Jesse Mata is born and raised in San Antonio. He has been involved in Cornyation for over a decade and was recently crowned King Anchovy LV. His reign has been disturbed by COVID and Fiesta cancellation/rescheduling issues. However, he joins us to discuss his passion for Cornyation's focus and charities supported.

Transcript:

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Justin Hill: Hello and Bienvenido, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique, and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here. All right, welcome to Episode 21 of The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Jesse Mata. We had some technical difficulties, so we're back on take two.

Jesse Mata: Welcome back.

Justin: Jesse works at USAA and more importantly for this episode, he's King Anchovy 55 for Cornyation. Previously, he's written scripts for Cornyation. He's been involved for years. The Current said you're one of the most influential people in 2015.

Jesse: Yes. I've been influential gay people, that's an important caveat. [crosstalk]

Justin: Is that the thing?

Jesse: A pink asterisk.

Justin: I didn't see that.

Jesse: Yes. Unless there's another article I don't know.

Justin: Well, I just saw most influential 2015 and saw you.

Jesse: Yes, that’s me.

Justin: You've had a lot of involvement in Cornyation, that's where I met you. Cornyation has raised over $2 million. We're going to spend some time talking about Cornyation. Jesse, so I do this with all the guests. We'll do a top 10 list. It’s short. I asked one guy how he moved to San Antonio, he went on for seven minutes, so don't do that. [laughs]

Jesse: No. That is not a very interesting story. It's a tragic story. You have a sorrowful version of this podcast, we can [unintelligible 00:01:33] [laughter].

Justin: Well, now I don't know if I want to ask. The first question I was going to ask is when did you move to San Antonio?

Jesse: I moved back to San Antonio. I grew up in San Antonio. I’m San Antonio native. My parents grew up in San Antonio as well. I have a long history here; my family does as well. I left in '93 after I graduated from Health Careers and went off to Baylor University. Then I came back in 1997, four years later, but that doesn't necessarily mean I had a degree, and started work and started my adult life back in San Antonio.

Justin: Okay, so you've lived here straight ever since?

Jesse: Yes, since September of 1997.

Justin: All right. What high school did you go to?

Jesse: Health Careers, phoenix, I’m phoenix rising from the ashes. That's all. This’s [unintelligible 00:02:24] alma mater.

Justin: Next question, in your picture in The Current you had a dog, what's the dog's name?

Jesse: Yes.

Justin: What's his name?

Jesse: I have a pug. Well, actually I have two dogs to be fair, not to give short [unintelligible 00:02:31]. The dog that was in the shoot was Gizmo, that's our pug. Gizmo [unintelligible 00:02:40] is his full name, but it tells you everything you need to know about my literary preferences. He's a great guy, curmudgeon, middle-aged.

Justin: Pug and what else?

Jesse: A pug and a Great Dane.

Justin: Oh, geez. They get along?

Jesse: I'm sorry.

Justin: Did they get along?

Jesse: They do get along. They're best friends. At first, whenever we got Gizmo, he was maybe about this big, maybe fit in the palm of your hand. The Great Dane wanted nothing to do with him. He was not even as big as your snout. I'm sure the part of that calculus was she figured she might destroy him, [unintelligible 00:03:13]or tail, or what have you. Ever since then they've become closest friends. They snuggled together, they play together, what have you.

Justin: All right. What are your favorite hidden gems in the city? The kind of things that only us locals know but when you have a tourist friend come, you say, "You got to go check this thing out."

Jesse: It's so tough because, are there really any hidden gems left anymore with social media influencers and all that kind of stuff. I would say that the last hidden gems that I really enjoy is probably food. Look at me, obviously, I'm a fan of food. Places like Maria’s Cafe or Garcia’s Mexican Food to Go, those would have been my old answers, but those are hardly secrets anymore. It's really those places; the mom and pop places, the small businesses. You build relationships with them over time. They recognize you, you're on a first-name basis. That's certainly part of the experience. Those are probably some of my favorite places, all food-related.

Justin: Well, we've had a lot of food answers, a Filipino restaurant on Culebra was two guests ago, Los Pinos.

Jesse: That is the secret. I want to know of that.

Justin: Have you ever been to Denman Estate Park? I think it's what Ron Nurnberg. I'd never heard of it.

Jesse: Yes, yes. A very good friend of mine lived right on around the corner from that park, I think it's called Mockingbird Estates or Mockingbird hHlls or something like that.

Justin: I've never heard of it.

Jesse: He and his husband lived there for a number of years in a couple of different houses there. It's right behind KENS. This great old kind of like ‘60s and ‘70s foot level garden homey type thing. Denman park is gorgeous.

Justin: What about Jack White Trail? That's another one that I've never heard of.

Jesse: I've never heard of that. Which one is that?

Justin: I don't know. It's over that Salado Creek. I haven't been there.

