The Multicultural Festival in Historic Nacogdoches

The Multicultural Festival in Historic Nacogdoches

The Multicultural Festival is held in May of each year in the downtown area at the center of the city's historic district. This view looks West across the town square and the Historic Town Center from the middle of Fredonia Street and El Camino Real to its Intersection with Highway 59 (La Calle del Norte). On the far right near the flag of Mexico stood the Old Stone Fort, built by Gil Y'Barbo in 1779-81, a building that served as headquarters and meeting place for political and military events that helped to shape the development of Texas. From the earliest claims and resulting conflicts made to this territory by the French, Spanish, and Mexican governments, through the skirmishes of the Magee-Gutierrez (1812), the James Long Expedition (1819), and the Fredonia Rebellion of 1826, through the Battle of Nacogdoches (1832), an initial struggle in the movement for independence, this theater was the gateway, the crossroads through which the vast land of Texas emerged as a Republic to become the 28th state. On the left the tops of the Municipal, Ingraham, Mahdeen, and City Hall buildings can be seen. These buildings face Pilar, named after the early Catholic Church "Nuestra Senora del Pilar", and the earliest residential street of the homes of such patriots as John S. Roberts, Adolphus Sterne, Thomas J. Rusk, and General Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas. Personalities, Places, and events in the history of Nacogdoches are depicted in the large colorful mural in the Historic Town Center along with a display of primitive tools, costumes, and relics of the Caddoan Indian tribes, who were the first inhabitants of this land. Today the festival celebrates a spirit of unity and harmony among the diversity of peoples whose flags are unfurled in an expression of good will and cooperation on the ancient Plaza Principal.