Jessica Crabtree

Award-winning Native musician Robert Mirabal released this record a few years ago to share the powerful cross-cultural fusion of the Christmas holiday experience in his home pueblo of Taos.

Known for his expert flute-playing as well as for his candid portrayals of Pueblo life, he’s compiled this album to include traditional Western Christmas carols with a Native twist, as well as a few personal reflections from the songwriter’s own pen.

Christmas celebrations are a powerful and solemn tradition in the Pueblos, notwithstanding their long and checkered connection with Christianity dating all the way back to the Spanish Conquest.

For centuries, the Native Americans of the Southwest have suffered under the brutal legacy of the forced conversions, slave labor, abuse, and cultural genocide brought by the mission system. But after generations of co-existence, the two cultures have formed a unique and inseparable cultural bond. Today, most Pueblo Indians claim Catholicism or practice a blend of Christian and Native beliefs. Mirabal says:

“People ask me why I’ve made a Christmas album after all the struggles between Indigenous Peoples and Christianity. My answer is that I needed to address the contradictions. Our Native religion is based on Nature and is a 24/7, 365-day spiritual concept, but then on the corner there’s a Catholic Church. For many Americans, Christmas is a time when they become conscious of spirituality, and I wanted to connect our cultures at this special time. No matter what the politics were like when these songs were first heard, the music was created to fill the listener with love, hope and joy. They show that beauty can go beyond conflict to a place where music is the hero.”

You can listen to the entire album on Rhapsody. “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” and a whimsical rendition of “Go Tell it on the Mountain” are especially favorite – but try them all on for size!

Star Road Records: Robert Mirabal “Pueblo Christmas”