I had totally forgotten Poncho Claus. I didn’t remember about him till I got an email from my old performance company I had been in all my youth in Houston.

For those that aren’t Texicans…Poncho Clause is the Hispanic version of Santa who brings gifts to kids in the Bario..what is the bario, you say? Why it is the prodominantly hispanic innercity community. I really wouldn’t consider it a ghetto though, it is quite a bit more peaceful. It is very colorful with “Dia de Los Muetos” at Halloween, and La Posada at Christmas ( spanish pagent of the first christmas through the streets of town, which I know most of the lyrics and have participated in the pagent many many times) the still play things like stick ball, and sell tamales from a vender, and have the ice cream man. Being that the bario is filled with old school values of good latin catholic up bringing. Families are often known to have tons of kids. Infact my favorite hispanic grandmother, Mrs. Garcia, had 13 kids, and I was a friend of several of her grand children, and she taught my mother to make authentic mexican frijoles (re-friedbeans).

One thing I miss about the Tex-ican christmas is the bums with their tex-mex accents drunk in front of the little asian convient store, singing Wooly Bully, and Christmas carols to keep themselves warm.

It’s funny, I have really hated christmas for years, but this year I have enjoyed bits and pieces of it. I enjoyed the real familyhood of Lil Beaux Peep Show, and having a group of girls that have a common goal and an interest in helping each other achieve it as a team, which I had began to think was an extinct trait in most people, and believed it to be disgaurded for doing things with as little effort and as high a profit possible. I had started to think that no one really cared about doing something from their blood sweat and tears. These girls make me feel a lot better about how I view the majority of humanity.

You can still make enough to support your self and your hobbies with out sacrificing integrity and quality. Lil Beaux Peep Show doesn’t yet, but over time it will build it’s support and all of this hard struggle will not have been in vain.