Pastorelas and Pastores

The dramatic folk tradition of las pastorelas, also called los pastores, came to the United States with the first Spanish settlers, who brought with them the tradition of autos sacramentales, or allegorical dramas. These religious dramatic perfor mances for the Catholic Church's liturgical feast days served didactic purposes and often portrayed biblical events. One of the most known of these plays, El fin del mundo, is considered to be the first European dramatic performance in what is now the United States, as it was performed by the Oñate expedition in the 1500s in what is now El Paso, Texas. The Moros y Cristianos, another popular folk drama from Spain, presents the battle between the Moors and the Christians; and the apparition of the Virgen de Guadalupe continues to be reenacted every December in most communities of greater Mexico. The Moros y Cristianos is performed in southern Spain, and variants of the play are still found in most Latin America countries.

Along with the other plays of the Christmas season, Las Pastorelas, along with Las Posadas, are performed during the nine days preceding Christmas, and they may also be performed up to February 2, el dia de la candelaria, the feast of candlemass, which signals the end of the Christmas season. La Adoración de los Reyes, Adán y Eva, and the Flight to Egypt are all performed as part of the Christmas cycle of plays of which La Pastorela is the most common. The main characters of the play are the Archangel Michael and other angels, the shepherds, el Ermitaño, or the Hermit, and Luzbel, the head devil, and other devils such as Asmodeo. Generally, the plot of the Christmas play involves the Archangel Michael who appears to a group of shepherds and exhorts them to go to Bethlehem to adore the newly born Christ Child, and the antagonist Luzbel and lesser devils that intercept and try to prevent the shepherds' progress toward Bethlehem. In some pastorelas, additional characters appear, such as an Indian or a Rancher, who are relevant to the place where it is performed. In most cases, the figure of the Hermit appears as the holy man who accompanies the shepherds and is also tempted by Luzbel. The shepherds often are stock characters who appear in almost all variants: La Gila, the female shepherd who cooks and represents the feminine force, along with other female minor characters like the shepherds Flora and Florinda, evidently characters from sixteenth-century Spanish theater. Bato, Bartolo, and other male shepherds usually occupy rigid roles in the development of the action. Bato is often the elder figure and is either Gila's father or husband, while Bartolo is often the comic character too lazy to do any work and who offers the opportunity for dialogue full of double entendres and salacious commentary. The action, interspersed with song and dialogue, focuses on the caminata, or pilgrimage, of the shepherds to Bethlehem and the antagonistic forces of the devils that attempt to thwart their efforts.

The theological discussions that surface during the monologues often revolve around the fact that the Christ Child has come to redeem humankind and therefore foreshadows the defeat of the devil who has had free rein in the world. Early in the drama, Luzbel bemoans his fate as the fallen angel, and he eventually confronts the Archangel Michael who is supporting the shepherds in their resistance to the devil's wiles. At the conclusion of a dramatic sword fight, good triumphs over evil and the shepherds and those in their company, the Hermit, the Indian, and others, arrive at the scene of the crèche where they offer gifts to the Christ Child. The full-length drama can take up to seven hours to perform, and traditionally it was performed on Christmas Eve and ended at sunrise when those in attendance would proceed to church for early morning mass. As a play that is in the folk tradition whose origins lie in medieval European liturgical tradition, the Pastorela retains few of the liturgical elements although some communities are performing it under the auspices of the local parish. As is customary in folk traditions, the actors who perform the roles are members of the community who either have been performing the part or have inherited it from an older relative, or are members of the community who have vowed to play the role in thanksgiving for a prayer answered.

Traditionally, the costumes the shepherds wear are especially prepared for the play. They carry a jato, a cloth bag decorated with mirrors and embroidery, slung over a shoulder with a strap; on their left hand they carry a gourd for water, and they hold a staff adorned with flowers and multicolored ribbons with their right hand. The women wear a headdress similarly decorated and long white dresses, while the men wear straw hats and white pants and shirts. The text, although found in the oral folk tradition, has been transcribed, and variants have been collected by various scholars in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California.

Bibliography and More Information about Pastorelas and Pastores

• Campa, Arthur L. “Spanish Religious Folktheatre in the Southwest.” University of New Mexico Bulletin. Language series 5. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1934.
• Cantú, Norma Elia. “The Offering and the Offerers: The Illocation of a Laredo Pastorela in the Tradition of the Shepherds' Play.” PhD diss. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1982.
• Flores, Richard, and William L. Merrill. Los Pastores: History and Performance in the Mexican Shepherds' Play of South Texas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1995.
• Lamadrid, Enrique R. “Hispano Folk Theater in New Mexico.” Available at memory.loc.gov/ammem/rghtml/rgtheater.html
• Los Pastores. Translated by María Lopéz de Lowther. Hollywood, Calif.: H.H. Boelter Lithography, 1952.
• Los Pastores: A Christmas Drama of Old Mexico. (1949) Translated by Carmelo Tranchese. San Antonio, Tex.: Treviño Printing and Lithograph, 1976.
• Los Pastores: A Mexican Play of the Nativity. Translated by M. R. Cole. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1907.
• Rael, Juan B. The Sources and Diffusion of the Mexican Shepherds' Plays. Guadalajara, Mex.: Librería La Joyita, 1965.
• Stark, Richard B. Music of the Spanish Folk Plays in New Mexico. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1969.

See also Posadas, Las and Festivals.

Norma E. Cantú