Christmas in Macondo
Dec. 25th, 2010 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purejuiceFrom the Macondo Manana [TILDE!!!!], the tale of the posada in a 700-member penitente community.
LAS POSADAS IN PEÑA BLANCA
Community Spirit Comes Alive
Rural New Mexico Town Rekindles an Old Christmas Tradition
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
PEÑA BLANCA — A small but avid Penitente community here tried something new for Christmas this year.
The brotherhood hosted the first observance of Las Posadas that anyone can remember in this Rio Grande town of fewer than 700.
Henry Dominguez, one of five hermanos here, stood in front of a hand-carved altar of unknown age and welcomed about two dozen people gathered inside a tiny morada, or Penitente chapel. “I’m glad everyone’s here,” he told them. “Amen.”
Several people with a donkey in tow trekked about a half mile through a snowstorm to celebrate Las Posadas, a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph searching for an inn in Bethlehem.
“This is the first year we’ve hosted a Posada,” Dominguez, 38, said later as he and others shared a meal of posole, cheese and sausages, and hot chocolate in the morada’s stovewarmed kitchen.
The penitentes are a Catholic brotherhood, a movement dating to a time when priests were scarce in rural New Mexico. The key dates in the Penitente calendar are Easter, Good Friday and the Oct. 4 feast day of St. Francis, when events are observed at the morada, Dominguez said. “This is the first time we’ve held anything Christmasy here.”
Sylvester, the snow-covered donkey, brayed loudly outside the front door, displeased at being excluded from the food and festivities inside.
This year, local Catholics decided to revive the ancient tradition and hold Las Posadas each night from Dec. 16 through Christmas Eve. Why the sudden interest in Las Posadas this year?
Laura Tena, who is sitting nearby, thinks she has an answer. An influx of Mexican immigrants, such as herself, have moved to Peña Blanca in recent years, infusing the community with a new spirituality and an interest in traditional Catholic practices.
“I always went to Posadas in Mexico,” said Tena, 34, who has lived in Peña Blanca for 15 years. “It was so nice.” Several of the families participating in Las Posadas tonight are Mexican immigrants. In Mexico, someone said, Las Posadas were the one time of year poor kids could rely on getting candy.
Tena, religious education coordinator for Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, said the influx of immigrants also accounts for a revival of Spanish language Mass in the parish.
Dominguez, a lifelong resident of Peña Blanca, disagrees. Catholic devotion, like Spanish language Mass, has always been practiced here, he said. “The faith has always been strong here,” he said.
But Dominguez acknowledges the possibility that faith has diminished among some New Mexico-born Hispanics. “Everybody wants to do their own thing nowadays.”
Mexican immigrants find Peña Blanca attractive for a variety of reasons, Tena said.
“It’s a nice, warm, welcoming place,” she said of the town. “They help us. They’re not racist like in other towns.”
The rural, agricultural nature of Peña Blanca is familiar and appealing to Mexicans. “It’s like Mexico,” she said. “It’s rural, like we knew in Mexico.”
Mexicans also share a faith with native New Mexicans that in most ways resembles the Catholicism they practiced in Mexico.
“We’ve embraced it,” Dominguez said of the immigrant community. “The Catholic faith that we all grew up with brings us together. The church is the glue that holds us together.”
The heart of Peña Blanca is Our Lady of Guadalupe, a parish church next to State Road 22, the town’s main street.
A rectory next to the church was built in the first decade of the 20th century to house about 10 Franciscan priests who ministered to New Mexico churches, many of which no longer exist, said the Rev. Wayne Gibbeaut, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Today, only Gibbeaut and one other priest rattle around the enormous structure, with its 15-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and thick adobe walls. A sign near the front door reads: “Ring bell once. Please be patient. This is a big building.”
“It’s a pain in the neck to heat,” Gibbeaut said of the rectory. The priests keep most of the rooms closed to give the boiler in the basement a fighting chance.
Gibbeaut has served 10 years in Peña Blanca, which in 2000 had a population of 661, of whom about 80 percent were Hispanic. Peña Blanca is sandwiched between pueblo lands. Gibbeaut pastors a crazy-quilt parish with five mission churches, including one each at Santo Domingo, Cochiti and San Felipe pueblos. Two others are tiny Hispanic missions at Sile and La Bajada.
Estimating the number of Mexican immigrants here is difficult, Gibbeaut said. “We don’t know, because we don’t know how many people live in each house,” he said. “When they come from Mexico, they may live two or three families to a house.”
Local employers are scarce. People of working age either move away or commute to jobs in Albuquerque or Santa Fe, Gibbeaut said.
Agriculture has diminished as a livelihood. “A number of families here have lots of land, but they’re getting older and the kids have moved away to get work,” he said.
But during the holidays, the town becomes a destination for people who grew up in Peña Blanca and still have family here. Some natives move back to the town when circumstances allow.
“I got tired of city life,” said Kenny Quintana, 55, a commercial printer who worked in Albuquerque for 20 years. He and his wife, Dee Ann Quintana, returned to Peña Blanca in 1995.
