.G. Lane Riverfront Park in downtown Tampa, the festival attracts over 30,000 visitors. Gaspar instantly regretted the deed and took her body to a nearby island, which he named Useppa in her honor, and buried her himself. [10] The parade has been broadcast live on local television for decades: WFLA-TV has provided coverage since 1955, and WTVT-TV also covered the parade from 1955 to 1980.
Gasparilla Festival of the Arts returns to Tampa. Here's what to know Travel through time with our '100 doubloons' of Gasparilla in Tampa Bay Now in its 53rd year, the festival is popular with . The fast-food . Looking at old photos from past festivals, you can see pirates with drinks in their hands, and the Jose Gasparilla II used in modern invasions is essentially a floating bar. Hundreds of thousands will crowd the streets to participate in another day of bead-throwing and debauchery. At least a portion of the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates has traversed Bayshore Boulevard into downtown almost since its inception. Some guys will be walking with their grandfathers in this parade and certainly their fathers, Chapman said. [2] No contemporaneous mention of his life or exploits have been found in Spanish or American ship logs, court records, newspapers, or other archives, and no physical artifacts linked to Gaspar have been discovered in the area where he supposedly established his "pirate kingdom.
2023 Gasparilla Festival of the Arts to take over Julian B. Lane It centers on a fictional pirate, Jose Gaspar, and a prominent bunch of Tampa citizens who. [3] It was authored by publicist Pat Lemoyne for the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway Company, which had just opened the resort. [37] The mayor of Tampa then surrenders the key of the city to the "pirate captain", and a "victory parade" ensues down Bayshore Boulevard. The Story of Gasparilla, booklet, 1946. Howd you do it? However, though many versions of Jos Gaspar's adventures have been told in various forms over the years - including pulp adventure novels, tourist guides, and official histories of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla - all have their basis in the fictional tale first printed in an advertisement for the Gasparilla Inn. [20], Though very popular now, beads were rarely seen at Gasparilla Parades before the 1990s.
PDF The Legend of Gasparilla: Myth and History on Florida's West Coast [56] However, due to practical concerns, participation in the Parade of Pirates has been limited to fifty krewes per year, with smaller krewes taking turns on a rotating basis. [1] Finally, it claimed that a burial mound "forty feet high and four hundred feet in circumference" near Gasparilla Island had been found to contain "ornaments of gold and silver" along with "hundreds of human skeletons", but that the bulk of the buccaneer's vast cache of buried treasure "still lies unmoved" nearby, in the vicinity of the Gasparilla Inn. 'Red' Pittman & Queen Anderson Lee Smith, King Richard A. before plunging into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico within sight of the shore. Updated: Mar 1, 2023 / 06:30 PM EST. For men, getting the chance to don a pirate costume and join the invasion could be a very . Each of these Krewes is organized for specific charitable and community . Pirates gather at the Tampa Yacht Club the morning of to get their costumes and makeup on and do media interviews ahead of the festival. [4] The brochure consisted of two parts: a telling of the legend of Jos Gaspar followed by a promotional section touting the Gasparilla Inn and the Charlotte Harbor area in general. Local place names mentioned were established long before the pirate's supposed arrival, and despite lurid tales regarding the uncovering of gold and human remains, no such artifacts or any other physical evidence of Gaspar's "regal" home base, victims, or treasure has ever been found on Gasparilla Island or anywhere else in the Charlotte Harbor area. His works and the writings of other local authors with similar themes served to further expand the story of Gaspar while also sowing confusion about the veracity of the legend. [36] Under the guise of "Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla" (YMKG), an organization modeled after the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes, the "invaders" donned pirate costumes and rode through the streets on horseback encouraging residents to follow them to the festivities. However, no