• Featured in this section is a story by Natasha Gutierrez about old Christmas traditions in Mexico, the San Luis Valley and Pueblo and the need to continue them.
• Jingle and Mingle — A new Christmas tradition where children receive treats and meet Santa Claus.
• Photos of Holiday activities in and around Pueblo including Art openings, and Salt Creek.
One Christmas Morning at a Time
By NATASHA GUTIERREZ, Guest Columnist
There is nothing like stepping into a hot kitchen during Christmas week, windows fogged up, music loud enough to shake the walls, and the smell of green chile greeting you before you even take off your coat.
Traditions shift, they even bend and often they get interrupted by life and distance. As a fourth generation Latina in the States, I feel traditions slipping before my eyes, but when I listen to the stories of others, something in me comes alive again. I’ve come to learn that heritage doesn’t just survive through memory it survives through sharing.
For many families the season begins with Las Posada (December 16-24). When I asked people about the traditions that shaped them, their memories came alive instantly. Montserratt Gonzalez, from Guadalajara, Mexico described her earliest memories, “In Mexico, seven days before Christmas, families and communities walk from house to house asking for a place to “rest,” just like Mary and Joseph before Jesus was born.
Every posada ends with prayer and someone offering hospitality, tamales, ponche, candy, even a pinata. Posada brings the community together whether you talk for religious beliefs or not. The holidays bring us all together, and that’s the most important.”
For others, traditions mean good food and wholesome memories that light up a heart, memories of magic, Santa and precious moments with family members.
Brian Pando, Pueblo, Colo. native, shared this experience, “Our family of 15 or more would make tamales two weeks before Christmas. We had a real fireplace, a real Christmas tree with tinsel. On Christmas Eve we’d have tamales and menudo, biscochitos, and empanadas. We’d go to midnight Mass, sing carols, and light up the house inside and out. Everything felt alive back then.”
To understand why tradition matters here, we step into San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, a place where cultural memory is still attached to the landscape.
In San Luis de la Culebra families would gather nine wooden stacks, one for each night leading to Christmas Eve. This was Los Lumineros, a uniquely Hispano tradition. At sunset families prayed, sang and lit the nightly fire. Elders guided prayers and the youth tended the flames. The fire symbolized the passion of light, resilience and faith from one generation to the next.
As I talked with Shirley Otero Romero, native to San Luis, I asked if she was familiar with El Abuelo, the sheepskin masked elder who playfully chased children with a symbolic chicote, encouraging them to pray, sing and to be one with the community. Shirley shared,“That tradition was lost years ago, girls weren’t allowed to participate, it was a male ritual and eventually, it disappeared.” But two traditions are still alive, thanks to a handful of determined community members who refuse to let them die.
Mis-Crismas! Waking up early in the morning ready to venture out into the cold with those who mean most to you. She compared it to Halloween, except it happened at dawn in the cold, snowy quiet of Christmas morning. “As kids, we’d grab pillowcases or empty flour sacks, often old cloth flour bags that were embroidered and we would go from house to house,” she said. “And always, there were hard candy, ribbon candy, apples, oranges, and peanuts. Sometimes pencils or erasers. We came home making out like bandits!” But this wasn’t just fun, this was community survival.
Today community leaders preserve tradition, Shirley said, “Growing up these were poor villages, No malls. No Amazon. Maybe a catalog if you were lucky. This tradition made Christmas happy for kids who might not have anything under the tree.” Most places stopped doing it long ago.
But one village, El Rito, still keeps it alive and that’s because of one family, Eufemia Barela and her daughter Bernadette Barela who open their home every Christmas morning, preparing bags of candy, fruit and small gifts so the children in their village can still experience the tradition. They lead the charge, they keep the tradition alive and they deserve praise, because community work is thankless sometimes, but they do it because there is a need.”
The second tradition she described as vibrant and deeply rooted. It’s called Dando Los Dias. “It’s like Christmas caroling,” she said, “but with old verses- Versos-sung the way our grandparents remembered.” Mariachis in San Luis travel house to house on New Year’s Day morning. They sing those long ancestral verses at the front door. People bring out coffee, empananditas, bizochitos, and a little something to warm the bones in the cold morning.” On this day everyone is happy to be home. “No one hides. It’s a community,” she said.” They end in the morning at the senior center where they serenade the elders and share a meal. It’s beautiful.”
Preserving traditions and sharing our stories is what helps us honor our identity. Ask questions, share stories and slow down long enough to be present to hear nuestros mayores tell us what life was like when they were young.
These traditions walking door to door singing versos at dawn, providing for one another are part of that strengths. They’re how our ancestors survived harsh winters, poverty and isolation. They’re how they built unity, helped each other and cared for the children in the village. It was culture and family all wrapped together. We’ve lost so much of that, and replaced it with the idea of “pull yourself up by your bootstramps,” well, some of us don’t have boots, therefore we don’t have straps.”
