San Antonio – When it comes to the colorful celebration that is Fiesta, one of the things that stands out is the absurd number of medals most people wear. The roots of these trinkets that feature any and every notion of Texan culture can be traced back to 1946, when simple coins were given away by King Antonio. Nearly 80 years later, it’s an obsession. “It’s become quite the craze within San Antonio,” said Charles Drago.
Charles’ family owns Monarch Trophy Studio and they’ve been a part of the Alamo City since 1972. “We are one of the largest award stores in the country,” said Charles.
One of their specialties is Fiesta medals. “Fiesta is obviously a huge celebration for everybody,” said Charles. “It’s a perfect fundraiser for everybody who are nonprofits, who are looking to raise some money and raise awareness for their different organizations. They saw a lot of success with raising money with these medals. There are some people that do medals just to trade, just for fun. But a lot of the collectors, they’re going out and they’re purchasing those medals that they’re looking to get.”
At Monarch, they are constantly creating these small, popular pieces of art. Despite the fact David Durbin has been doing it for over 20 years, he still doesn’t get it. “I don’t know,” said David. “I don’t know why it is such a big deal.”
While he may not totally understand the craze, he does enjoy creating a countless number of these creations. “I took it to a different level than just throwing somebody’s logo on there and putting the maraca on and there’s your Fiesta medal, and I started turning it into an art,” said David. “That’s all I think about. I just wonder when the word Fiesta’s not going to be in my head.”
That’s almost never. David comes up with hundreds of designs every year so it’s pretty much all he does. “I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, ‘Oh, I can do this,’” said David. “Because this year, it’s close to 300 designs that just I did, and they do them also over there. And so coming up with another design and another idea gets…”
“He spends most of his off-season racking his brain on ideas of how he’s going to continue to be creative for Fiesta,” explained Charles. “It’s like being a musical artist who’s looking to put out hit song after hit song, and he’s like, ‘Eventually I’m going to run out of songs to put out. I can’t just keep coming out with original content.’”
David is the George Strait of Fiesta medals, and everything he creates is coveted. “Last year, my personal medal got best, NIOSA got second, and then Battle of Flowers got honorable mention,” said David. “So I can still do it.”
David’s streak of creating the finest of Fiesta medals has earned him some fame around the Alamo City. “He’s definitely a bit a celebrity in town,” said Charles. “We’ve always been very fortunate to have some of the best artists in San Antonio draw on our medals.”
David’s 2023 medal is extremely popular and can be found on websites for as much as $50 to $100 a pop. The devotion people have to these doodads is something I got to personally experience during our 2023 meet and greet with our friends from Toyota at Fiesta Fiesta. We came here last year completely unprepared with no medals, and I got scolded. Fortunately for us, David came up with an incredible solution. “All right, and here it is,” Said David. “The 2024 Texas Bucket List Fiesta Medal. Now you are official.”
That is fantastic. Well, this year we’ll be ready. The excitement David sees in people’s faces does bring him joy and this year, David accomplished something really special by designing the official Fiesta poster. “Finally, I did it,” said David. “I was leaving Battle of Flowers. When it’s done, everybody’s just gone. But the street is just … Everything in the streets. Well, there’s confetti everywhere, the big tissue paper kind of confetti. I’m walking along, I’m like, ‘Confetti. There’s got to be something I can do with this confetti.’ So, I wanted her to be whipping up that dress and that dress is just falling apart to confetti over the city and bringing that party.”
His poster won the contest, and his work is now the official poster of the 2024 Fiesta. Despite years of making medals for the masses, this honor means the most to David. “You know I’ve won awards for all these medals, but medals are tossed,” said David. “Who’s going to remember what won last year? These posters are very important in this city, and they live on. In this whole Fiesta series, there’s my poster, will always live on and that’s what… It’s like, that’s cool. I’m a part of that Fiesta.”