The centennial and bicentennial celebrations provided opportunity for renewed patriotism in a time of social turmoil. The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and urban conflict characterized this period, but the patriotic fervor of the anniversaries was a way to overshadow the controversies. Attempts to bring the disparate parts of national identity together as one “people” manifested as celebrations of Grant and Lee, and George Washington. Pageantry has a purpose in public life as a symbolic representation of the people, but the Portola Festival was missing a noticeable chunk of the population: the labor party.
The Portola Festival was seemingly inclusive, and a celebration of the area’s founding, but Glassberg mentions the significant absence of the labor party in the representation of the community. The city brought out multiple neighborhoods, even the Chinese, but the façade of complete participation covered up the fact that political and economic issues influenced the labor party’s decision to abstain. The festival ended up draining the city’s coffers, so it did not survive because of its economic insolvency, but the value for public historians comes from the turn-of-the-century view of public history as a method for consolidating the community, particularly the powers of community organizations.
I also found the Portola Festival to be an interesting case. The exclusion of African American and Mexican American residents counters any display of unity among the community. Glassberg recounts the incident involving Jack Johnson, the boxing champion, who policed forced from the road at the front of the procession (78). The newspapers participated in promoting an idea of unity when they applauded the appearance of Chinese and Japanese residents. Such a display was only a creation of unity. As Glassberg argues, there was not real unity in the celebration. I wonder how the non-white, upper class communities perceived the celebration. Despite the promotion of unity especially through the newspapers, communities must have had a different take on the celebration.
ReplyDeleteHere I go with my 'those in power' rant, again. 'Whitening' the Spanish characteristics to distance the San Franciscans from Mexicans, promoting the risqué elements of Spanish ‘hot-blood’, and inviting the exotic to participate (Chinese/Japanese) are all ways of making these issues safe to the citizenry at large. But they are also ways of keeping the other in their place by making them a lesser part of the whole. Inclusion by invitation is at least in part an attempt by those in power to control those not like them...by including the light-skinned Spanish, they excluded the darker-skinned Mexicans; by promoting the risqué and silly, they downplay the serious and real; and by inviting a dragon to the parade, they emphasize the exotic and so expand the divide not lessen. None of this is wrong…in fact it may be a necessary first step in assimilation. I do wonder, though, just how much diversity, dignity, and respect is lost in the process.
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