Talkin’ Old Spanish Days

It was not so much a night on the tiles as a day on one when society scribe and local historian Erin Graffy de Garcia talked about her book Old Spanish Days: Santa Barbara History Through Public Art during an entertaining hour-long lecture at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

The 117-page book was originally published in 2014 to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Fiesta and was compiled in less than eight weeks given very tight time constraints.

“We had to get permissions to use pictures and photos of all the art works in the book, but everybody was extraordinarily helpful in giving the necessary okays and not even charging for reproduction rights.”

The lavishly illustrated work, with photos by uber snapper Fritz Olenberger, is the perfect Fiesta gift, even nine years on.

One particular revelation was learning how the sports of bear and bull baiting a couple of centuries ago led to the Wall Street parlance in which “bull” and “bear” are shorthand descriptions of the state of the trading market.

Among those at the MClub nautical repast were Hiroko Benko, Dana Hansen, Maria McCall, Brendon Twigden, Kathy and Judy Alexander, Marna Coday, Alma Rose Middleton, Anne Luther, and Rebecca Brand.