Kyle Kellams: From cocoa crawls to holiday parades, we are in full Yuletide acceleration now. Saturday evening, the Jones Center in Springdale will host La Posada, a holiday tradition with deep Mexican and Latin American roots.
Luisa Espinosa: When I moved from Mexico to here, one of the hardest things was to feel part of the community. And with La Posada, I hope people find that we are home.
Luisa Espinosa is a program coordinator at the Jones Center, and she's a lead organizer of Saturday's observation of La Posada.
Espinosa: What makes you part of a place is being part of the community, and there are not a lot of opportunities for that. But La Posada and the Jones Center are always welcoming people and creating that community. You know where you are safe, where you are, you can participate and be you. That's the main part.
Kellams: La Posada is hosted by the Jones Center, and certainly the bulk of the festivities will be there. But La Posada starts as a walking observation of the story of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter, only to repeatedly learn there was no room at the inn. Translated, posada means inn or shelter. Saturday evening’s celebration of La Posada will start on Emma Avenue and is a one-evening-only affair. Luisa Espinosa says traditional observations can last much longer.
Espinosa: In Mexico, we celebrate nine days before Christmas and it's every day. We go to houses, neighborhood. And then there is like remembering when Joseph and Mary were asking for shelter to get baby Jesus. What is interesting here is that in Mexico we celebrate that before the Europeans come. So it was a celebration that the natives had before. It's just that they mix it and now it's something big. And that's why it's interesting, because no matter who you are, no matter what you believe or not, you celebrate Las Posadas.
Kellams: Though just one-ninth of the days of the original Las Posadas, the Springdale version will not lack the celebratory tone of the tradition, nor the mobile aspect of honoring the Christmas story.
Espinosa: It's starting at Café con Chisme on Emma. That's going to be the first station, and from there we're going to go to Taco Loco.
Kellams: Saturday night's event is free and open to the public, and at each of the first stops, participants through song will ask if there is shelter. Each time the musical answer will come back, no, there is no room. Paper copies of the songs will be available, and musicians will be traveling along as well.
Espinosa: The mariachi is going to come with us during the Emma, and so we're going to be singing and having fun there. And then right here we're going to have food and snacks. The aguinaldos. Aguinaldos is a bag with candies that the kids get at the end of the whole procession. So we're going to have all that. And plus the pinatas.
Kellams: Pinatas for traditional Las Posadas are often in the shape of stars, each of the points of a star serving as a symbol.
Espinosa: Like you break it because it's the bad habits that you have. So that's the symbol of that. You break the pinata, and then you are offering to get a new life on that.
Kellams: Saturday evening's event is also helping the Jones Center launch a bigger celebration. Susan Cui, communications specialist with the Jones Center, says this special program is one for the 30th anniversary of the Jones Center.
Susan Cui: And so we're really excited to be welcoming people in the community. It's free. It's a free event. We do have a registration form online that people can fill out, but it isn't a requirement. And if people are interested in being a vendor, because we do want to have vendors at this event, they can also find that application online as well.
Kellams: This is billed as the Jones Center's inaugural celebration of the festival. But Luis Espinosa says for her and other people who've moved to northwest Arkansas from Mexico or Latin America, there have long been La Posada observations.
Espinosa: We find Mexicans around, right? So, yeah, we get together in houses. We don't celebrate anymore here the nine days. But you will find. We celebrate La Posada at work. We celebrate in church. We celebrate a lot. It's a good excuse to be together. So, yeah, not as big as in Mexico, but yeah, we do.
Kellams: Saturday's La Posada begins at 5:30 on Emma Avenue and will then last until 8:30 at the final stop, the Jones Center. Participants are encouraged to park on the west side of the Jones Center between 4:30 and 5:30 Saturday, then take a shuttle bus from there to the starting point. A map of the event stops can be found at the Jones Center website. The celebration, the parking and the shuttle bus are all free.
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