Casita Maria Fiesta Returns to Plaza for One Night Only

Photos and Article Lieba Nesis

On Tuesday October 11, 2022 guests gathered at the Plaza Hotel at 7:30 PM for the 88th annual Casita Maria Fiesta for the first time in two years. There are a couple of reasons this is one of my favorite galas of the year: the first being it’s all about having fun.  The extraordinary elegance of the attendees along with the meaningfulness of the charity, the magnificent venue, delicious food, diverse crowd, well priced $1,500 ticket, the late dinner hour of 8:30 PM and the over-the-top Bob Hardwick Sound band adds to the revelry and excitement.  Unfortunately, some of my favorite guests including Mary McFadden, Carlos Souza, Susan Gutfreund, Carolina Herrera, Pepe Fanjul, John Demsey, and Veronique Pittman were no-shows.

Making up for their absence were dynamic honorees Tony Bechara, Cesar Conde and Gaby Pacheco along with philanthropists Jean Shafiroff, Maria and Ken Fishel, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Mai Hallingby, Sharon Bush, Judy Giuliani, Carole Radziwill, Mary Snow, Kara Ross, Camilla Olsson, Peter Baconovic, David Hochberg, and Alex and Keyyt Lundqvist.  Chairman of the Board, Jacqueline Weld Drake, who puts her heart and soul into this charity spoke of the vital educational programs and after-school activities Casita provides to the over 40,000 youth, families, and Hispanic community members at its state-of-the-art facility located on Simpson Street in the Bronx.  She also dedicated the evening to devoted board member Anne Eisenhower who passed away in August 2022 at the early age of 73.  The Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education was a favorite of Anne’s with illustrious alumni including Tito Puente, Grandmaster Flash, and Salsa musician Benny Bonilla.

Arriving at the gala during the exhilarating cocktail hour my first interaction was with Fiesta chairman and renowned jewelry designer-Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia.  He scoffed at the mention of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and remarked that Markle had polluted Harry into believing he was a celebrity as opposed to a royal role model. Dimitri extolled Prince William for his grace and elegance and was even privileged enough to meet Wallis Simpson at Versailles when she joined his family for tea when he was 13. He remembered his grandmother referring to Wallis as “glamorous” which Dimitri noted was an insult for a supposed royal.  The definition of royalty, according to Dimitri, was always comporting oneself properly when on duty, a practice Harry has flouted as he continually airs his dirty laundry.

As guests headed to the third floor ballroom for dinner premier honoree Tony Bechara, a renowned painter and printmaker who studied at Georgetown Law and the Sorbonne and has been featured at the Whitney, Museo de Arte Puerto Rico and other esteemed institutions noted the uniqueness of this year’s gala celebrating the music and temperament of the Puerto Rican community by a pivotal organization that was founded more than 80 years ago by two Irish sisters.  Bechara is the paradigm of understated elegance with his luscious silver locks and impeccable attire. Unlike other delinquent dinner guests Bechara hasn’t missed this gala once in the past 25 years.

Casita Newbie, Cesar Conde, Chairman of NBC Universal News Group and the first Hispanic to lead a major English-language television news organization accepted his award in Spanish and reiterated his parents favorite aphorism, “the one thing people can’t take away is your education.” Casita uses this caveat to embolden its diverse student body which Cesar noted was a paradigm of character and integrity. Cesar has led NBC Universal to its status as the number one digital news organization in the world for the first time in history and recently launched the Fifty Percent Challenge Initiative, which aspires for its newsroom to be 50% women and 50% people of color.

Gaby Pacheco, a nationally recognized immigrant rights leader, was the last of the award recipients and commented approvingly on the perfect attire of attendees. A 3-minute request for money in an auction format helped the evening raise over half-a-million dollars as a delectable dinner of filet mignon and sea bass were served. The customary finale of enthusiastic dancing to the authentic Spanish music of Bob Hardwick Sound was better than ever. Guests proficient in Salsa busted some moves after a lengthy pandemic of isolation and misery. Leading the charge was Gabriel Florenz, co-founder of Pioneer Works-a nonprofit cultural center in Red Hook Brooklyn, who was joined by a bevy of black-tied men and glamorously gowned women.  The ability to fraternize with this diverse cultural group was the climax of an exceptionally multifaceted evening