St. Matthew is the patron saint of Oviedo, the capital of Asturias about 20 miles south of
Avilés, and his feast day is 21 September. The week leading up to the feast day is the big fiesta of the year in Oviedo, and part of festivities is the Day of America in Asturias. It celebrates the many Asturians who went to the Americas and returned. Countries across the Americas, and many Asturian towns, send bands and dancers and floats for the big Day of America parade. I went down with cousin Antonio, and it was, of course, a grand time.
Ambassadors and dignitaries. Antonio knew the best spot in which to stand, straight across from them. Every float and band stopped directly in front of us.
It also was the perfect spot for the transport workers' union, which was protesting recent job cuts.
The lead band, from Oviedo.
The classic Asturian farmers (this couple are popular caricatures), followed by a butter churn, haystack and corn.
A popular Asturian rock band.
One of the Asturian village float entries. The blacksmiths.
And a village "sidrería" - a restaurant featuring fermented apple cider (the national drink of Asturias).
Girls in traditional Asturian dress.
The US entry in the parade, with a band from St. Augustine, FL (the sister city of Avilés, founded by Avilesino and Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez) which played, a bit incongruously, "New York, New York" as the float went by.
Bolivia.
Ecuador.
In the 1950s, the Indianos (as the Asturians who went to the Americas and returned are called) loved to bring back big US cars with them.
A passage to Cuba, which is where most Asturians went in the 19th century (including Mercedes' brothers Antonio, Ramón and José).
The classic Indianos of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
Cuba.
A village fountain, which remains a revered local institution.
A traditional singer on the steps of an hórreo. It gets no more Asturian than that...
...especially with the attached farmhouse.
Making the sidra.
Paraguay.
Paraguayan bottle dancers. That is not glued to her head, and she went flat on the ground with it. Another dancer at one point had five bottles stacked on top of each other.
Gaitas! There were several bagpiper bands from the area. Asturias and Galicia are very Celtic.
The parade princesses (some things are the same at every festival parade on the planet).
Más gaitas!
Bolivian dancers.
A revelry club from Gijón (Xixón in Asturian), similar to a Mardi Gras Krewe in New Orleans.
Mexico.
The Oviedo municipal gaitas band. They are the best I've heard.
The parade queen and her court.
The Oviedo opera house.
Ein bisschen Deutschland in Asturien.
A school typical of the 19th-century design.
The Cider Boulevard. A quarter mile of sidrerías. It was relatively empty at 7pm. We would have had trouble walking through at 11.
Don Pelayo (outside Oviedo cathedral) and a wee Asturian.
Antonio in front of the candy shop in Oviedo that makes the best turrón outside Xixón.
Oviedo city hall, dressed for the festival.
Back to the parade...
Brazil.
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