With a community room blasting holiday music full of children and adults of all ages, the Christmas spirit could be felt all around. On Monday, Foss Creek Court Apartments on Grant Street celebrated the holidays with a community posada — the first in a series of posadas being held in Healdsburg throughout the week.
Neighborhood leaders and Corazón Healdsburg collaborated in making the evening a success. Throughout the week more posadas will be held in different Healdsburg communities up until Christmas Eve.
Traditionally, a posada is a celebration where people commemorate the journey that Joseph and Mary made from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a safe refuge where Mary could give birth to the baby Jesus. Posadas recreate what Joseph and Mary did and through chants and songs, ask people to provide them with lodging. Residents from Foss Creek walked with battery-powered candles as baby Jesus was being carried and sang along as well as prayed through the corridors of the apartments.
As that first part of the evening ended, the crowd kept singing once outside the community room and awaited to be let inside. It is a common Latinx tradition to do so to recreate what Joseph and Mary had to do. People were given sparklers to add a more magical element to the evening. Once inside, everyone got ready to enjoy homemade pozole and baked goods. Pozole is a stew or soup usually made during the colder season which includes pork, chili, corn and hominy. While plates were being handed out, everyone sang along to songs such as “Mi Burrito Sabanero” which is a children’s song about a donkey traveling to Bethlehem and “Feliz Navidad.”
Alejandra Tapia was in attendance with her son and daughters. Tapia is a resident of Foss Creek and said it was great to have a posada in order to teach children what Mexican culture can be.
“They do not really know what it is living here,” she said in Spanish.
“They were happy to come because they were curious to see what would happen,” Tapia said.
Sharae Breaux, manager at Foss Creek, said she was reached out by a Corazón volunteer to ask if the posada could be held in the apartment complex and she said yes without hesitation.
“It is good for community engagement. It brought a lot of people out and it is the most I have seen since I have been here,” she said. Breaux has been the manager at Foss Creek since August.
Breaux said because of the pandemic people are now used to staying in and it is nice to see them out and sharing moments together.
Erika Gutierrez, a volunteer coordinator for Corazón, has been working in collaboration with the leaders. Gutierrez said they went knocking on each door to asked people if they wanted to help and she said most pitched in with something, regardless of if it was ingredients or their own hands to make the meal.
“It is really nice to get all of these families together and how we did it as a team,” she said.
Yolanda Giron has been a volunteer in Healdsburg for more than 30 years. She has volunteered at the public library, the school district and at Corazón, she has been volunteering for four years.
Giron said keeping traditions, such as posadas, alive is important because sometimes even adults do not practice them as much as before.
“Children need to have something of their culture because sometimes they visit their home country and they feel out of touch. Now if they learn something of their culture they do feel connected with it and their ancestors when they visit, they have that knowledge,” she said.
Giron helped with the singing and praying as well as the pretend procession. Giron will host the last posada on Christmas Eve on her street, March Avenue, and said she encourages anyone to attend.
Veronica Sanchez, is another resident of Foss Creek and has been a resident at the apartments for 10 years. Sanchez said she has never seen a posada before in her 10 years of residency. Sanchez echoed other attendants about the importance of keeping the tradition to enhance Latinx culture.
“That way they (children) can learn what we know and what we experienced,” Sanchez, who is originally from Michoacan, said in Spanish.
“I hope this continues for more generations and we don’t lose them,” she said.