evidence has been found to support this claim. The legend of Jos Gaspar, according to an account by Andr-Marcel d'Ans and translated by Marie-Jole Ingalls, Gaspar was a Spanish naval officer, who in the early 1780s mutinied against his. "Taking the best of everything when a capture was made, he chose the best of the islands in Charlotte Harbor, for his own secret haunts," declared the leaflet. Taking inspiration from Mardi Gras krewes, there was a hierarchy in place with a king and queen of Gasparilla crowned each year and debutante balls for young women. [8] Different versions of the story say that he was either a Spanish nobleman and advisor to King Charles III of Spain who was exiled after a romantic scandal in court, a traitorous admiral of the Spanish Royal Navy who stole a ship and fled when his treachery was revealed, or an ambitious young officer in the Spanish navy who was driven to mutiny by a tyrannically cruel captain. 1904 - 1920; 1921 - 1929; . Though it once had the reputation of being the most "adult-oriented" parade of Tampa's Gasparilla season, the city has tried to reduce public drunkenness and other unruly behavior in recent years and has promoted the parade as a family-friendly event, with some success. [Photo by the Burgert Brothers. Description. "[3] The earliest known written mention of Jos Gaspar was a short biography included in an early 1900s promotional brochure for the Gasparilla Inn on Gasparilla Island at Charlotte Harbor, the author of which freely admitted that the dramatic tale was a work of fiction "without a true fact in it". Jos Gaspar, also known by his nickname Gasparilla (supposedly lived c. 1756 - 1821), is an apocryphal Spanish pirate who terrorized the Gulf of Mexico from his base in southwest Florida during Florida's second Spanish period (1783 to 1821).
Photos from the past show the festivities have changed over the decades. [22] His self-reported age and birthplace varied, even on official documents. It moors along the Riverwalk behind the Tampa Convention Center, where the "pirate captain" demands that the mayor hand over the key to the city in a playful ceremony which has had different outcomes in different years. Rainy weather helped to dampen the crowds, and the replacement was considered a "flop". The story of Jos Gaspar's life and career vary in different tellings, especially regarding his origin. Chapman serves as the King for Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla this year. On Saturday, pirates will once again storm downtown Tampa during the annual Gasparilla invasion. He said Gasparilla organizers have worked hard to combat that with efforts like ramping up police presence along the parade route, doing educational outreach and limiting the amount of alcohol people can bring and buy. [50][51], In 2001, the Parade of Pirates was held a week earlier than usual to coincide with Super Bowl XXXV, which was played in Tampa the next day. Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday. We estimate that 9400 Little Gasparilla Is Unit E2 would rent between $3,776 / mo. Though written in the style of a light adventure novel, the narrator claimed that it was a true tale gleaned from a "mouse-eaten Cuban manuscript" supposedly written by Jos Gaspar's cousin Leon and corroborated with an old map found at a used bookstore, neither of which were made public. [10] Gaspar has also been associated with Henri Caesar and "Old King John", other semi-legendary pirates for whom there is little to no historical evidence. Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the grandaddy organization that started Tampa's signature parade in 1904, will have the rare occurrence of four generations of one family, ages 10 to 95,. in the manner of the buccaneers! [38], The theme of the Gasparilla Festival was inspired by the legend of the pirate Jos Gaspar, who supposedly operated off the west coast of Spanish Florida from the 1780s until the 1820s. The first invasion by boat was in 1911. But Westcott, who has never missed a Queen's Party, fails to attend his own coronation . [46] The second Gasparilla the following year was not a surprise, as every automobile owner in town was invited to join the mounted pirates in the parade. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Krewe of Venus was formed in 1966 and was the first krewe to allow women to join. [1], While Gaspar is a popular figure in Florida folklore, there is no evidence that he actually existed.
