A Xenophobic Christmas

A friend encourages me to go to Church on Christmas Eve. “Great music, It’ll put you into the Christmas Spirit.”

I'm already moving in that direction.

Earlier in the day, I travel to a neighboring village and help Operation Feed provide a hundred families with food and gifts and toys for their children. 

Families gather at Operation Feed

 The program is a collaboration between Mexicans and expats. A local Mexican leader and restaurateur spear-heads this and many other weekly projects.

Augustine and volunteers become a Christmas message

I meet two women who tell me more.

“We’re the egg ladies,” they announce. “We help sort eggs for distribution out into the village.”

They tell me it’s a volunteer job but they pay 200 pesos each time for the privilege. 

Imagine paying to volunteer. “It’s egg money,” smiles one of the women. “How else can we have money for eggs?”

The organization’s motto is... Stop The Hunger - Start The Hope. 

What a wonderful Christmas message, I think.  

I hop on a crowded bus and make my way to music and Christmas eve worship. 

As expected, the music is grand. Harmonies mix with congregational singing. We sing O Come All Ye Faithful – all 6 verses.

Nativity fills the Plaza at Ajijic

The sermon starts with a light hearted joke and promises to be brief. 

A story unfolds of expats celebrating a first Christmas in Mexico. “We had no church, but we made a large living space feel like church.” 

We settled into traditional Christmas worship even though we all had been transported from our homes to Mexico. It felt good to be with other expats.

Afterwards continues the Pastor, “we decide to go into the town to see how Mexicans celebrate Christmas. 

We had images of a Mexican procession moving slowly towards the Church with candles in hand,”

Posada in Mexico

But in stark contrast, we meet “utter chaos.”

Raucous, loud, alcohol out-of-control masses are some of the derogatory words used.  Negative caricatures follow in describing this Mexican Christmas celebration.  It jolts me.  

The sermon continues poking fun at Mexican behaviors.  A few congregants begin to snicker.  

I’m feeling more uncomfortable. To me, it sounds xenophobic. Why would a sermon poke fun at Mexicans on Christmas eve in Mexico? 

It must be something unconscious – maybe an ignorance saying that our way is the better way.  Could that be why some of the people around me are now laughing and not growing more uncomfortable as I am.  

The sermon concludes with Church bells says the Pastor. “At first, a single bell rings out.  And then others join in. Soon many bells are filling the town air and quieting the Mexicans,” reassures the Pastor. 

He ends the sermon with a broad smile.  Next is passing the Peace of Christ.

People clasp hands and a few hug one another. An older woman quickly clasped my hand and then just as quickly turns away. 

What's it like to be an outsider?

Huh? I look around towards others, but no one returns the glance or makes an effort.

Even the Pastor, when he comes down the aisle, skips my row. I’m not sure why. But it does make me feel like an outsider. 

It’s then that I decide to leave before Eucharist is served. I think, “It’s not a place for me.”

On the bus ride home, the sermon still rumbles within. I need an antidote.

I regain some comfort in seeing ordinary Mexican men and women with children in tow making their own way home. A guy plays his guitar and fills the bus with song. I pass him some money. 

 A young man stands to give up his seat. I shake my head, not necessary, but with a smile, he insists. Unexpected kindness on a crowded bus.

I get home. I watch a new movie, The Two Popes, and regain some perspective. I surf the net for sermons and Christmas messages.

In spite of my recent experience, I’m reminded how lively Christmas Spirit can be. 

Congregations do act with kindness, justice and peace and not just at Christmas time. They stretch themselves to welcome the stranger and embrace the forgotten.

Sure, the sermon was unfortunate. But ironically, it opens a broader reflection into the insidious persistence of xenophobia. 

It can slide into conversations and sermons without awareness. I feel a new urgency for the message of Christmas...especially here in Mexico.

Tear gas used on Mexican families at the border

Too many cruel and hate-filled images of Mexicans are in our media and on the lips of our leaders. 

Insistently Xenophobia seeps into awareness smearing good people who just want to live... a little differently.

Singing with some students at a Christmas party

I want to keep my focus on the kindnesses I’ve experienced here and embrace human differences that surround me everywhere in Mexico.

So when the bells ring out tonight for Christmas eve, I’ll be thinking of angelic words proclaimed to ordinary shepherds.

Peace on Earth and Good Will to All.

Older women belong here

I’ll keep remembering expats paying to volunteer and a Mexican leader who cares for the poor and lives  the Christmas message every week... 

End The Hunger. 

 Start The Hope

http://www.operationfeedsjc.org/