Est\u00e1 padre<\/em>\u201d \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s cool\u201d \u2014 said Patricia Gonz\u00e1lez, from Mexico City, as she watched her daughters at the gathering at Kala\u2019s, recalling her own memories of going out to posadas as a young girl. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the beauty of our culture, the unity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nBy her side sat Connie Cirka, from Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, who was attending her first posada that night thanks to the invitation from De la Cruz, who has been Cirka\u2019s hairdresser, and friend, for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
The pre-Christmas tradition in Colombia, called the novena, is slightly different, she said, but similar enough to the posadas that they recall \u201cone of the best memories I have from my childhood,\u201d she said. \u201cThe family atmosphere. The unity. It was a time we all waited for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyna Casarez, a community leader in South Philadelphia, said the posadas are an important way for her to share how Christmas is celebrated in Mexico with her daughter, who was born in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of the posadas is that it connects me to the most important moments of family gathering and spiritual communion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Casarez recalled her first Christmas in Philadelphia, in 2007, as cold and sad. Many immigrants, she said, become isolated with work and the struggles of daily life, and miss family members they have left behind. It\u2019s difficult enough to find time to gather with their own household. Posadas are an antidote to this isolation, allowing the Mexican community to cultivate community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way to connect us with our family in Mexico,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A sense of community is even more rare, Marcos Caal said, for Mayan Indigenous immigrants who arrive in the U.S. and speak neither English nor Spanish.<\/p>\n
Caal, who lives in North Philadelphia, said this is the second year he has helped organize the posadas in Q\u2019eqchi around the city and its suburbs. Since moving to North Philadelphia in 2018, Caal has sought out members of the Q\u2019eqchi community to plan gatherings for as many as 60 people at a time. He also has asked his family members in Guatemala to send the hymn books in Q\u2019eqchi from their parishes to pass around at the posadas and at other gatherings.<\/p>\n
When they first discovered the local Q\u2019eqchi community, Bernardino Caal said, he and his family \u201cfelt very happy, because once again we listened to the Word of God and shared the Word of God in our language, Q\u2019eqchi.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we felt everything that is our tradition, our culture, amongst ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was produced as part of the\u00a0RNS\/IA Religious Journalism Fellowship Program.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n