Gasparilla began in 1904 when Miss Louise Francis Dodge, society editor of the Tampa Tribune, and George W. Hardee, then with the federal government in Tampa, conspired to promote the City of Tampa and its May Day celebration. [48] Gasparilla became an official holiday in Tampa during this time, with local schools and government offices closed for the day. Chapman serves as the King for Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla this year. [24] In 1885, he told state census takers that he had been born in Corsica,[25] and reported to the 1900 US Census that he was born in Portugal in 1776. [49], The Parade of Pirates has been held every year since 1947 with two exceptions: in 1991, when a controversy over inclusion saw Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla refuse to participate, and in 2021, when the parades and most related events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. Census, Monroe Co., Florida, Supervisor's district 18, enumerator's district 118, page 8, 6 July 1880, Florida State Census, Monroe county, enumerator's district 7, page 11, 22 June 1885, U.S. Census, Precinct 7, Lee Co., Florida, 27 June 1900, supervisor's district 2, enumerator district 163, sheet 2. Some versions of Gaspar's story claim that he often partnered with the real pirate Pierre Lafitte and that Lafitte barely escaped the battle in which Gaspar was killed. Community Outreach. "In 1783, having become a traitor and a pirate, Jos Gaspar gave the name of "Gasparilla" to himself as well as to his ship and the island in Charlotte Harbor, on the west coast of Florida near. [3][2], There is also no physical evidence to support Gaspar's existence. It all started in the newsroom of the now-defunct Tampa Morning Tribune, where Society Page Editor Louise Francis Dodge sought to . On Gasparilla Day, members of YMKG don pirate regalia and sail across Tampa Bay aboard the Jose Gasparilla II, a 165-foot-long (50m) "pirate ship" which is actually a steel barge converted to look like a large West Indiaman. Heres what to know, After nearly a century of fixing Tampas flat tires, downtown Firestone closes, West Tampa plumber was able to achieve a lot by being kind, Rays face Braves with Shane McClanahan on the mound today, Pinellas County education is getting dragged into a medieval inquisitors dungeon | Letters. [7][3], Other versions of the story state that Gaspar was a nobleman who achieved a high rank in the Spanish Royal Navy and became a councilor to King Charles III of Spain. [3], In the 1930s, construction worker Ernesto Lopez showed his family a mysterious box he claimed to have found while working with a repair crew on the Cass Street Bridge in downtown Tampa.

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