San Antonio Zulu Association/SAZA Comm. Inc.: Twelve African-American men organized the San Antonio Zulu Association in 1978. The men selected the name Zulu to acknowledge the contributions of the Zulu tribe in Africa. This tribe is known for its high standards, courage, and uncompromising principles.

The goal of the San Antonio Zulus is to assist the community and to form a social and benevolent organization.
Although the San Antonio Zulus are involved in many areas of the community, they are best known for "A Taste of New Orleans." They have also held a Juneteenth Festival in Camargo Park for the last 17 years.

Saza Comm. Inc. was incorporated in 1987.

Our Zulu Association membership now stands at thirty-four thoroughly dedicated volunteer. We both plan and host the "A Taste of New Orleans" for the SAZA Commission, which in turn provides philanthropic outreach throughout our community, and in some instances, beyond.

Historical Synopsis:

The San Antonio Zulu Association was formally organized and chartered by the State of Texas, in 1976 as a social, civic, non-for-profit, and benevolent organization.  there were ten founding members. In 1978, we chartered our organization with the State of Texas, with twelve signatories.  In 1979, we began what eventually became an annual family style picnic celebrating "Juneteenth" (Texas' announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865. We held these annual picnics at Carmargo Park (formerly Pablo's Grove), and garnered a rather faithful following, many from Kelly AFB who ordered stacks of our Bar-B-Q lunches to be delivered to their worksites. We also used these picnics as an opportunity to showcase youth groups performing dance, vocal, and other unique activities. We provide DJs and live music, and brought in amusements and a novelty vendor for the children. As the number of groups hosting Juneteenth activities increased, fragmentation caused a significant decrease in our attendance numbers making continuance it cost prohibitive. Thus, after 17 years of service, we elected to retire from this activity thereby allowing the other organizations to address this celebration more fully.

In 1982 we joined the Fiesta San Antonio Commission as a Participating Member Organization (PMO). We began at Rosedale Park in 1983, calling our event, "Fiesta West". We lost all of our club's investment in these first two years. We relocated, adopted a new theme, and changed our event name to "A Taste of New Orleans".  Since that time our event has risen to become one of the true jewels of Fiesta.