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The Mexican community in California has been staging La Pastorela (The Shepherd's Play) as part of the Fiestas Navideñas for two centuries. In December 2005 I saw two in one weekend, a community based version at the Casa de la Raza in Santa Barbara, and a professional production by El Teatro Campesino several hundred miles north in San Juan Bautista.
The play is about a group of shepherds on their way to Belen to pay homage to the birth of the baby Jesus. Lucifer sends his minions to lead them astray. Who will prevail?
The community production was based on a version "preserved in the Santa Barbara Mission archives" and transcribed by native son Pablo de la Guerra, according to director Elvira Gómez de Tafoya, a retired Dos Pueblos high school Spanish teacher....