Patti Doyle Anderson remembers stacking buñuelos at A Night In Old San Antonio when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.
She arrived at La Villita in 1967 to help her mother, Rosemary Doyle, serve crispy fried tortillas dusted with cinnamon sugar. Buñuelos sold for a quarter apiece from a flower-festooned booth.
Ten presidential administrations later, Anderson and her sister, Sharon Doyle, are making final preparations for their buñuelos booth at NIOSA, which runs today through Friday.
“It’s a family affair,” Anderson said. “I take Tuesday and Thursday and Sharon takes Wednesday and Friday. It’s wonderful because my sister and I have instilled in our families the importance of giving back. It’s in their blood.”
Anderson’s daughters, Kristi and Megan, and Doyle’s daughter, Katelin Kindla, represent the third generation of family workers at the booth. Kindla says her 3-month-old daughter, McKenzie, will become a fourth generation volunteer.
“When I get too old to hobble around, our girls will take over,” said Anderson, 70. “It’s a continuing legacy.”
The legacy began one year before the Tower of the Americas was completed. NIOSA volunteer Peggy Penshorn asked her friend Rosemary Doyle to help her run the buñuelos booth. Doyle agreed and brought along daughters Patti and Kathy Doyle Thomas. Sharon and another sister, Peggy Doyle Mitchell, came to the booth later.
In 1981, Penshorn became president of the Conservation Society of San Antonio and Rosemary ascended to booth chair, a position she held for 35 years. When Rosemary stepped down at age 85, Sharon took over as chair and Patti as vice chair.
“We’ve been doing it for so long it is second nature to us,” said Sharon, 67. “Fiesta is fiesta. We’ve had other booths, like a beer booth for many years, but we always gravitate back to the buñuelos booth.”
Rosemary, the 95-year-old family matriarch, now celebrates Fiesta from Wholehearted Senior Living near Patti and Sharon.
“On Friday, the four Doyle daughters spent the afternoon watching folklórico dancers and eating buñuelos with her,” Sharon said.
The buñuelos booth dates back to 1938 when NIOSA was called the “Indian Festival,” a one-night fall street fair to benefit the Conservation Society. Ten years later, the festival was held during Fiesta for the first time and called A Night In Old San Antonio.
At the first NIOSA, the buñuelos booth was part of the Mexican Market, an area that sold bean tacos and other South of the Border fare. Like the Doyle family, today’s volunteers at the bean taco booth arrive early, stay late and revel in the atmosphere.
“I’ve had people from all over the world come to NIOSA for the bean taco,” said bean taco booth chairman Gene Padilla. “They say they read about it in the newspaper or online. I love it. The fact that the bean taco booth is one of the original booths at NIOSA, it makes you feel like you’re part of history and you want to keep it going.”
Padilla’s volunteers make the beans from scratch. The Buñuelo Factory supplies NIOSA with the Mexican fried dough treats. In the late 1960s, the buñuelos were made by machine at Hemisfair. In those halcyon days, Anderson recalls, she volunteered as a middle school student.
“We sold thousands of buñuelos every night,” she said.
Her younger sister arrived at NIOSA dressed like a flower child with artificial blooms in her hair.
“I remember yelling, ‘Buñuelos for sale!,” Sharon said. “It was like a family outing with lots of people hitting everybody in the head with cascarones. Back then, we could go get a horseshoe sausage or get chicken. You could just walk around NIOSA because the crowds were not as thick.”
The crowds grew. Traffic stalled around NIOSA grounds. Parking became a challenge even for volunteers. One year, the sisters drove to La Villita after the Battle of Flowers Parade, looking for a place to park. The crush of idling cars prompted a vow.
“We’re never doing this again,” Sharon said.
The sisters now check into a hotel and spend part of Fiesta, living downtown.
“We just enjoy ourselves,” Sharon said. “We do touristy stuff.”
The sisters have been busy. They celebrated Fiesta with Rosemary on Friday, helped build the buñuelos booth on Saturday and decorated it on Sunday with an assist from other volunteers.
“These traditions mean everything to us,” Sharon said. “We love sharing and continuing them with our daughters and nieces and keeping Fiesta alive for years to come.”
