It is Christmastime on the Northside, and the decorations are beginning to appear on houses and in yards.
People are hosting parties, and the carolers visit houses and facilities like the senior living centers around us. Highland United Neighborhoods Inc. has caroled at The Gardens at St. Elizabeth for several years.
Every ethnic group has ways of holding and passing on their cultural identity. Holidays are a common focus point because they are at the intersection of religion, family and foodways.
Christmas is one of the times of the year when many people decorate, gather with family and friends, and turn to their churches to celebrate the meaning of this Christian high holiday. This month’s column looks at some of the ways the Hispanic/Mexican-American/Chicano/Latino communities in North Denver celebrate the season.
One tradition that has been part of our holidays for years is Las Posadas. It was started by Father José Lara at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Lower Highland. Beginning on Dec. 16, members of the community walk through the neighborhood carrying luminarias and singing traditional Christmas carols.
I observed my first Las Posadas in 1997 as the group walked down West 32nd Avenue. By then, many of the participants attended St. Dominic Church, where the priest was Father José Sanisteven, a Puerto Rican who had come from serving the Mexican immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago. Part of St. Dominic’s new mission was to keep traditions alive for the Mexican parishioners, and so some of his flock participated in the event.
Each night they ended up at a different house where a family hosted them. They sang carols and finished the evening with food and a piñata for the children. On each night the children and adults answered questions about the meaning of the night.
The priest asked why they continued to carry on these traditions in a foreign country. One mother answered that it was so the children would be good Catholics. One father said that he wanted his children to remember their Mexican traditions, to value them, and to understand their importance.
Another universal tradition is to make favorite family recipes. One that stands out is tamales. They are not just something that the abuelas and tias create, but are a family affair. Mixing the masa, cooking the chiles and meat, and grating cheese are all tasks that children and adults alike take on.
Next comes the assembly line to pat or roll out the masa and then fill each round with ingredients before they are folded into corn husks. After the tamales are assembled, they are steamed in large pots.
Finally, it is time to eat. It is not enough to make a dozen or so. There must be enough tamales for the whole family and some friends as well. There is a lot of laughter and companionship that leavens the final product.
And of course, the season includes church and Christmas Eve and morning around the tree. It is all about the importance of family and upholding traditions. Feliz Navidad to you all.
Dr. Rebecca A. Hunt has been a resident of North Denver since 1993. She worked in museums and then taught museum studies and Colorado, Denver, women’s and immigration history at the University of Colorado Denver until she retired in 2020.
