Las Posadas Close to Home

In my neighborhood and all around the world, Las posadas has been a long time tradition that is
celebrated for many years during the Christmas season. Las Posadas has been a long time
Christmas ritual since 1538 when Spanish missionaries from Mexico brought Roman Catholicism to the new continent. San Ignacio de Loyola created the custom of Las Posadas to teach the
story of Mary and Joseph. Posada means to lodge or shelter coming from the word “Posar”. In
this story, Mary and Joseph travel a journey from Narazeth to Bethlehem in search for shelter.
Each stop they made, they were refused of shelter until they finally found a barn where she
later gave birth to baby Jesus. A bright star shines brightly in the dark night sky signaling the
Three Wise Men that baby Jesus is finally born. They bring along gifts for baby Jesus to the
barn where he was born in celebration of his birth.
As a child, my family and I celebrated the Christmas like most families with food, presents,
music, and a lighted Christmas tree surrounded with family we love. Not only was Christmas a
celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, my grandmother would love to tell the story to my little cousins who barely knew what the story of “las posadas was. Every year since I can remember,
my church has always done a re-enactment of “Las Posadas“. I have never seen how our church carries out this wonderful Christmas tradition and was anxious to see that for myself. I wanted to
learn more about how the event is organized and wanted to experience the tradition of “Las
Posadas” in my own neighborhood.
I recently spoke with an older woman name Mrs. Moreno who has organized “las Posadas” for
many years for our church and is planning on doing the Christmas ritual for this Christmas
event to come. One of the first things she says is that she needs to find her volunteers who
would like to participate in this years event. A few weeks before the event takes place,
neighbors in area are asked if they can use their home for “Las Posadas”. At the most three
homes can participate within the area for the re-enactment. Second, Ms. Moreno finds more
volunteers as the ones who will dress up as Mary and Joseph. She says there is about 9
volunteers mostly children who dress up including one as the angel San Gabriel who will be the
first person walking in front of the crowd. The remaining will dress as little angels. There is an
option on whether baby Jesus can be carried wrapped in a blanket or baby Jesus can be carried
in a manger of hay. Those who follow towards the end sing a variety of different songs of “las
Posadas” one including “Estrella de Belen”. The group will walk down some streets carrying
lighted candles until they reach the first house and ask for posada in a song. The family will sing
it back in a song refusing them shelter, but that same family will also walk along with the group
down the streets of our neighborhood to the next house. As they approach the next house, they
sing a song asking for posada and once again. The family will refuse to give them posada and sing back to them rejecting their request. Finally as the group approaches the last house, the group
will sing the song again for the third time asking for posada. The family inside sing back and
accepts them to lay baby Jesus in their home. Once baby Jesus is laid in their home, everyone
who was involved in “las Posadas” celebrated at the family’s home with a party.
Everyone meets at their home where lots of food is served such as the traditional tamales,
bunuelos, candy, and much more. There is also a pinata for the children with lots of treats inside
for them to enjoy.
Mrs. Moreno has been the main organizer for the St. Lawrence church for many years and each
year it gets more exciting for the family and friends of the community. She along with other
family members volunteer to provide the decorative candles for everyone. The parents of the
children can decorate the angel gowns for their children in any way they like as long as it looks
similar to the other children.
I have interviewed one of the family members parents Martha Mendoza who comes every year
to sing the carols and says that she enjoys it very much. Every year she says more and more
people get involved to participate in the Christmas event. Many enjoy very much that they bring
along more family and friends for the fun. Mrs. Mendoza says she and her family made it a tradition to come out every year to take part during the holiday season and she looks forward to coming again along with her family. I interviewed the Garcia family who has taken part in “las
posadas” who used their home in past posadas, says they were very blessed to be
asked if their home could be used for the posadas. The Garcia Family have two children one six
and the other ten who enjoy the Christmas tradition as well. They find it more exciting than
sitting at home watching television. They also said that participating in las posadas brings them
closer than before and made it a family event for the season.
After I have interviewed Mrs. Moreno, Martha Mendoza, and the Garcia Family, I feel that I
have learned and gained more than what I had already known about the story of las posadas. I
am looking forward to participating in las posadas this year by taking part in singing the carols
with everyone. I also feel that it was not only a tradition being celebrated every year but also a
time for spending quality time with our loved ones. 1001 words