Jesse: What kind of host are you? Don’t you want to ask follow-up questions?

Justin: Well, I'm getting good information, and if you had listened to that episode that maybe you'd have learned.

Jesse: That's true., that’s true. My cousin [unintelligible 00:05:13] Cave. I've never been there but--

Justin: Is that in San Antonio?

Jesse: Yes, in the Alamo Heights Northwood areas.

Justin: They just opened it up two years ago for the first time in a long time. I read about it.

Jesse: Officially. Yes.

Justin: Apparently, on Incarnate Word's campus, there's the origin of the San Antonio river you can look down in a hole and see it.

Jesse: Right. The Blue Hole.

Justin: Well, you've got it all figured out.

Jesse: There's another one of those on the strip, but that's a difference thing.

Justin: All right. Well, that's good for the next question. Favorite Cornyation moment?

Jesse: Favorite Cornyation moment? I got food poisoning once during Cornyation. For a personal Cornyation moment, I had a bad subway. There used to be a subway in the theater. I ended up getting sick immediately before we went on the first show on a Thursday night. It continued to be ill throughout the evening. In fact, immediately before the last performance and then immediately after I came offstage. I was in the Ferrari Crown club. I was in the bathroom committing atrocities. I will say Angela Rubin was an angel. She brought me little ice chips and a cup, and sat me in a little recliner backstage and I was okay. The show must go on, right? [unintelligible 00:06:33] puke on stage.

Justin: That's a real trooper.

Jesse: Yes, that's the achievement.

Justin: I'm sure that leads to other things, but we'll get there later. Are you a reader, which you already covered so this is perfect question, and if so, what do you read now?

Did we freeze?

Jesse: Sorry, Justin. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that question?

Justin: Are you a reader? If so, what are you reading now?

Jesse: I am normally a reader. I think this pandemic has thrown me for a loop. Most of what I've been doing lately has been gardening. Anything that I've been reading has been about how to best compost your plant, good soil, and how to fertilize and when to harvest your vegetables, and fruits.

Justin: Any Howard Garrett books?

Jesse: Many--

Justin: Any Howard Garrett books like The Dirt Doctor.

Jesse: No, that's another source for me to look at.

Justin: I'm a big fan of Howard Garrett. He's our organic guy. He's all about the soil.

Jesse: Oh, nice, nice. I've done a lot of Texas gardener type reading for things that do well locally. I've also found the local shops like Evergreen Garden or Rainbow Garden are awesome. It speaks to the power of a relationship with local business. They've been excellent tutors or guides, in terms of how to set up gardens and the right products to buy and the right things to take into consideration so just a plug for them. Normally, I am a reader. Some of my favorite authors like Gore Vidal, a lot of his nonfiction stuff, and his fiction stuff. Lincoln is probably one of my favorite books of all time.

Justin: Just some light reading.

Jesse: It's not big. It sounds bad. It sounds dense and thick and all that kind of stuff. Especially those narrative fictional biographies, it's not child reads like a soap opera. It's really intriguing and it provides a little fictionalized color to the events of the day. I also like Frank Herbert, sci-fi, The Dune series, and that sort of stuff I really get into. It's a varied palette but honestly, I've just been wanting to get my hands in the dirt for the past couple of months.

Justin: My yard is a certified monarch habitat and Rainbow Garden helped me set that up.

Jesse: Beautiful.

Justin: Anything else that you're big involved in like Cornyation outside of your job in Cornyation?

Jesse: Over the years, I've been involved and interested in different organizations and chipped in behind the scenes or just in different ways. I volunteered some with the Southwest School of Art for a number of years. You could probably hear my pug whining back there in the background. That was a great experience. I'm hugely into art in terms of not only visual art, musical art, being a patron, being a supporter, being a collector, just in any way that I can get involved in a local art scene. My involvement with the Southwest school was fantastic. It was a real learning experience for me. I got to meet some fantastic people. I'm really thankful to have Michael Westheimer, a good friend of mine and Ellen Wolf for bringing me into that Southwest School family. It was a fantastic experience. Other organizations, I've worked with Thrive a little bit behind the scenes, kind of in their salad days or their early stages when they were kind of thinking about how to become a nonprofit entity and really bring a board on, and all that kind of stuff. That was a really rewarding experience, to be able to get to know Sandra Whitley and Chelsea Berkowitz and a lot of the different folks who were invested in Thrive and really helped build the foundation for the success that it is today. Those have probably been my principal involvements.

I mean, Cornyation frankly, takes so much out of you for five or six months out of the year that it's like I'm going to coast for the next couple of months before I have to start planning exercise for next year.

Justin: How many years have you been involved with Cornyation?

