Mexican heritage practiced in La Posada celebrations
by Connie Yu, Managing Editor

    When Violeta Rocha thinks about Christmas, turkey, eggnog and shopping at Macy’s are not the first things that come to mind, but tamales, piñatas and a nine-day celebration from which people take to the streets dazzling with candle lights and knock on strangers’ doors for all-night parties.
    But more importantly, La Posada, a Mexican tradition of Christmas celebration, is about a pilgrimage that symbolizes endurance, gratitude and hope of good fortune—as portrayed in the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
   “It’s like nine days of sacrifice,” the NE Campus student said. “It’s very important for the Catholic faith, and the most important thing is when Jesus was born.”
   Originally a festivity for the birth of an Aztec god, Huizilopochtli, La Posada was transformed by Catholic missionaries in Mexico as a way to relate Christian teachings to the Indians after the conquistadors’ arrival in the 1500s.
   Since then, Catholics in Mexico have upheld this tradition each year with processions that reenact Joseph and Mary’s quest to Bethlehem in anticipation of Christ’s birth for nine days leading up to a midnight mass on Christmas day.
   Each day after dark, patrons join the candlelight procession led by children holding mangers of Joseph and Mary to find a shelter for the night. In accord with the Biblical account of Joseph and Mary’s journey, the procession meets two rejections before arriving at the designated house where the festivity takes place.
   Patrons then sing songs requesting shelter and eventually are welcomed in for a celebration by the host. They kneel in prayers and recite the rosary, and with offerings of sweet breads, candies, hot chocolate and ponche, a traditional hot fruit punch, the party begins.
   While practices of the posada have varied with a mix of local flavors and the extravagance of the time, some customs date back centuries.    The party’s typical finale, breaking of a piñata for good luck, for example, was brought about by the 16th century European priests.
   Over time, La Posada also has carried on new meanings.
   With more and more Mexicans migrating to the United States, La Posada has become a preservation and embracing of Mexican cultures in a land cultivated with ethnicities from all over the world.
   To Rocha, an immigrant to Texas from Mexico City six years ago, it reminds her of home.
   “When I moved here, I didn’t know a lot of people,” she said.
   But one year Rocha, who described herself as a bit shy, discovered La Posada when she and her mother heard sounds of singing on the street in Grapevine.
   “We just walked out and joined them and sang songs,” she said with a grin. “I didn’t even know who was doing it.”
   She joined the Dallas Cathedral two years ago and has celebrated La Posada each Christmas since.
   The event has come to symbolize the importance of togetherness.
    “In my family, Christmas for children is that they are going to have presents,” she said. “But as I grow older, it’s more that everybody is getting together, and we are going to have a good time in the family.”
    Nevertheless, amid the mainstream traditions of America such as Santa Claus and turkey dinner, it is not as easy to commit to the Posada traditions here.
   The youth group from the Dallas Cathedral that organizes Rocha’s Posadas, Defensores de la fe, used to have only one Posada each year, Carmen Cerrillo, the event organizer this year, said.
   This year the group finally plans to have nine processions, but it will stretch them out to about one procession a week starting from the end of November.
   “We’re starting early because everyone is going to get out of town or be with their own family [during Christmas],” Cerrillo said.
   But that does not stop people like Rocha from tracing their Mexican Catholic roots this time of the year.
   At Aurora Padron’s Dallas residence a week ago, Rocha and the group celebrated their first La Posada of the season.
   By the living room pictures of Padron’s daughters hugging Santa Claus, the group, gathered on their knees, recited the rosary in Spanish as Padron, a Mexican immigrant for 10 years, worked fervently to finish the last touches of her feast of traditional deserts and drinks. Waiting on the side, restless youngsters played with confetti papers in anticipation of the festivities to come.   
   As the adults commemorated the meanings of La Posada, its tradition was passed down to another generation.
   “It made her feel closer to Mexico and all of its traditions,” Rocha said, translating for Padron, who most enjoyed playing host and welcoming the holiday pilgrims with warm gratitude and even warmer food.