Songs of the Homeland

In class we all watched a video about how conjunto music came about back in the cotton harvest days where Mexicans were called “vaqueros” or “Rancheros” and other names as Mexicans, Tejanos or Mexican Americans just to name a few. In South Texas, ranching to them was their way of life including cattle, windmills, and water. It basically began with singing in the fields and the poor harvest people were their audience. Conjunto music became popular to the people who harvest and it spread out to everyone. The 12 string guitar called the vajocesto was introduced as well the heart of the conjunto music the “accordian” in which has a unique sound that brings this type of music to life. San Antonio is the capitol of conjunto music today Valero Longoria to Flaco Jimenez were one the most well known conjunto artists in conjunto music history. Conjunto music of course is played everywhere at weddings, Baptists, and all sorts of gatherings. Conjunto music can be played about almost anything such as relationships, beer drinking, tear drinking, hope, love, and loss. I gained more watching the short video even putting together what I know and it made learning about conjunto music easier to understand the roots.

McNay Art Museum- The Tree

The McNay Art Museum- The Tree

I recently made a visit to the McNay Art Museum to take a look at some pieces of art. The one piece of art that struck my attention was a painting done by Piet Mondrian called “The Tree” 1908. The color struck my attention and the leaves had multiple of dark different colors and shades not vibrant more of grays and green. It had a flattening effect of evening light and had dim outlines. The background was dark but the colors of the leaves especially the few light yellow colors brought it to life. I made a comparison with his other painting and they all seem dark and gloomy slightly different from the others. The texture appeared to be smooth, it had depth and balance. The tree was right in the center and there wasn’t anything else around it for it to not have any kind of balance. The painting kind of gave it a small theme to it. It could be the change in seasons and the days are shorter gave it an emotional almost depressing theme in my opinion. Piet Mondrian loved to paint trees and had a quite a collection but most were used with the same colors in this period as well.

Losing Ground

In the San Antonio Express News “Losing Ground” series talked about developmental issues regarding vested rights. These huge developers come to San Antonio wanting to build here over the Edwards aquifer. The bad part about that is putting the aquifer at risk of possible contamination or some damage may occur if it goes as they plan. There is an organization that help protect the aquifer called AQUA and they also have an ordinance that was made back in 1995. With these vested rights laws many people are opposed of these laws while developers wouldn’t have to lift a finger and not have to go through the process of visiting city council to get an approval to see if developments can be built or not. I have learned how some of these old laws can be re-written by some sneaky developers and use them as their own which creates a big problem for them and the city.
I think it is important for the people of San Antonio and all surrounding areas to get involved in what is being developed here. It is important to know if any of these developments going to affect our neighborhoods. I don’t really like the idea about clearing up a whole bunch of trees and brushes for a development that will affect our aquifer. There are way to many developments that are being built here and I feel like our city is over crowed with a whole bunch of them. Another reason why I disagree with some of these developers are when they decide to make a development in large areas cleared from trees and brushes for tiny developments. I feel as these developers are a bit shady because of course big money is involved but they don’t realize the damage they are causing to the aquifer and to the environment. Most of the time it can interfere with neighborhoods such as contamination being involved depending on what will be developed in that area. Some developers don’t preserve any trees at all and are better off clearing them out completely. We should try to keep ourselves informed about what is being developed in around our area. I feel that we all shouldn’t let an issue like this pass us by without getting ourselves involved more and. There are some damage that has been made already in our city and the continuation of developments seem to continue to expand more and more over time.

THE PUSH-OVER PLANS FOR SA
Elizabeth Earnly of the AGUA association made a visit to our class discussing different issues regarding developments being built over the Edwards’ Aquifer which may cause contamination to our Edwards Aquifer. Elizabeth also explained about how most of these developers want to bring their developments here to San Antonio which could bring employment, business, or homes to be built. Earnly also talked about a process that SAWS has to do before making any final decisions weather building in certain areas that can affect the recharge zone. There were also some pictures of an area of business that she displayed in her presentation where developers built possibly on a flood plain that seemed to have been sinking in. It pretty much gave me a clear picture of what we all were discussing in class. Finally, Miss Elizabeth Earnly had us set up in groups following an exercise for each to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different plans to be built in San Antonio. Each group had talked about their ideas and what conditions that should be met before any development is made. I learned a great deal with the discussions about the recharge zone developments and so forth. It also made me realize how more people should get involved sharing ideas and interest for the city of San Antonio.