These traditions are love letters to share with future generations. They are generational strength and our cultural backbone. They are the antidote to push back on assimilation and erasure. They are still alive together because ordinary people like Eufemia and Berandette Barela, who choose to preserve them one Christmas morning at a time. If we don’t pass these traditions down, they die. But if we share them, teach them, and carry them on, they become a lifeline for the next generation.
Felices fiestas, de mi familia para la tuya.
Jingle & Mingle
By ROBERT CORDOVA
PUEBLO—The third annual Jingle and Mingle was held on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 at the Veterans Tavern. The day was filled with cheerful holiday spirit only Christmas brings to children
The lines outside of the event grew as did the anticipation on the faces of the children. As the door opened, each child’s eyes widened as Santa’s helpers gave out treats, custom bags, candy canes, and they met Santa for a photo.
After the portrait with Santa, the next stop was the station where each child received a beautiful new comforter for their bed. The last stop was a slice of pizza and a drink.
It was a day to remember and to thank the wonderful committee who volunteered their time, including Angel and Reann Garcia, Susan and Victor Durga, Andres Apodaca, Kristi Dalton, Marcelino, Sandra, and Joyce Martinez. Special Thanks to Lisa Arellano, Billy and Ronette Rampa, Salina and Bonnie Martinez, Troy Torrez, and the rest of the volunteers.
In 2023, the Jingle and Mingle event was created by Angel Garcia, Susan Durga, and Andres Apodaca as a kind gesture from Peggy Martinez, of Center, Colo. Peggy asked her son Angel if he would like to distribute comforters to the children in Pueblo. The organizers are all Pueblo Bikers involved in community events giving their precious time and money.
It starts with volunteers, sponsors, and, of course, the children who attend. Susan said she saw that many children go without presents during this time of the year when everything is so expensive. It is easy to see it becoming a major event with continued success. Andres is humbled and honored to help with this event. He understands the community is hurting.
Each of the event organizers said it starts with their volunteers, their sponsors, and of course the children who attend.
Angel, who owns a tire company, starts early with his collections in Alamosa for comforters. A salesman at heart, he challenges his vendors and companies to donate to the event and has remarkable success.
Angel said he is motivated by the memory of his late son Michael Suazo, who was tragically murdered in a drive by shooting in Pueblo in April of this year. In honor of their son, Angel and his wife Raeann raffled a PlayStation 5 donated by their mother. Angel, with tears in his eyes, told the young girl who won the PlayStation that Michael would be playing with her from heaven. According to Angel, Michael’s first birthday in heaven is Friday, Dec, 19.
The Jingle and Mingle family want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Celebrations honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe/Tonantzin Coatlaxupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe was honored at two events in Pueblo. The first was the opening of an exhibit at Colorado State University Pueblo’s Hoag Hall Gallery and the second at the Fulton Heights Community Center in Salt Creek.
Both honored Guadalupe as an indigenous deity known as Tonantzin Coatlaxupe. Both events were held Dec. 11, the day before the traditional Feast Day of Dec. 12.
The exhibit at CSUP features artwork by 17 artists from throughout Colorado. The works in this community exhibition explore the Virgen de Guadalupe from her ancient roots as the Indigenous Earth Mother goddess, Coatlicue, to her contemporary and popular manifestations as the Virgen de Guadalupe. The exhibition demonstrates her everyday presence and popularity while recognizing the communities and artists who have carried her forth across time and space.
This exhibition is co-curated by Instructor April Bojorquez and the students of ART/CS 415 – Exhibiting Chicanx/Latinx Art Course.
In addition to the two dozen exhibited original pieces, the opening program featured four danza groups: Grupo Xochitl, Danza Sangria Corazón de Jesús, Danza Rose de Tepeyac and La Nueva Danza Guadalupana.
The exhibit was produced by a Chicano Studies and Art Department class taught by Bojorquez, former of curator of National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, Albuquerque.
“We spent half the semester learning about art, museum practices, how to apply them to Latinx/Chicanx art,” said Bojorquez.
Meanwhile, at Fulton Heights…
In Salt Creek, the danza Grupo Chicomecoatl sponsored the festival that started with a meet and greet and dinner.
“We started with Ensayo Real/Danza Azteca and Velacion/Candlelight vigil,” said Martina Vega, one of the organizers. “We completed the evening with a limpia with roses we used for the Velacion — it was beautiful.”
A Velación a Tonantzin is a vibrant, community focused indigenous ceremony and celebration honoring Tonantzin —Our Mother Earth linked to the Virgin of Guadalupe through prayer, traditional art, dance and story telling.
Vega said that a local curandera came to do the lympia’s.