“I was raising a son at that time and I wanted him to grow up in an environment that was more controllable — more like the way I grew up,” he said. Kids are free to wander because trustworthy adults keep an eye on them, Quintana said.
“You can leave your keys in your Regal outside and not worry about it,” he said.
Quintana was named a majordomo of the church Dec. 11, the vespers of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast day begins the next day. The feast celebrates the Mexican peasant Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary in 1531.
Many consider the feast day the official start of Christmas celebrations here. “Most people don’t start decorating until after the fiesta,” Dee Ann Quintana said.
The vespers features a Mass and procession that draws hundreds to Peña Blanca.
The Rev. Ramon Aragon, 86, a Peña Blanca native and resident, told parishioners that he had made a decision to become a priest years ago on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so moved was he by Juan Diego’s story.
“I always said that I would not be caught dead wearing those funny dresses that priests wear,” Aragon said during his Saturday night sermon.
After the hourlong Mass, four girls emerge from the church carrying a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a platform followed by a procession of several hundred parishioners.
The bang and hiss of fireworks begins as the procession rounds the church graveyard and turns south on N.M. 22. Men ring two big church bells salvaged from a 108-year-old adobe church that collapsed in 1986. The bells were installed in the facade of the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which was finished in 1994 on the site of the old church.
The procession route is lined with American flags and about 40 fuel-soaked bonfires, which are lit shortly before Mass ends. A man with a fuel can patrols the route, dousing luminarias that aren’t burning with the appropriate ferocity. An hour after the procession has ended, groups remain talking around the fires.
“For us this is a prayerful time,” Patrice Harrison-Inglis said as she slipped way from Las Posadas last week. The traditional events signify the true meaning of the season, she said. “No Santa Claus. No Christmas trees. It’s about the coming of the Messiah.”
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Abraham Saenz, 13, as Joseph, and Mirka Tena, 10, as Mary, on Sylvester the donkey. They walk with José Juarez on the fifth night of Las Posadas in Peña Blanca.
JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents arrive at a Penitente morada, or chapel, after walking about half a mile in a snowstorm on the first night of Las Posadas, a ceremonial re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. Peña Blanca decided to stage Las Posadas this year each night from Dec. 16 until Christmas Eve.
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents sing outside Virginia Ortiz’s house during one night of this year’s Las Posadas.
JOURNAL
JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL
Parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Peña Blanca return to the church during a vespers procession celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day Dec. 12.
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents enjoy snacks at the home of Virginia Ortiz on the fifth night of Las Posada. Ortiz said Catholics in Peña Blanca have not observed Las Posadas in the past but adopted the practice this year as a way of bringing together Mexican immigrants and longtime New Mexico residents.
LAS POSADAS IN PEÑA BLANCA
Community Spirit Comes Alive
Rural New Mexico Town Rekindles an Old Christmas Tradition
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
PEÑA BLANCA — A small but avid Penitente community here tried something new for Christmas this year.
The brotherhood hosted the first observance of Las Posadas that anyone can remember in this Rio Grande town of fewer than 700.
Henry Dominguez, one of five hermanos here, stood in front of a hand-carved altar of unknown age and welcomed about two dozen people gathered inside a tiny morada, or Penitente chapel. “I’m glad everyone’s here,” he told them. “Amen.”
Several people with a donkey in tow trekked about a half mile through a snowstorm to celebrate Las Posadas, a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph searching for an inn in Bethlehem.
“This is the first year we’ve hosted a Posada,” Dominguez, 38, said later as he and others shared a meal of posole, cheese and sausages, and hot chocolate in the morada’s stovewarmed kitchen.
The penitentes are a Catholic brotherhood, a movement dating to a time when priests were scarce in rural New Mexico. The key dates in the Penitente calendar are Easter, Good Friday and the Oct. 4 feast day of St. Francis, when events are observed at the morada, Dominguez said. “This is the first time we’ve held anything Christmasy here.”
Sylvester, the snow-covered donkey, brayed loudly outside the front door, displeased at being excluded from the food and festivities inside.
This year, local Catholics decided to revive the ancient tradition and hold Las Posadas each night from Dec. 16 through Christmas Eve. Why the sudden interest in Las Posadas this year?
Laura Tena, who is sitting nearby, thinks she has an answer. An influx of Mexican immigrants, such as herself, have moved to Peña Blanca in recent years, infusing the community with a new spirituality and an interest in traditional Catholic practices.
“I always went to Posadas in Mexico,” said Tena, 34, who has lived in Peña Blanca for 15 years. “It was so nice.” Several of the families participating in Las Posadas tonight are Mexican immigrants. In Mexico, someone said, Las Posadas were the one time of year poor kids could rely on getting candy.
Tena, religious education coordinator for Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, said the influx of immigrants also accounts for a revival of Spanish language Mass in the parish.
Dominguez, a lifelong resident of Peña Blanca, disagrees. Catholic devotion, like Spanish language Mass, has always been practiced here, he said. “The faith has always been strong here,” he said.
But Dominguez acknowledges the possibility that faith has diminished among some New Mexico-born Hispanics. “Everybody wants to do their own thing nowadays.”
Mexican immigrants find Peña Blanca attractive for a variety of reasons, Tena said.
