‘Fiesta Navidad’ celebrates holiday traditions

Kimberley Mcgee

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 | 9:44 a.m.

What: "Fiesta Navidad."

When: 8 p.m. today.

Where: UNLV's Performing Arts Center.

Cost: $20.38, $31.10, $41.83.

Information: 895-2787.

At Christmas time in Mexico, Christians open their doors to family and neighbors in a gesture of charity in memory of Mary and Joseph on the night the baby Jesus was born.

Food is shared, wine is drunk and children break open a pinata and dance to mariachi music.

Mariachi leader Natividad "Nati" Cano has brought the Mexican traditions that meant so much to him as a child to the stage in the form of "Fiesta Navidad."

The Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, led by Cano, and Ballet Folklorico Ollin present the Mexican Christmas pageant tonight at the UNLV Performing Arts Center.

"Fiesta Navidad" blends the traditional Fiesta de la Posada, the re-enactment of

Joseph and Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem, with traditional dances and music of colonial Mexico and the breaking of the pinata.

Classic American Christmas carols, such as "White Christmas" and "Silver Bells," conclude the show with an audience sing-along -- mariachi style.

The 11-piece Mariachi Los Camperos band plays continuously onstage for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

"You have to see it; it's nothing like you've seen," Cano said.

Since 1969 Cano's Los Camperos has been a fixture of the Los Angeles music scene. The band was featured on pop singer Linda Ronstadt's album, "Canciones de mi Padre," and has performed on the Grammy Awards, "The Tonight Show" and recorded seven albums.

As a child in Mexico, Cano spun plans to become a famous musician. "My dream was to take the mariachi to the concert hall, and my dream came true," he said.

Cano was born in Jalisco, Mexico, in 1933, to a family of musicians. He picked up the vihuela, a mariachi guitar, and played along with his father and grandfather.

"My father saw that I had talent, and I was sent to school to learn to play," Cano said. "I practiced very hard as a young boy."

He played at restaurants and other venues in Mexico, eventually forming a mariachi band and moving to upscale stages in Baja, Mexico.

But he had bigger plans.

"I had a dream to come to Los Angeles, everybody wanted to come to the U.S. then," he said.

In 1961 he became music director of the Mariachi Aguila in Tijuana. It was his first step toward fame.

He relocated the band, along with family and friends, to Los Angeles that same year and changed its name to Los Camperos.

The group was soon playing lounges on the Las Vegas Strip.

"At that time it was a great honor for us to play on the Strip," Cano said. "The Desert Inn in the '60s was the place to be."

The money was good and Cano was fulfilling his dream, but the band was on the road three to six months out of the year.

"It was hard on the family," Cano said.

In 1970 the band pooled its money to open a restaurant, La Huenda, in Los Angeles and created a strong, and lucrative, cultural and familial foundation for itself and the close-knit band members.

From there the musicians selected where the band would perform, how long they would be gone and what type of music they would play.

As the restaurant took hold financially and Los Camperos continued to play clubs, Cano watched his family -- and esteem -- grow.

He received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and was also honored by Mexico with the Silvestre Vargas Award for artistic excellence. Cano also lectures for the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA.

A Costa Mesa, Calif., club owner's suggestion for a Christmas show inspired Cano seven years ago to create "Fiesta Navidad."

"I want to show the audience something different," Cano said of "Fiesta Navidad." "With this, I do. It's not traditional, yet Mariachi music, there is nothing you can change. It's beautiful."