Nativity Scenes in Latin America

Nacimiento, pesebre, portal, presépio

Depending on the country, you’ll hear one of four words:

• Nacimiento: “birth.” Used most in Mexico, Central America and among Mexican Americans. See the glossary.
• Pesebre: “manger.” Used most in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and much of South America.
• Portal: “the porch.” Used especially in Central America, as in Spain.
• Presépio: the word in Brazil, from the Portuguese tradition.

What the continent added

Nativity scenes take on local touches everywhere, but here they went especially far:

• Plants. Palms, cacti, banana trees, mountain moss, Andean lichens. In Mexico, the flor de Nochebuena (the poinsettia, which is native to Mexico) is a Christmas flower and often shows up in the scene. It came to the United States in the 1820s through Joel Poinsett, the first American minister to Mexico, which is how it got its English name.
• Animals. Llamas and alpacas in the Andes, local donkeys and oxen, chickens and turkeys, and sometimes animals that never lived anywhere near Bethlehem. Nobody minds.
• Architecture. Colonial tile roofs, adobe walls, courtyards. In the Andes, the stable looks like one from a mountain village.
• Scale. A family nacimiento often fills a whole room or a big corner of the living room, with a sprawling landscape. Towns set up huge ones in their main squares.

It’s exactly what we describe on the traditions page: telling the Christmas story with the world around you.

Mexico and the posadas

Las Posadas are the best-known Mexican Christmas custom, and they’re closely tied to the nativity scene.

From December 16 to 24 (nine evenings, for Mary’s nine months of pregnancy), a procession reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay. People go from house to house singing. At each door, the group outside sings a request for shelter and the people inside sing back a refusal, until they reach the host house for that night, where they’re finally welcomed in. Then comes the party: a piñata, candy and hot ponche (fruit punch). Many US cities with Mexican American communities hold Las Posadas, from San Antonio’s River Walk to the Plaza in Santa Fe.

The ninth posada, on the 24th, ends with Baby Jesus being laid in the nacimiento with a lullaby. This is called the arrullo, “the rocking.”

And it doesn’t end there. On February 2, Candlemas (Día de la Candelaria), families dress the Baby Jesus figure and carry it to church to be blessed, and whoever found the little figurine in the January 6 rosca de Reyes hosts a tamale party. So the nativity is part of a six-week season, as carefully laid out as the Provençal one.

Peru and the retablos

The retablo ayacuchano is one of the most unusual forms of nativity scene anywhere.

It’s a painted wooden box with two doors that open like a little theater. Inside are dozens of brightly colored figures made from a paste of potato and plaster. The inside is often split into two levels: a religious scene on top (such as the Nativity) and everyday life below, like a market, a festival or farm work.

It comes from the cajas de San Marcos, portable prayer boxes carried by Andean herders. In the 20th century it became a recognized art form, especially in the Ayacucho region.

If you build nativities, the retablo has a lot to teach: the whole scene fits in a box that closes, travels and stores easily, and opening the doors is part of the show. Compare the Neapolitan scarabattolo (glass display case) in the Neapolitan nativity.

In Cusco, the Santurantikuy market brings artisans who make religious figures to the Plaza de Armas every December 24. You’ll find it with other events on nativity fairs in Latin America.

Colombia, Venezuela, the Andes

The pesebre is everywhere here, often big, and built as a family with simple materials: paper, moss, dyed sawdust, and mirrors for water.

In Colombia, the season begins on the evening of December 7 with the Día de las Velitas (Day of the Little Candles). Families light candles and paper lanterns in windows, on sidewalks and in front of their homes. It’s traditionally the night the pesebre goes up.

Then comes the novena de aguinaldos: nine evenings of family prayers and carols in front of the pesebre, from December 16 to 24. It’s a lot like the Mexican posadas, except everyone stays in one place instead of going house to house.

Brazil

The Brazilian presépio comes from the Portuguese tradition, which itself has Italian roots. You’ll find it in churches and many homes, and some cities put up huge ones.

Northeast Brazil has a long tradition of clay figures and folk nativities. Pottery workshops there also make scenes of everyday life, which makes them surprisingly close in spirit to the santons of Provence.

The calendar

• December 7: Colombia: Día de las Velitas, the pesebre goes up.
• December 12: Mexico and Mexican American parishes: Our Lady of Guadalupe, which opens the Christmas season in earnest.
• December 16–24: posadas in Mexico and the US Southwest, novena in Colombia and Venezuela. On December 24, Nochebuena, the late-night dinner; the Child is laid in the manger. In New Mexico, luminarias or farolitos (candles in paper bags) line walls and walkways that night.
• January 6: the Three Kings bring presents in much of the continent; rosca de Reyes.
• February 2: Candlemas; in Mexico, presentation of the Child and tamales.