Los Pastores de Belén, New Mexico, one of New Mexico’s premier Pastores groups will present a performance of the Christmas miracle folk play, La Gran Pastorela on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. at San Albino Church in Mesilla. The hour-long performance is free and open to the public.

This performance is Part II is a series of Sacred and Secular Art and Cultural events presented by San Albino Church in collaboration with the Cultural Center de Mesilla. The first event, The Sephardic Legacy of New Mexico, in Music and Words featured former State Historian Stanley Hordes, singer/songwriter Consuelo Luz and Spanish guitarist Joaquin Gallegos. Held at San Albino’s, the event was attended by over 300 people.

The script for La Gran Pastorela is a classical Spanish language text that was found in a home in Las Nutrias, NM on handwritten sheets of paper by Ms. Filomena Baca. It was last performed in 1929 prior to its revival 34 years ago in 1973. Ms. Baca has been the sole director for the production since its revival. A synopsis in English is provided for non-Spanish speakers that detail the scope and energy of this particular text and production.

The play is co-sponsored by San Albino Church, The Border Book Festival, Inc. and Los Pastores of the Mesilla Valley. Local sponsors include Roberto’s, The Ranchway BBQ and Mexican Food, Beltran’s Meat Market, Innovative Touch, Isidoro Vaquera, Jr., Jerry Nevarez and La Quinta among other local businesses.

Based in Belén, New Mexico, the 45 member troupe of actors and singers will be coming to the area for their first ever southern New Mexico performance.

La Gran Pastorela is a version of the medieval allegorical drama, Los Pastores, in which the shepherds find their way to the humble stable where the Christ Child is born.

In honor of the region, a local Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus will be chosen to perform with the group.

Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, Professor of Spanish, Literary folklorist and Interim Director of UNM's Chicana/o Studies Program will present a Platica/talk on the history and significance of the Pastorela and Los Pastores prior to the performance at 6:00 p.m. at the Cultural Center de Mesilla.

Dr. Lamadrid is a UNM legend. His research and museum projects have led him far and wide, and when he travels he takes students and colleagues along. His interests in traditional culture and pilgrimage came from growing up in big-city Albuquerque and dreaming of ways of getting past those city limits. In an exploration of US Latino Homeland areas, Lamadrid has taken UNM undergraduate seminars all over New Mexico, Mexico north and south, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. He is a co-founder of the Conexiones program which since 1980 has literally broadened the horizons of hundreds of New Mexican students. In June 2002 he took a group of teachers from the Albuquerque Teachers Institute up and down the Rio Grande to develop curriculum on Bio-Regional education. In July 2001 he took students to the Barrancas of Chihuahua to explore the canyons by foot and burro and connect with Smithsonian's Tarahumara Bio-Diversity Project.In Spring 2002 he lead an expedition on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, from Santa Fe to Valle de San Bartolomé, Chihuahua. In 2003 he led a study cruise of the Sea of Cortes and a pilgrimage across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

Dr. Lamadrid teaches folklore, literature, and cultural history at the University of New Mexico. Widely known as a scholar of the corrido tradition of greater México, his research interests include ethnopoetics, folklore and music, Chicano literature, and contemporary Mexican poetry. His field work centers in New Mexico, but ranges as far into México, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico. His research on the Indo-Hispanic traditions of New Mexico charts the influence of indigenous cultures on the Spanish language and imagination. His literary writings explore the borderlands between cultures, their natural environments, and between popular traditions and literary expression.

Dr. Lamadrid is a scholar and cultural activist known for his research on mestizo culture, his international field programs, and his community and student advocacy.

He is the author of the award winning book, Hermanitos Comancheros: INDO-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption with photographer, Miguel A. Gandert. Nuevo México Profundo: Rituals of an Indo-Hispano Homeland with Miguel Gandert, La Música de los Viejitos: Hispano Folk Music of the Río Grande del Norte with Jack and Katherine Loeffler, The Pilgrimage to Chimayó: A Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition, with photographers Sam Howarth, Miguel Gandert, Cary Herz, and Oscar Lozoya, Tesoros del espíritu: A Portrait in Sound of Hispanic New Mexico. With Jack Loeffler, recordist, and Miguel Gandert, photographer.

While the performance and talk are free, all donations are gratefully accepted and further the troupe’s work.

For more information, contact the Cultural Center de Mesilla at 505-523-3988, bbf@zianet.com www.borderbookfestival.org