Church Is at Heart of Holidays
PACOIMA — It doesn’t particularly look or feel like Christmas at the San Fernando Gardens housing project or anywhere else in the rundown neighborhood around Pacoima Elementary School.
The streets, lined with old cars and overfilled trash bins, are mostly empty by dark. The residents stay behind closeddoors in two-story apartment complexes marked with graffiti and enclosed by 7-foot-tall fences. Only a few windows display simple Christmas lights.
But at the Guardian Angel Parish, the church’s youth group gathered this week to spread the Christmas spirit with the season’s first posada, the traditional Mexican Christmas rite held on the nine nights leading up to Christmas Eve. Posadas turn a wandering reenactment of Joseph and Mary’s search for shelter in Bethlehem into a festive event, a Latino version of the strolling Christmas carolers of the English tradition.
The church has emerged as a bright light in the neighborhood for the youth who participate in its activities year-round.
“I love coming to church,†said Susan Tellez, a 17-year-old San Fernando High School senior. She was dressed in a white gown, gold halo and brown “coco†lipstick to play an angel in the procession. “It’s like a big, loving family here.â€
The church on Lehigh Avenue lies between the school and the sprawling project complex. Its parishioners come not only from the nearby complexes but also from all over Pacoima and nearby communities.
The church operates a school with about 150 students, in first through eighth grade. Church sessions, confirmation classes, dances and other activities fill the evenings.
The church leaders counsel the teens, some of whom have faced problems ranging from gangs and drugs to suicide, alcohol and abortion, said Dora Tobar, 19, a Mission College student and youth ministry leader.
About 100 youths are active in the church. But many have slipped through the cracks. Among them is a 16-year-old shot to death two weeks ago. He came to church occasionally but had never fully cut his ties to the violence in the streets.
“We want to make them understand that they are part of the community, part of the church and bring them close to the faith,†Tobar said.
During Christmas season, church members fill baskets with food and give them to the poorest of the congregation.
And Tuesday night, about 70 people--most of them young--arrived to kick off the posadas.
Typical teenagers for their time and place, the boys sported buzz-cut hair and the girls mascara. They sat listening to Tobar explain the tradition of the posadas.
“Who went asking for shelter?†Tobar asked.
Several seconds of silence later a boy shouted: “The people having the baby,†prompting giggles.
Outside, the crowd lined up behind Susan, Rosietere Ochoa, a 14-year-old North Hollywood High School freshman in a teal-blue gown playing Mary, and Manuel Barreras, 20, a Mission College student dressed as Joseph.
Manuel Estrada, 42, a truck driver, tuned the nylon strings of his beat-up guitar while the children lit small candles.
The posada started with a fast-tempo gospel tune called “Pastors, to Bethlehem†played in a Mexican folk-song style as the participants marched out the church’s driveway and squeezed into the projects through a side gate.
They moved slowly among the grayish-green buildings, their candles lighting the empty darkness. Few residents wandered outside. But two teenage girls sweeping their living room stopped and looked out the door while their mother watched the procession pass before her at the front door.
Three families from the congregation had volunteered their homes as stops for the posada--first it was Apartment 63. Joseph, Mary and the angel stood at the door, preparing to sing a traditional song.
They sang in Spanish: “In the name of heaven, we ask for shelter. For my wife that I love, cannot walk any longer.â€
The people in the house sang in response, as tradition requires: “This is not a hotel. Keep going forward. I should not open up. You may be a thief.â€
They proceeded on the lonely street to another home. The only other person outside was a teenage boy on a bicycle, who swerved to avoid the crowd.
Some at the back of the group used the gathering to socialize.
“My dad’s not happy at all. He just wants me to stay locked up in the room,†Sara Ochoa, 17, complained to a boy.
Two mischievous 6-year-olds, Jose and Jason, ran far ahead of the crowd, banging a stick on the ground and kicking trash cans. The reflecting strips on their running shoes revealed their direction.
Meanwhile, Tobar looked after the children who lagged behind.
“Mijo, what are you waiting for?†she said to one boy, using the Spanish contraction for “my son.â€
“Be careful with that candle.â€
At Apartment 376, Maria Corpus, 37, her husband, Teodoro Elenes, 60, and their five children were waiting. When the crowd arrived, they answered in song.
When the crowd left, they sat on an old couch and their house was quiet again. There was no Christmas tree, no visible presents. But participating in the posadas was their way of celebrating the holiday.
“It’s a very beautiful tradition from Mexico,†Corpus said.
Back at the church patio the youths and adults celebrated a successful posada with champurrado, a Mexican hot drink, and bunuelos, fried flour tortillas with sugar. The children took turns attacking a pinata until it gave up its contents.
Susan Tellez and Rosietere Ochoa had changed out of their costumes and were talking to boys by now.
“I didn’t think there would be a lot of people,†Rosietere reflected after her first posada.
The next day some of them would return for the second posada.
“It’s nice to see the community getting involved,†Rosietere said.
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