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Abe Peña's  "From the Past" newspaper column

All material used with the kind permission of the author, given to me personally.

Published Monday, December 22, 2008 12:55 PM MST

"Los Pastores - The Shepherds

Los Pastores, the shepherds, is the beautiful and ageless story of the birth of Christ. The pageant has been performed by young people in all of the Hispanic villages in Cibola County since the arrival of the first Spanish settlers in the early 19th century.

Seboyeta, founded in 1800 by 30 individuals who were granted a land grant by Spanish governor Don Fernando Chacón, was the first settlement west of the Rio Grande. Los Pastores spread from Seboyeta with the settlers to Cubero in 1833, to San Mateo in 1862, and to San Rafael in 1865.

When I was a young man in San Mateo, auditions and rehearsals began about Dec. 1 and ended on Christmas Eve in a colorful and touching story of the shepherds initial confusion, eventual understanding, and finally adoration of the Christ child in the stable.

The cast of about 16 was selected and directed by a director and met nightly for rehearsals. In between school and tasks, we worked on costumes and regalia, assisted by our parents and friends, who, in most cases, had themselves been a part of an earlier pageant.

I can remember the pastoral scene we were recreating was a familiar one to all the cast. We were all shepherds or knew the life of the shepherds. The husbandry of sheep and farming were the principal activities in our Hispanic villages. We all farmed or tended sheep and in large part were self-sufficient.

I recall the sincerity and the intensity of our feelings as we stepped up to adore the Christ child. Today, I try to recapture that feeling, a feeling that I believe only country people growing close to nature can feel. There was nothing sophisticated in our recreation of the greatest story ever told, only a simple radiance that touched us all.

While rehearsals were going on, Las Posadas (Search for Shelter) started on Dec. 16. Practically every house on the route Mary and Joseph took was lit up with a luminaria (firewood crisscrossed and stacked about two feet high). Generally, two houses were visited and shelter was denied. On the 17th, two luminarias were lit at each house and increased to nine by Dec. 24. That illuminated the entire route, which culminated at the stable where Los Pastores waited to reenact the ageless story of Christmas.

The most touching and memorable part of the play was when Bartolo, an old and lazy shepherd who spent his life lying on a sheepskin, refused all our efforts to get him up. Finally, when the angels announce the momentous birth, Gila, a shepherdess, got him up on his wobbly legs and with help from Bato, another shepherd, approaches the child and Behold!!! Bartolo stands awestruck. He holds on tightly to Gila, his legs barely holding his weight.

He focuses on the child and does a little spontaneous dance. He turns loose of Gila and breaks into a full dance and song. He wants to share his happiness with the whole world. His lethargy is gone. He saw his Savior and rejoiced. We all rejoiced with him! "