By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY | Claudia Herrera
Puerto Rican students sing about their homeland during a presentation at St. Thomas University.
MIAMI GARDENS | For the Christmas season, Puerto Rican students briefly transformed a college classroom into their homeland � and showed how their studies at St. Thomas University had transformed them as well.
The 38 youths were evacuees from their island home in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Under the care of the university, they learned more about their dual Catholic and Caribbean heritage.
Photographer: COURTESY | Claudia Herrera
Two Puerto Rican students portray Mary and Joseph during a pageant at St. Thomas University.
Photographer: COURTESY | Claudia Herrera
Puerto Rican students portray the Wise Men during a pageant at St. Thomas University.
On Dec. 12, they showed their new knowledge with a Christmas pageant and concert for STU staff and faculty.
“It incorporated all they’d learned in light of Christmas and their culture,” said Claudia H. Herrera, who taught them a seven-week course on Catholicism. “When they first came, they showed little interest in their faith. But during the course, they remembered what had been taught to them when they were little.”
The archdiocese-run university sponsored the youths, 18 to 24 years old, as part of its relief outreach to Puerto Rico. STU’s School of Theology and Ministry asked Herrera to teach them the foundations of Catholicism, including history, teachings, theology and spirituality. Herrera, director of campus ministry at STU, holds a doctorate in practical theology, with a specialty in first- and second-generation Americans.
Their final project was to blend what they’d learned with the culture they’d grown up in. They titled their project “Una Navidad en Puerto Rico,” an ethnic celebration of Christmas � then presented it to university staff and faculty who had been involved with Puerto Rico relief.
In a classroom decorated as a street scene from their island, the students gave a brief pageant, drawn from Bible passages. Some dressed as Mary and Joseph and the Three Kings, journeying to Judea. Others formed a choir, blending seasonal and cultural songs.
Christmas music included titles like “Santa la Noche” (O Holy Night) and “Llegada de los Reyes Magos” (Arrival of the Three Wise Men). They also folded in their Puerto Rican heritage with songs like “Mi Viejo San Juan” (My Old San Juan) and “Es Navidad en Mi País” (It’s Christmas in my Country).
They closed the program with a demonstration of a parranda, or street festival � singing and playing instruments like guiro, tambourines and maracas.
Finally, some of the youths confessed their feelings about being separated from their families. “They talked about going to Puerto Rico for the births of siblings or the deaths of family members,” Herrera said. “So they were glad for their new community at St. Thomas University.”
The group even produced a YouTube video in Spanish, interviewing their friends and classmates about their stories.
That feeling of togetherness also colored their Christmas, Herrera said. “Some were returning to Puerto Rico for Christmas. Some were going to family members who are in the United States. And for some, faculty and staff are taking them in.”
At the end, Herrera said, the students seemed to get it: to know and express their faith through their heritage. “They said their faith was strengthened through the class,” she said.
One of the youths, from an evangelical background, even joined an RCIA program � for initiation into the Catholic faith � at St. Thomas University, she said.
Photographer: COURTESY | Claudia Herrera
Stylized Puerto Rican flag forms a backdrop to a Christmas program at St. Thomas University.