Accommodations | The Gasparilla Inn & Club Whatever his supposed origins, the legends agree that Gaspar fled to the virtually uninhabited southwestern coast of Spanish Florida in the 1780s and established his "pirate kingdom" on Gasparilla Island in Charlotte Harbor, south of Tampa Bay. The annual Gasparilla celebration is one of Tampa Bays biggest social events, drawing in hundreds of thousands of people to dress up as pirates and eat, drink and be merry. Lemoyne described Gmez as a "colorful" eccentric who claimed to have been a pirate in order to sell fake treasure maps to "the gullible" for a "fancy figure". I cover health care for WUSF and the statewide journalism collaborative Health News Florida. "Gasparilla pirate's life flows from history's spin doctors", "The Legend of Gasparilla: Myth and History on Florida's West Coast", "Chamber Enlivened by Whiskey Creek, Pirate History", "Not the Type of Person to Meet on a Dark Night was Gasparilla", 1999 Gasparilla Pirate Fest - The Tampa Tribune, "Gasparilla Island Geology, Archaeology, and History", "Is Gasparilla's treasure real? His exploits came to a sudden end in 1821 when, to avoid being captured by the U.S. Navy pirate hunting schooner USS Enterprise, he wrapped himself in anchor chains and threw himself overboard while shouting ""Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy's! If you're looking for something to do that combines culture and the outdoors, the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts is the hot ticket this weekend. "[3][31], Beater published several additional books about southwest Florida; some marketed as fiction, some as non-fiction, and some as guidebooks for tourists, all including tongue-in-cheek dramatic tales about Gaspar and other pirates. [18] In 1913, "Gasparilla Carnival" was organized as an independent event, as it has remained ever since. However, African-Americans and others among Tampa's diverse population felt left out of the planning and organization of the events, with some observers questioning the tradition of local elites dressing as pirates and pretending to plunder the city. Many of the same krewes - large and small - also participate in the Gasparilla Children's Parade and the Sant'Yago Knight Parade. Despite the fact that the Annual Gasparilla Festival started in 1904 to celebrate "Pirate . [39][40] To tie these events together in the public eye, Visit Tampa Bay, the local tourist bureau, has run multimillion-dollar promotional campaigns across the United States, Canada, and Europe to attract visitors to the area during "Gasparilla Season". During the parade, members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla along with dozens of other krewes throw beads, coins, and various souvenirs to the throngs from about 100 floats, most of them pirate-themed. In the 1870 United States Census, he is listed as having been born in 1828. [13] In addition to the krewes, high school and university marching bands and drill teams often participate, and many local businesses and organizations build and enter their own elaborate floats from which they also throw trinkets to the crowd. & Queen Shannon Holt Gillen, King A. Gerald Divers & Queen Marica Cone McKeel, King Richard A. Were not like Mardi Gras were fun, people are having a great time but its much safer and much smarter, he said. ( KTLA) - Burger King is bringing back a fan-favorite item and a new variation of a classic food offering to celebrate the return of spring. [39] In 2019, YMKG began an effort to legally to trademark the name Gasparilla to "protect" it for use by "appropriate community events", drawing complaints and counterclaims from others who have used the name or own the trademark for other, more narrow uses. Gasparilla began as a surprise "pirate invasion" on horseback during the city's May Day festival in 1904. "Gasparilla Island" appears on Spanish and English maps made in the early 1700s, and contemporary documents suggest that the barrier island was named for Friar Gaspar, a Spanish missionary who visited the native Calusa in the 1600s. The origin of the hand remained a mystery, though the curator of the history center opined that it might be a mummified monkey hand. When you are 11 or 12 you are a page, so you serve at the coronation and you walk behind the king or the queen, so you participate, Chapman explained. [17][18], Parade participants on floats and on foot have traditionally tossed souvenirs as they make their way along the route, but the specific items have changed over time. [7][3], Though his story has been retold in many forms since its first appearance around 1900, there is no evidence that the pirate Jos Gaspar existed. Gasparilla began in 1904 when Miss Louise Francis Dodge, society editor of the Tampa Tribune, and George W. Hardee, then with the federal government in Tampa, conspired to promote the City of Tampa and its May Day celebration. ", "Aboard Tampa's pirate ship, the 'Jose Gasparilla', "Tampa Mayor Buckhorn defies Gasparilla pirates, keeps key to city", "Experience the Fun & Excitement of Gasparilla Tampa Bay", "8 things you may not know about Gasparilla", Seed for Gasparilla was planted in the Tribune's old newsroom | TBO.com, "Travel through time with our '100 doubloons' of Gasparilla in Tampa Bay", "Need beads for Gasparilla?
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