Jesse: With Cornyation, 18 years. Pretty soon after I moved back to San Antonio-- oh, I'm sorry, I misspoke earlier. It was ‘99, not ‘97, I apologize for that. Oh, no, I was right, it's ‘97. ‘99 is when I started working at USA but in those first couple of years, after I moved back, I found that even in just the four years I've been gone, the city has changed pretty significantly. I mean, it seemed like there- it was on kind of the beginning of the upswing that saw us through the 2000s and the twenty-teens up until now in parallel with Austin's rapid growth at the same time.

When I moved back to town, and especially after I got started to work, it was kind of like that Maslow's hierarchy of needs thing. I found a house, I found a job and then I wanted to figure out [unintelligible 00:11:43] is it I can get [unintelligible 00:11:48] or what are ways that I can get to know people. I had always loved Fiesta as a kid. I think it was April of 2000 was the first time I got back into Fiesta in a big way. Joined the commission to get my revere pin and all that crap. Then, I was introduced to Cornyation and some friends had been and recommended that I go.

For a couple of years, I went and was just blown away, it was riotous. I'd never seen something like that in person before. I mean, the closest had been, I forget what the hell it's called the [unintelligible 00:12:20], I think it's called Sing. It's like this big tradition where all the organization [unintelligible 00:12:25] put on little skits, kind of like Cornyation except not funny.

Justin: Very G rated.

Jesse: Yes, very G rated. Cornyation was a completely different experience for me, not only was it the kind of humor that I would have- that I appreciate but it was also smart. It had political opinions, it had insider references that you sort of had to be in the know or had to at least follow news or what have you to understand. That really, really struck a nerve with me and got me back into Fiesta in a big way.

Justin: Have you been working with Cornyation ever since?

Jesse: Yes. I went for a couple of years and then I was standing outside in line with my then-partner. One of my acquaintances from work, whom I've met very recently named Rob Gonzalez, he saw us in line as we were waiting to go in. He was the scriptwriter for Cornyation and his partner at the time also did some skits. We were talking with him and he was just making conversation. We indicated that, “Hey, we'd both love to help out in Cornyation some way.” He said, okay, “I'm going to hold you to that.” Then, the very next year, we got roped into a skit with Elaine Wolfe's brother, Matt Wolf and Steven Warner, and some other folks.

We helped design the choreography, we helped build the costumes. 2003, it was the Duchess of Your Ever-Widening Ass. It was when Krispy Kreme came to town and the duchess was this beautifully adorned, kind of Star Wars, The Phantom Menace looking donut queen with these giant-like inner tube things that have been painted to look like donuts for her hair. That was my first year. All I was doing was handing off props and street clothes and I was just nervous as shit.

Justin: Who was Anchovy that year?

Jesse: Huh?

Justin: Who was the Anchovy that year?

Jesse: Lif Shitz, I don't remember, it's been so long ago. I was so new to it. I didn't know who Anchovy was from anybody else, from the [unintelligible 00:14:40] sister.

Justin: Do you like corn?

Jesse: I love corn, sure.

Jesse: I don't eat it all that much because it's kind of empty calories. Sorry, corn producers.

Justin: What's your favorite fiesta event outside of Cornyation?

Jesse: This is tough because it's been so many years since I've been able to do any Fiesta events, but I like the Mercado. My family used to go there. My friends Mindy Hill and I will go on occasion alone. Actually, almost every year around Cornyation, that Wednesday of Cornyation, we'll usually make time to get under the Mercado, but King William Fair. Of course, I love King William Fair and that one I can actually do because I've recovered enough after the shows. I haven't done NIOSA in 18 years, 19 years.

Justin: What about Arts Fair?

Jesse: Sure, yes. The Fiesta Arts Fair is fantastic.

Justin: I think that's my favorite event.

Jesse: Well, that is normally the weekend before Cornyation. There's essentially no way I can go because it's usually I'm working on the script or hot gluing something with glitter and Styrofoam or whatever.

Justin: As Anchovy, you'll have to go hold court and go to all those things, won't you?

Jesse: I will. That's actually the benefit to me of being Anchovy, so I can finally do some Fiesta stuff.

Justin: Who would you like to see of all the San Antonio people get on stage at Cornyation one year?

Jesse: I mean, so most notable people, most politicians or what have you want to be on stage so it's not like you have to-- it's not like you have to work real hard to invite them, right? They'll find a way backstage. I don't know.

Justin: Hagi.

Jesse: Oh, Jesus no. It will be like me going into his temple, either way, it's going to smell like pork skins, that skin's going to boil. Who else would I like to see on stage? Popovich, I'd love to see Popovich on stage.

Justin: That's a good one.

Jesse: Did you freeze?

Justin: No. Can you hear me now?

Jesse: There you go.

Justin: No, Popovich is a good one. Popovich is on my wish list for my show, which I'm sure I'll never get him but I'm going to keep trying.

Jesse: We'll never get him either, it's all right. It's a pipe dream.

Justin: Okay,...