“It’s a nice, warm, welcoming place,” she said of the town. “They help us. They’re not racist like in other towns.”
The rural, agricultural nature of Peña Blanca is familiar and appealing to Mexicans. “It’s like Mexico,” she said. “It’s rural, like we knew in Mexico.”
Mexicans also share a faith with native New Mexicans that in most ways resembles the Catholicism they practiced in Mexico.
“We’ve embraced it,” Dominguez said of the immigrant community. “The Catholic faith that we all grew up with brings us together. The church is the glue that holds us together.”
The heart of Peña Blanca is Our Lady of Guadalupe, a parish church next to State Road 22, the town’s main street.
A rectory next to the church was built in the first decade of the 20th century to house about 10 Franciscan priests who ministered to New Mexico churches, many of which no longer exist, said the Rev. Wayne Gibbeaut, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Today, only Gibbeaut and one other priest rattle around the enormous structure, with its 15-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and thick adobe walls. A sign near the front door reads: “Ring bell once. Please be patient. This is a big building.”
“It’s a pain in the neck to heat,” Gibbeaut said of the rectory. The priests keep most of the rooms closed to give the boiler in the basement a fighting chance.
Gibbeaut has served 10 years in Peña Blanca, which in 2000 had a population of 661, of whom about 80 percent were Hispanic. Peña Blanca is sandwiched between pueblo lands. Gibbeaut pastors a crazy-quilt parish with five mission churches, including one each at Santo Domingo, Cochiti and San Felipe pueblos. Two others are tiny Hispanic missions at Sile and La Bajada.
Estimating the number of Mexican immigrants here is difficult, Gibbeaut said. “We don’t know, because we don’t know how many people live in each house,” he said. “When they come from Mexico, they may live two or three families to a house.”
Local employers are scarce. People of working age either move away or commute to jobs in Albuquerque or Santa Fe, Gibbeaut said.
Agriculture has diminished as a livelihood. “A number of families here have lots of land, but they’re getting older and the kids have moved away to get work,” he said.
But during the holidays, the town becomes a destination for people who grew up in Peña Blanca and still have family here. Some natives move back to the town when circumstances allow.
“I got tired of city life,” said Kenny Quintana, 55, a commercial printer who worked in Albuquerque for 20 years. He and his wife, Dee Ann Quintana, returned to Peña Blanca in 1995.
“I was raising a son at that time and I wanted him to grow up in an environment that was more controllable — more like the way I grew up,” he said. Kids are free to wander because trustworthy adults keep an eye on them, Quintana said.
“You can leave your keys in your Regal outside and not worry about it,” he said.
Quintana was named a majordomo of the church Dec. 11, the vespers of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast day begins the next day. The feast celebrates the Mexican peasant Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary in 1531.
Many consider the feast day the official start of Christmas celebrations here. “Most people don’t start decorating until after the fiesta,” Dee Ann Quintana said.
The vespers features a Mass and procession that draws hundreds to Peña Blanca.
The Rev. Ramon Aragon, 86, a Peña Blanca native and resident, told parishioners that he had made a decision to become a priest years ago on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so moved was he by Juan Diego’s story.
“I always said that I would not be caught dead wearing those funny dresses that priests wear,” Aragon said during his Saturday night sermon.
After the hourlong Mass, four girls emerge from the church carrying a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a platform followed by a procession of several hundred parishioners.
The bang and hiss of fireworks begins as the procession rounds the church graveyard and turns south on N.M. 22. Men ring two big church bells salvaged from a 108-year-old adobe church that collapsed in 1986. The bells were installed in the facade of the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which was finished in 1994 on the site of the old church.
The procession route is lined with American flags and about 40 fuel-soaked bonfires, which are lit shortly before Mass ends. A man with a fuel can patrols the route, dousing luminarias that aren’t burning with the appropriate ferocity. An hour after the procession has ended, groups remain talking around the fires.
“For us this is a prayerful time,” Patrice Harrison-Inglis said as she slipped way from Las Posadas last week. The traditional events signify the true meaning of the season, she said. “No Santa Claus. No Christmas trees. It’s about the coming of the Messiah.”
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Abraham Saenz, 13, as Joseph, and Mirka Tena, 10, as Mary, on Sylvester the donkey. They walk with José Juarez on the fifth night of Las Posadas in Peña Blanca.
JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents arrive at a Penitente morada, or chapel, after walking about half a mile in a snowstorm on the first night of Las Posadas, a ceremonial re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. Peña Blanca decided to stage Las Posadas this year each night from Dec. 16 until Christmas Eve.
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents sing outside Virginia Ortiz’s house during one night of this year’s Las Posadas.
JOURNAL
JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL
Parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Peña Blanca return to the church during a vespers procession celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day Dec. 12.
MORGAN PETROSKI/JOURNAL
Peña Blanca residents enjoy snacks at the home of Virginia Ortiz on the fifth night of Las Posada. Ortiz said Catholics in Peña Blanca have not observed Las Posadas in the past but adopted the practice this year as a way of bringing together Mexican immigrants and longtime New Mexico residents.
