Pierres Bakery Staff
El empresario Manuel Castillo; esposa y manager Gloria Castillo, centro; empleada, Yesénica Guevara, izquierda. En Pierres Bakery.
By Jorge Rennella
Latino owners of restaurants, patisseries, and other businesses were among those helping the most needy during this just passed Christmas season. Here some of them and their works.
Manuel (Mani) Castillo, owner and founder of Pierre's Bakery in Berwyn, Illinois, is part of an annual organization that sponsors one of the largest Posadas-Pastorelas in the area.
The Pastorela
La Pastorela is a Latin celebration, rooted in Mexican culture, with great cultural, Christmas and spiritual significance.
“On December 18 we donated, to San Roman Church, located on 23rd Street and Sawyer, Chicago, bread for 130 people,” says Castillo. “Every year on January 3, we distribute free between 100 and 150 Christmas cakes to homes and businesses around our pastry shop on Cermak Road.”
Along Cermak Road, in Berwyn IL, in addition to houses and buildings with apartments, there is a large group of Latino merchants with all types of businesses. Castillo's businesses employ 200 people. “We like to share, help and motivate the Christmas spirit in the community,” he says.
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They Offer Roscas de Reyes
Castillo says that January 6 is when they have more work than usual, because it is the date of the Rosca de Reyes. “It is a cake made with butter, cinnamon, dried fruit and inside it has a plastic child.” The tradition is to split the cake into pieces, and the person who touches the baby inside his piece receives blessings and good luck throughout the year.
"The activity that most excites us and that we have been doing for five years is La Posada- Pastorela. The term Pastorela comes from shepherds, and refers to the pastors who, just like the Magi, set out to meet, receive, honor and celebrate the arrival of the child of God, carrying with them fine gifts for Jesus. And the term inn is to give inn, food, joy and celebration to travelers," he says.
The Posada-Pastorela
La Posada is a nine-day Catholic religious novena celebrated annually by Latinos in the United States, especially Mexicans, and in most Latin countries - with certain variations - from the south to the north. It is also celebrated in the Philippines, where 90 percent of the population is Catholic and where a strong Spanish cultural influence still persists.
In Cuba and Puerto Rico they celebrate it more with festive-carnival style and call it Parranda, where music, rhyme, food and drinks prevail, in a constant celebration for nine days visiting the homes of family and friends, with music and the host provides the food and drink.
While in Mexico, in addition to the celebration of the typical Posada, the Pastorela is also celebrated - a name for the traditional Posada, but with the addition of the dramatic genre, more narrative and cultural elements typical of Mexico, to the tradition and religious narrative. La Pastorela is a play with the Catholic values brought by the Franciscan missionaries to Mexico, plus the primitive dramaturgy practiced by the native peoples of the Nahuatl culture.
Among the new elements included in the modern Mexican version is the classic Piñata in the form of a star, which has seven points, representing the seven deadly sins. Inside the piñata there are sweets, candies and some add money. The symbolism is that by striking and breaking it you are overcoming the seven deadly sins, and the falling candies represent the virtues as the antithesis of sins.
"The Posada was held at Pierre's Banquete Hall, Berwyn. Theater and dance groups participate to honor the birth of the baby Jesus, which we celebrate with a play, La Pastorela, which reflects the journey of some pastors to know and honor the baby Jesus and the temptations to which they were exposed by Lucifer, to then provide food to approximately 300 people attending each year, and at the end there is a dance of celebration," says Castillo.
Chinelos Mayas
At the end, after the theater and the food, a folkloric group is presented that brings a dance typical of Veracruz and Oaxaca. "A Mexican folkloric group called Los Chinelos also collaborates for free by presenting a dance. This is a dance that, according to what the traditions say, had as an objective to move the Spaniards away from the magic of their rituals," says Castillo.
The dancers wear long colorful clothes and masks, mostly showing human faces with pronounced noses, big eyes, big cheekbones, and firm expressions. "The masks, in addition to attracting attention and creating a magical atmosphere, were supposed to hide the face of the dancers and thus protect themselves from being killed by the Spaniards," Castillo points out.
Latino Child Helping Others
However, in Chicago, not only adults have taken the flag of helping the poorest or most destitute. A Latino child, Jeffrey Marin, is an example of altruism and sacrifice for others. Marín said that what motivated him and touched his heart to begin this humanitarian work of giving food to the homeless was seeing poverty in an announcement about Africa.
His family and neighbors in the suburb of Lombard, where he resides, support him and help prepare meals and distribute them on Sunday morning to the neediest in Chicago, no matter if the weather is cold or hot.
A Latino Helps in New York
In Queens, New York, bus driver Jorge Muñoz does his part to help day laborers, who often have no food, not only at Christmas, but at any time of the year.
Muñoz prepares and distributes food even at night. Muñoz sees his altruistic work as "a mission that God has given me: to help others, and it is a mission that with will I can share."
Happy New Year 2018 for all our readers and followers of eMex News.
Jorge Rennella is part of the team that creates el Restaurante and eMex