Oh SanSe, I look forward to that time of year. For 3 days, I roam the streets of Old San Juan with a Papa Jac in one hand and my friends by my side, dancing and partying until 3 am just to wake up at 10 the other day to go to breakfast at Café Berlin. We then walk to Ballajá to look at all the artisans and their beautiful work. Whether you go to the SanSe’ every year, or have never been to it, I believe we can all agree, it’s a beautiful thing our island deserves to be proud of.
Signaling the end of our Christmas season, the longest Christmas in the world, the Calles de la Fiesta de San Sebastian is a festival that happens three days every year in Old San Juan, specifically in the Calle de San Sebastian (shocker, right?). It has its origins in 1954, when Father Juan Manuel Madrazo began the festival to raise funds for the church of San Jose, located in Old San Juan, and to restore the streets that surrounded it. When he moved to another church, they stopped doing the festival, but it was later brought back. In 1970, historian Ricardo Alegría asked doña Rafaela Ballardes de Brito to start the festival again to raise funds for the Colegio de Párvulos. Doña Rafaela, who died on September 2011, became the founder of the festival and it has been happening yearly since, spreading to the entirety of Old San Juan, not just the San Sebastian street.
Although there is some criticism to the festival, this is one of the most beautiful things our island has to offer. There’s something to do at any moment in the day. The people seem happy, the music is varied, the art is spectacular and the food and drinks are delicious. At el Totem, there is always the salsa and merengue stage, where every year they bring in various artists to perform latin music all day long. And right behind it, there’s the best part of it all: the “frituras” stations. Bacalaitos, alcapurrias, pastelillos, and tripletas are just a few of the spectacularly greasy and AMAZING food that can be found there. At Plaza de Armas you can usually find more “young” music; by this I mean electronic, remixes, and pop music. Walking down the San Sebastian you are likely to find some sort of ordeal between cabezudos and pleneros playing typical music, yelling “bombas” and singing the slogan of the festival “voy subiendo, voy bajando, tu vives como yo vivo, yo vivo vacilando” (I’m going up, I’m going down, if you live like I do, I live partying).
The festival has become a national thing in the island, taking up an entire weekend of artisans, partying, eating, drinking and dancing to plenas. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful thigs we have as a nation, a time when we all come together and enjoy the beauty our history has to offer us and what we are living in the moment. An example of this is this year’s parade, in which the end of the parade of Cabezudos, there was an airplane made out of people and cardboard, all the while singing “Mi Viejo San Juan”. This is a sign of our past and our present, showing the huge exodus we have had of people in the last few years, seeking the American Dream so many years back. This song has made my grandmother cry, remembering the years she lived in New York when she was younger, so for me, the song is one of the most beautiful songs, next to Preciosa by Rafael Hernandez.
The festival has become tradition for us, and it’s one of the few times a year where, no matter where you live or what ideals for our island you have, you can see us coming together as a nation, and that for me is the most beautiful thing a nation can have.