Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Fiesta Days Parade holding onto history

Annual parade is short but sweet

It used to be the biggest parade in Durango, but with a growing population and the loss of Western heritage, the Durango Fiesta Days Parade has been relegated to a piece of living history.

An estimated 400 people lined Main Avenue on Saturday to watch the 25-minute procession that featured horse-drawn carriages, miniature donkeys, Fiesta Days royalty, a couple dozen horses and the crowd-pleasing Al Kaly Temple Tin Lizzies.

“I try my best to get as many entries as we can just to have a parade, but it’s hard,” said Cindi Brevik, president of the Durango Fiesta Days committee. “I hope next year I can make it to 30 minutes.”

Fiesta Days is a celebration of the area’s cultural and cowboy heritage. It has undergone many changes in its 81-year history, but the rodeos and parade have always been a part of it, Brevik said.

“It’s a chance to remember that we have a past and not to forget our past,” she said. “We’re looking ahead to all the things we need to do in order to survive as a group and compete with the myriad of things that are going on in today’s world, but we also have a history, so let’s don’t forget it.”

The parade route started at College Drive and went north on Main Avenue to 12th Street, where participants broke off and headed back to the staging area via East Third Avenue. Spectators gathered under partly cloudy skies.

Unlike most parades, this one is all about the history and culture. There are no fancy floats or glad-handing politicians jockeying for attention.

“We ask the politicians and everything political to give us 20 minutes on one morning and remember our heritage and leave the politics behind,” Brevik said. “They’ve got a million other parades to go to where everybody can be political.”

The brevity of the parade and the decline of Durango’s Western heritage was a common theme among participants and spectators Saturday.

“It’s getting shorter every year,” said Melanie Mooney of Hesperus, who has been participating for about 15 years. “We’re losing our roots in Durango.

“When they changed the (La Plata County) Fairgrounds, I think they lost a lot of pride in the ranching community.”

But she likes that Durango still has a heritage day parade, saying it’s a good coming together of the ranching community.

Bayfield resident Dick Eichthaler, who served on the organizing committee in the 1970s, said Fiesta Days used to draw so many people to town that it was nearly impossible to drive a car downtown. Even though the excitement is waning, the 73-year-old cowboy said he plans to do whatever he can to see it through to its 100th birthday.

“It’s been going on for 80-plus years,” Eichthaler said. “Why end it now?”

shane@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments