Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, Staff / San Antonio Express-News
Angela Perez, 15, as Mary, (from left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others are allowed in to San Fernando Cathedral by Father Victor Valdez (right) during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral, tells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to stay and for Jesus to be born, began at Milam Park and made its way through downtown with stops in Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, City Hall, the Bexar County Courthouse and ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Mary and Joseph were allowed in.
lessAngela Perez, 15, as Mary, (from left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others are allowed in to San Fernando Cathedral by Father Victor Valdez (right) during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec.
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Angela Perez, 15, as Mary, (center left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others stop at City Hall during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral, tells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to stay and for Jesus to be born, began at Milam Park and made its way through downtown with stops in Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, City Hall, the Bexar County Courthouse and ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Mary and Joseph were allowed in.
lessAngela Perez, 15, as Mary, (center left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others stop at City Hall during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San
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Retired history professor Richard Rose (right) turns away Perez, Santos and others from the Spanish Governor’s Palace during the procession, which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral.
Retired history professor Richard Rose (right) turns away Perez, Santos and others from the Spanish Governor’s Palace during the procession, which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral.
Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News
Angela Perez, 15, as Mary, (left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others make their way through downtown during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral, tells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to stay and for Jesus to be born, began at Milam Park and made its way through downtown with stops in Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, City Hall, the Bexar County Courthouse and ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Mary and Joseph were allowed in.
lessAngela Perez, 15, as Mary, (left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others make their way through downtown during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by
... more
Angela Perez, 15, as Mary, (left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others make their way through Market Square during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral, tells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to stay and for Jesus to be born, began at Milam Park and made its way through downtown with stops in Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, City Hall, the Bexar County Courthouse and ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Mary and Joseph were allowed in.
lessAngela Perez, 15, as Mary, (left) Alessandro Santos, 14, as Joseph, and others make their way through Market Square during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized
... more
Dressed as an angel, Jocelynn Rosas,7, (left) peeks inside as Father Victor Valdez opens the doors to San Fernando Cathedral during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday.
Dressed as an angel, Jocelynn Rosas,7, (left) peeks inside as Father Victor Valdez opens the doors to San Fernando Cathedral during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday.
Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News
Dressed as angles Sophia Gonzalez,7, (left), Jocelynn Rosas,7, and others make their way through downtown during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San Fernando Cathedral, tells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to stay and for Jesus to be born, began at Milam Park and made its way through downtown with stops in Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, City Hall, the Bexar County Courthouse and ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Mary and Joseph were allowed in.
lessDressed as angles Sophia Gonzalez,7, (left), Jocelynn Rosas,7, and others make their way through downtown during the annual La Gran Posada held Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. La Gran Posada which is organized by San
... more
La Gran Posada brings together faithful of all ages
When Lupita Mandujano played the role of Mary in La Gran Posada 34 years ago, she hardly knew the teenage boy playing her betrothed, Joseph.
She later married Mario Mandujano, the boy who played Joseph. For the last 25 years, Mario Mandujano, 51, has directed the annual re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, modeled after the centuries-old tradition known as Las Posadas, where children and teenagers from San Fernando Cathedral lead a virtual search for shelter around downtown San Antonio.
“It’s a gathering of all people, the young and the old, and the in-between,” said Lupita Mandujano, 52, the director of religious education at San Fernando Cathedral, which organizes the event. “It's a tradition that can be kept alive here from generation to generation. And it reminds me so much of home.”
On Sunday, Lupita Mandujano, who was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, stood at the front of a procession of about 200 people in Milam Park, where the journey began to a chorus of “Alegría, Alegría, Alegría” — meaning joy in English — before looping south through Market Square and continuing on to Dolorosa Street.
The “search” for shelter ended at San Fernando Cathedral, where Father Victor Valdez opened the front doors for Mary, Joseph and their companions to enter.
Along the way, the group stopped at various locations seeking lodging and were turned away each time — tracing the biblical steps of Mary and Joseph as they searched for a place where Jesus could be born.
At the Spanish Governor’s Palace, retired history professor Richard Rose, dressed as a military commander, denied the travelers entrance.
“In the name of his excellency, the viceroy of New Spain, I, the commandante of the presidio of la villa de Béxar, beg to inform Maria y José that there is no room for lodging in the palacio,” Rose said, straining to read from his script — a small piece of orange paper — in the dim lighting.
At City Hall, a reluctant security guard was dragged into making another dismissal.
“I’m sorry, we have no room for you here,” officer Larry Burke said. “Please move along.”
The crowd booed him loudly.
Leading the cavalcade was a group of angels wearing white robes and halos, their green and pink sneakers visible below their garments. Shepherds pushed Mary and Joseph — portrayed by 15-year-old Angela Perez and 14-year-old Alessandro Santos — atop a cloth-covered cart. Santos draped his arm across Perez’s back as she rode on a fake donkey.
“There was no burro (donkey) back then,” Lupita Mandujano recalled of her time as Mary. “We were walking.”
Choir members from the cathedral led the group in song throughout the walk, holding microphones that played through a pair of speakers perched on the back of a golf cart, which was driven near the middle of the throng of people. They sang “Los Peces en el Rio” (“The Fish in the River”) while walking down South Santa Rosa Street, and “Los Posadas” (“The Inns”) at the Governor’s Palace.
Police followed the procession, blocking off intersections and even an entire block of road at one point, allowing the travelers and their companions to safely cross.
At the end of the procession, after Valdez opened the front cathedral doors, a choir bellowed one last round of carols, before the children smashed open piñatas to round out the night.
Jasper Scherer is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jscherer@express-news.net | @jaspscherer
