Today both the Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times have stories in their news pages (the Times already went coverage-crazy in its weekend entertainment section Thursday) on the annual bacchanal that is the Gasparilla parade.
The Trib's story written by Donna Koehn delves into the fact that this will be Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio's final parade as the leader of the Cigar City, and includes this quote:
"Gasparilla is the kind of thing you couldn't establish today, because people would say it is ridiculous," she says. "But it's so steeped in tradition here. I'll probably keep going every year from now on. But I'm definitely not going to be walking it."
Iorio is accurate in saying such a parade, started over 100 years ago, would have a hard time being created today. But as she says, "it's tradition."
Of course, it was also "tradition" that for most of the 20th century Ye Mystic Krewe, the exclusive, all-male club that hosts the parade, refused to admit blacks. Back in 1991, with the NFL coming to Tampa for the second time for the Super Bowl (which incidentally, was exactly 20 years ago yesterday), the Krewe was told they had to integrate, or the parade would be canceled.
Faced with that option, Ye Mystic Krewe opted to cancel the parade (later that year, they did admit some black members).
But Ye Mystic Krewe still refused to include women, which apparently was okay.
But eight years ago, one man, Frank Sanchez, said it wasn't okay. The Tampa native, who had gone on to a successful career in Boston and Washington D.C. before coming back to run for local office, was running in a contested race for mayor, the last one this city has had until now.
Sanchez had the temerity to say that he believed the Krewe should admit women. But apparently in the realpolitik world of Tampa, that was the wrong answer in 2003. He was showered with criticism, which unfortunately led him to back off from that statement. Then, when questioned at an art gallery event for City Council candidate Kelly Benjamin (then running against Rose Ferlita), Sanchez reversed himself, as recounted in the pages of CL by then staff writer Susan Edwards:
"The criticism is valid," he said. "I made an error in judgment. My statement didn't need clarification. Any discrimination by government or an important social organization is debilitating to a community. I do think the Krewe would benefit by admitting women. I stand by that statement."
Sanchez ultimately narrowly beat out Bob Buckhorn for 2nd place in the initial election, putting him into a runoff with Pam Iorio, who as the controversy was playing out stood by silently watching Sanchez sink himself. She then beat him like a drum in the runoff on March 25, 2003 (Sanchez is doing okay by the way, as he currently serves as Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade for the Obama administration).
Nobody's ever brought that issue up since, incidentally.
