“May your days be merry and bright…”
These words come from the well-known Christmas song “White Christmas” written by Irving Berlin and made famous by Bing Crosby. This phrase today can be found in Christmas cards and in holiday greetings. Surely Christmas, at least in the U.S., is imagined as a holiday of lights and cheer and celebration. It is a time to enjoy good food, good company, and then gather round a tree where gifts abound on Christmas morn. Surely Christmas should be a time to be “merry and bright.”
Yet the birth of Christ, as told to us in the Gospels, occurs in a time where fear and persecution were very present for the people of Judea. The Roman Empire, now under the Emperor Caesar Augustus, had achieved its Pax Romana but at the expense of people colonized and exploited. And so, a census is called, as a way to maintain control, and it is in fulfilling the census that Joseph and Mary, who is about to give birth, travel to Bethlehem, Joseph’s ancestral town. The account of this birth found in the Gospel of Luke 2 tells us in verse 7, “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room”. It is an interesting fact that Joseph and Mary could not find a room in which to rest and where Mary could give birth and so their baby, Jesus, was born outdoors in a manger.
In the Latiné community there is a very old and popular tradition called las posadas which literally means “the inns.” Las posadas refers to the shelter that Mary and Joseph sought on their way to Bethlehem. During the nine evenings preceding Christmas Eve, groups of family and friends will gather to reenact Mary and Joseph’s journey. Traditionally, two people will dress as Mary and Joseph, and each night a house will be designated as the “inn” that will allow them inside. As they walk the streets, the groups sing villancicos (Christmas carols) with some members playing instruments as they go. Mary, pregnant and about to give birth, along with her husband Joseph need to find a place for their baby to be born—a place of welcome, respite, and hope. For so many in our communities who have experienced the reality of migration away from family into the U.S. the desire to find a place of welcome, respite, and hope makes the deeper meaning of las posadas very real. For so many thousands of migrants in the U.S. in December 2025, Christmas is not about days that are “merry and bright” but about the constant struggle for survival, finding a place of refuge, and holding on to hope.
This is certainly the reality in El Paso, Texas where the massive East Montana ICE detention Center was built earlier this year on Fort Bliss. Using soft-sided tents, designed for rapid capacity growth (up to 5,000 detainees) the new East Montana site, intended to be the nation’s largest, houses thousands in tent structures built on a former Japanese internment camp. “ICE began detaining people at Fort Bliss three months ago, while the site was still an active construction zone. Fort Bliss is the largest detention facility in the country, holding roughly 3,000 people, just a few thousand shy of its planned maximum capacity. Immigrants are housed in tent structures in the extreme El Paso heat.” (Source)
The Hispanic Scholars Program in its mission to provide theological education to seminarians, both Latiné and non-Latiné, has promoted in its programs a sense of welcome where students can gather as learners and a people of faith to better prepare to serve their communities where many face the harsh realities of immigration raids, deportations, fear for family members and themselves, and insecurity. As a result, Christmas in 2025 has left many with a sense of despair, of helplessness, as we try to make sense of the current immigration policies and enforcement practices. However, even during what is happening all around us, of the suffering of so many local communities as well as communities abroad, the Gospel narrative about the birth of that Babe in a Bethlehem manger does not end in despair. Verses 9 and 10 of Luke chapter 2 tell us: “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people’… “
Darkness seeks to swallow the light. Hatred seeks to weaken and destroy love. Ignorance and fear seek to stamp out understanding and love—but this is not how the story ends. For those of us who are Christians, the Christmas Story is about how Light conquers the darkness and how hope is possible even when none seems possible. As we come together this Christmas whether to celebrate the birth of that Babe in the manger or simply to lift “a glass of cheer”, let us reflect upon the reality of so many being impacted by current immigration policies and make a decision to lift our voices for those who are made voiceless and forgotten in those tents along the southern border. Let us decide to celebrate this holiday, whether in church or in our living room, by remembering those who have no one to turn to as they await decisions by deportation courts. Perhaps then we can work together towards days that can become truly merry and truly bright. As the Gospel of John (1:5) reminds us,
The light keeps shining
in the dark,
and darkness has never
put it out.
This is the true Christmas miracle.
Rev. Dr. Daisy L. Machado
Executive Director, Hispanic Scholars Program
