Tamales and good feelings let’s you know its Christmas in the Heights. Logan Heights has had its unique Christmas traditions through the stages of the American experience. Hard working parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, abuelitos and vecinos all working together to share a little joy for everybody. They started a spirit that insisted on joy for the least to the mighty. All of god’s creations must be welcomed with a special light for children.

In the early 1900s the first wave of Mexican immigrants relied on Our Lady of Angels, the first Catholic Church in San Diego, for its spiritual and celebratory needs. In the 1920s through a formal complaint from the Mexican Government via the Vatican, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church was founded by the Diocese of Los Angeles as a mission for Spanish speaking Catholics in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Here is where the barrio began to see the first posadas and pastorelas. The Church became the focal point of mass celebrations mostly around the Misa de gallo and the tamaladas which followed midnight mass.

The Mexican protestant churches like the Iglesia Nazareno and the Metodista Libre (Mexican Baptist) and others would offer their Christmas play to the neighborhood families as a way to both celebrate their faith and encourage new memberships. The plays became popular with the kids because at the end they would hand out those red mesh stockings with the fruit nuts and hard candy. If the churches were the soul of the community then the Neighborhood House would surely be the heart. The Neighborhood House was started in 1915 by the Marston family as a Settlement House to help Mexican immigrants better assimilate. The Neighborhood House became the means by which the Mexican community could express its traditions yet reach for a piece of the American experience. Christmas at the Neighborhood House, especially in darker times like the depression, World War II and Korea were special because for many families it was their only Christmas. Thankful still to this day, many recall it as some of their best Christmas experiences.

Christmas in the war years was a mixture of sadness and joy. Logan Heights sent many of its sons to fight in Europe and the Pacific serving proudly and bravely. Christmas in a foxhole would heighten their desire for mama’s cookies and other things from home. She would proudly say to the other ladies at the caneria that she was a red or blue star mother yet in her heart she would be dreading the visit by the War Department saying, “Your son private Lopez or Garcia or Rodriquez is missing in action and presumed dead.”

The Korean conflict again saw many sons of Logan Heights enlist to do their part. In 1950 a G.I from Logan recalls how he expected to be home for Christmas based on General MacArthur’s pronouncement that the tide had turned and the conflict would be over. He was wrong and the Chinese attacked. He spent Christmas of 1950 fighting and freezing in Korea. His only joy that Christmas was a package from his mom which included a copy of the Ring Magazine his mother would make his father purchase from San Diego Colusiem every two weeks so she could send it to her son.

The naval district through its 32nd street facility would also provide a Christmas celebration for the kids of Logan by showing cartoons on an outdoor screen and at the end Santa would arrive in a navy vehicle and the sailors would hand out what? Those coveted red mesh socks with fruit nuts and hard candy. Years later we discovered that the celebration was a dry run for the real celebration for navy dependent children. It is nonetheless remembered fondly.

Block by block every family in Logan would celebrate Christmas at their nana’s house or if not then a Tia’s house. Nana’s house was never big enough for all the parientes and you couldn’t touch anything until you were served instead of grabbing your food like at home. The gifts you wanted to open were at home but you had to wait until nana opened all her gifts before you could start leaving. Your gifts at home were part fun part practical. One gift would be socks and underwear or a jacket from Prager’s Department Store and the other would be a glove or a ball or something fun which you were immediately instructed not to lose because it cost money.

It was a more practical time. In fact I remember when Otto Square on 35th and National Ave had Santa talking to kids asking them what they wanted for Christmas and when Santa asked this one kid he reflected a moment then recalling what his father said about being practical he looks Santa directly in the eye and he proclaims, “I would like a can of stew for my mom and a six pack of beer for my dad that way they can stay busy and not bother me.”

Today many years later it’s good to see that family and kids remains the focus of Christmas. Feliz Navidad from my family to yours!