Traditions of Giving, Caring

Led by a petite, black-clad nun, a procession of marchers holding flickering candles ambled down the block on one of the coldest nights of the year.

As the group of about 100 participants sang traditional villancicos (carols), they headed into Ramona Gardens, Los Angeles’ oldest and perhaps toughest housing project.

The procession reenacted the centuries-old Catholic tradition of las posadas, which recalls the biblical story of Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem.

Las posadas are held each night from Dec. 16 through Christmas Eve in many parishes in Los Angeles, the Southwest, Mexico and in some parts of Central America. This posada was organized by Sister Maria Luz Ortiz, a nun of the Guardian Angel order known as “Sister Mariluz.” It is her way of bringing together Ramona Gardens tenants and other nearby residents.

Ortiz, originally from Bilbao, Spain, works year-around with youngsters from the public housing project to prepare them for the Catholic sacrament of First Communion and to help keep them out of gangs.

More than just preaching to them, Ortiz shows the young people that there is much more to life than the often dispiriting milieu of the projects.

This week’s posadas were the ninth that Ortiz has organized since arriving at Santa Teresita church. Children took key roles in the annual ritual. Two teenagers dressed as Mary and Joseph in the procession and a dozen other children were clothed as shepherds.

Daisy Aguila, 28, a Ramona resident for 10 years, says she takes her three children to the posadas every December. “I bring them so they can believe in something that is good,” she said. “Here in the projects they need that, to believe in God.”

Sergio Mendez, 43, said that when he was as a boy in Mexico, his parents used to take him to the posadas there. And though he does not live in Ramona Gardens, he makes sure that his five children participate in them.

“A lot of our kids here in the U.S. live very comfortable but lonely lives,” Mendez said. “That’s why there’s so many problems among youths. Las posadas are not only good for the soul, but they give you a chance to get together with other people.”

For Alejandro Sanchez, a 43-year-old machine operator, taking his three children to las posadas and helping set up a pinata for youngsters allows him to spend time with his family during the holidays.

“I want them to remember that I paid a lot of attention to them when they were young,” Sanchez says. “To show them that Christmas is a time to spend with the family, with grown-ups in a cheerful way.”

Tradition Began in Mexico

Bringing the procession into the projects, which are across the street from the church, is in line with the original idea of the 16th century monks who developed the posadas in Mexico City, Ortiz says. Ortiz says that she didn’t know of the posadas until she was assigned to a Lincoln Heights parish in the early ‘80s.

As posada participants this week marched through some of the Ramona Gardens units singing Spanish carols, they would stop at a home and ask for “posada,” Spanish for lodging or shelter.

As in the biblical story, the marchers are rejected many times before finally being accepted and given posada.

After the procession, the people gathered festively for champurrado, a thick chocolate-flavored cornmeal beverage, sweetbreads and bunuelos, a type of fried tortillas with sugar toppings.

Even the pinata for children has a traditional significance, Ortiz said. “It means that people are beating up on the devil, that they don’t want anything to do with evil during Christmas,” she said.

Las posadas are only part of Ortiz’s work with the children of Ramona Gardens. Every Saturday morning she heads out to the projects with a megaphone with which she calls out the youngsters for catechism classes.

As she walked among some trimmed lawns and others littered with beer cans a few Saturdays ago, Ortiz used her megaphone to amplify her voice, tinged with a thick northern Spanish accent:

“Good morning little ones. God loves you, time to start, the catechism classes!”

Like a pied piper, Ortiz is greeted by some of the little ones who peek out of windows while others run from their units to meet Ortiz,.

Built in 1941, Ramona’s 101 buildings and 495 units are filled primarily by working-class Latino families. The sprawling projects sit next to the San Bernardino Freeway on the outskirts of Boyle Heights.

Although residents say that things are much calmer now, law enforcement investigators say that for years Ramona was the site of bloody gun battles between local drug dealers and Mexican Mafia enforcers.

Some of the projects graffiti-stained walls are testament to the influence of Hazard, the local gang.

Ortiz readily admits that her work is not geared toward the gang members themselves, but to the younger ones who have not been ensnared by the gang life.

“She’s trying to keep kids from becoming monsters,” said a father of one of Ortiz’s students who asked not to be identified.

“I remember there was not one night when you wouldn’t hear shots fired or drive-bys,” said Gustavo Rodriguez, a private investigator who used to visit his girlfriend in the projects. “It was an area where you would think twice about going.”

Aguila agrees with Rodriguez. She says that the shootings and robberies have decreased in the last couple of years.

Overall, as in the rest of the city, crime statistics have gone down in Ramona Gardens, said officer Oscar Casini, who has patrolled that area for the last nine years.

Hollenbeck Lt. Sharyn Buck says that increased police presence in Ramona Gardens and an all-out effort to introduce community policing methods by working closely with residents have helped to reduce crime in that neighborhood.

Casini praises Ortiz for her ministry in the projects.

“I look at the kids there and talk to them and most don’t have [two] parents. Either the mom is not there or the dad is not there or they are at grandma’s. I know it takes a toll in their life because they don’t feel they are wanted.”

That void is a reason for the attraction of gangs, Casini said, because gang member gain the feeling that they are part of something.

Improvements Seen in the Projects

Several of Ramona’s residents claim that Ortiz’s constant work among younger children has helped make a difference, instilling basic moral values that have helped young people avoid gangs.

For years Ramona Gardens was overlooked for renovations, Los Angeles Housing Authority director Don Smith acknowledged.

But since 1994, a variety of improvements have been added to the Eastside project, Smith said, such as the installation of vandal-proofed light fixtures. In addition, the citywide Kumbaya program has hired 45 of Ramona’s residents to work on needed renovations.

When the posada procession came to an end each night this week, “Joseph” and “Mary” are finally given posada in a Ramona unit. As her children waited for their turn at the pinata, Aguila says that for her las posadas are a tradition worthy of being spread to other communities and cultures.

“I wish they [las posadas] would never end,” Aguila said. “Besides, that is what makes children happy.”