There’s a feeling of intensity as soon as the lights go down at the beginning of La Pastorela. Audience members crowd into the pews of Mission San Juan Bautista, and cast members circle up in the back of the church, where they announce themselves by blowing into a conch shell that sustains a shrill call.
“Vamos conociendo nuestra lucha ya,” they sing in Spanish, “Let us know our struggle.”
The immediate struggle that’s about to befall this humble group of shepherds is a search for Bethlehem, as they go on a quest to see baby Jesus, who’s just been born. En route, they come up against various attempts by the devil to throw them off course.
That’s the simplest good versus evil interpretation of this centuries-old Mexican story of shepherds navigating via the stars to Bethlehem. But like all El Teatro Campesino works, there’s also a bigger cultural struggle at play, as a Chicano theater group tells the Christian story that was delivered to Mexico by colonizers.
“It’s something that was used as a way to colonize and Christianize, and at some point it became a national symbol for Mexico,” Director Christy Sandoval says. “They’re trying to find the positives amid a tumultuous history for Chicanos and Latinos across the Americas. It’s very timely, too, unfortunately that these types of efforts are still needed.”
ETC performs La Pastorela every other year, alternating with La Virgen del Tepeyac, their other Christmas play that’s more explicitly political, with church officials baptizing Aztecs against their will. But in the interest of making the message more universal, Sandoval took out a political moment that appeared in the 2015 version ofLa Pastorela: In one scene, the devil appears in disguise in an effort to throw the shepherds off track. That disguise has been Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and, in 2015, Donald Trump. This year, it’s one of the three wise men.
“It was a conscious effort to just go back to basics,” Sandoval says. “It’s first and foremost just us as a community. We need to recognize our roots and come together and recognize why we’re doing this.”
That community feeling is in full force in this production, with a cast 50 people strong, and actors ranging in age from 5 to mid-70s. There are colorfully dressed shepherds and there are red-hued demons. (Sandoval, in fact, made her ETC debut as a kid demon.) The play is performed in Spanish, adapted from a Hollister woman’s script furnished from her hometown of San Luis Potosí, but the good v. evil plot is clear enough even for non-Spanish speakers to follow: The lighting, music and costuming all contribute to depicting who’s on which team.
ETC’s version hews to the traditional La Pastorela, with a hermit character who’s been waiting around 20 years for a prophecy to be fulfilled: The Messiah is going to be born. An archangel, San Miguel, appears on a church balcony above the fray in a cloud of smoke to sing a soothing melody. (In ETC’s adaptation, San Miguel appears to a young woman shepherd named Gila.) It’s up to Gila to deliver messages and directions from the angel even as her fellow-shepherds start to lose faith.
Anita Reyes plays San Miguel for the second time this year, and has also played Gila. “As a female, to play a lead role that’s sort of like a superhero is an honor,” she says. In a belting and melodic voice, she instructs the shepherds not to be afraid: “No temais pastores.” Her voice soars, and it’s no coincidence; Reyes says she fell in love with the story of La Pastorela as a kid watching tapes of Linda Ronstadt, and also draws on Ronstadt’s big, powerful mariachi performances.
As they go questing for Bethlehem, the shepherds and devils take up the entire mission, performing on all sides of the audience and in the aisles. It’s a full and vibrant production.
Sandoval meditates on why an edgy theater company with roots in street protests has laid claim to a traditional Christmas story. “It’s antiquated, an old concept. And why perform something that was used against our culture at one point?” she says. “But for all those reasons, we have to know about this in order to embrace it to fuel what’s going to happen. We can’t forget.”
Whether or not Jesus was born as is described according to this biblically-rooted tale, it’s still aligned with ETC’s mission: “to create a popular art with 21st-century tools that presents a more just and accurate account of human history.”
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.