Remembering the Alamo


I recently watched two movies about the Alamo which are the 1960s old western movie “The Alamo,” starring John Wayne and the 2004 movie starring Billy Bob Thornton. Both of these movies were very enjoyable to watch and quite humorous as they bring the history of the Alamo to life in both movies.
The first movie that I watched was the 1960’s version of the Alamo. In this movie, there was of course the Tejanos and the Anglos roaming the town of the Alamo caring on themselves.
As of course, the Anglos on the other hand seem to be the tough, strong, wise men that can never be pushed around. The majority of the time I only kept seeing the Anglos taking charge of the Alamo. Travis (strict and demanding colonel) seeks for volunteers to help fight against the ruthless dictator Santa Ana and eventually no help was found. Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie volunteered to help out Travis in the war against Santa Ana along with his enormous army. Many of the families fled and had to take cover for what was about to occur leaving behind their husbands. The Alamo were completely out numbered as Santa Ana’s army stretched out for miles completely surrounding the Alamo with little hope of victory. Finally, men of the Alamo fought until their last breathe to defend the Alamo as everyone’s life was taken and Santa Ana receives his victory. In this movie, not much was discussed about the Mexicans and the Tejanos. It basically went straight to the main events of what occurred in the history of the Alamo.
The second movie that I recently watched was the 2004 version of “The Alamo”. I think in this movie there wasn’t such a big focus on the Anglos although they were the main ones that appear the most in this movie. All the Tejanos live a poorly life but turn to their religion for guidance. The main events do run the same as the first movie including Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie bringing along their men to defend the Alamo as well as the rest who lived there to help. The men fought courageously with the tiny army they had and yet they still put their lives at risk even having the chance to leave with their families. After the Alamo was completely done with, Houston heard about the fall of the Alamo and revenge took place. In the movie it has been said that it took under 18 minutes for Houston and his men to take them down. Houston was able to get Texas back from Santa Ana and Seguin kept his promise to go back to the Alamo to bury the remains of many as it was shown in the 04 version of the Alamo. The first movie ended where there was only a few survivors and left the Alamo, but never showed anything about Houston.
I truly believe both movies are really great to see, most of all the 04 version of the Alamo was a lot better than the 1960’s version. The 04 version was very graphic and detailed about the history of the Alamo. Yet the 04 Alamo didn’t get quite into the details about Tejanos , Mexicans in general. There wasn’t a big focus on that as was talked about in the articles of “Under the Texas flag” or “Inherit The Alamo”. Over all the movies are both really good and gave me a good enough picture of the history of the one and only Texas Alamo. 596.

The Alamo


This past Saturday my classmates and I met up downtown to visit the Texas Alamo. The temperature felt very warm for a late morning and comfortable enough learn more about the Alamo. We all took a visit with Dr. Winders and he told us the different versions of what he has heard took place during the time of the Alamo as we walked around.
The site I found very interesting when we all entered the exhibit and found many different artifacts such as coins, buttons, swords, their wardrobe, pottery and books to name a few. Each of the set or sets has a paragraph talking about it. Inside the exhibit I enjoyed the paintings that tell different events of what happened during the Alamo. It gave it a much better picture of how the people lived before. For example: “The Army Hospital of 1806”. The painting showed a family making a visit to see a doctor and a few men in uniform. The painting looked very life like as if you actually looked out the window and stood in their shoes. I tried to imagine how the Alamo looked eliminating all the large buildings of today. It made it very easy for me to get a clear picture of the surroundings of the Alamo and the story of what took place. My visit to the Alamo was a very great learning experience for me reading from the many different articles and books to watching films about the Alamo. After visiting the Alamo, it made my learning experience complete.