This week on a special holiday episode of Arizona Illustrated a look at the architecture and traditions of Tucson's Santa Cruz Church.

Pain was conquered by the Muslims for 100 years or something.

There's some blending between the Arabs and the Spanish culture.

Celebrating Kwanzaa with our B.O.. William.

I started celebrating Kwanzaa in 1967.

This was the year after Kwanzaa had been initiated.

A look at Tucson's Nascimento from the vault.

This is a martini until the Mexicans style nativity scene.

And Brian Lopez sings Old Pueblo Christmas Hello and welcome to a special holiday episode of Arizona illustrator and I'm Tom McNamara, and we're joining you from the Tucson Botanical Gardens, a beloved holiday destination for over 30 years now.

You know, it all started with the luminary that you see, but this year they've expanded it even further with the new Lights Up Festival.

Here to tell us more about that is the executive director of the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Michelle Conklin.

Michelle.

Thanks for having us in again.

Oh, it's wonderful to have you.

You are welcome any time.

Thanks.

We love it here.

And every holiday season, it seems we've drifted your way.

And it's been a great experience.

You are bigger and brighter than ever this year.

Tell us.

Bigger.

We are bigger.

And brighter by about a million.

A little over a million lights.

So this is a brand new event.

So we we've reimagined the old wonderful much loved luminaries nights and transformed it to lights up and a holiday festival illumination.

And we got the idea actually because of COVID.

It changed the way we did things.

And we decided to create enhance the garden through lights to show with artistic features and zones and special music and special lights and brought the community together to really make this happen.

And what's been the reaction that you've seen night after night?

Fantastic.

In fact, last week, two ladies that were in their eighties came up to me, wanted to hug me and told me that this show made them feel like they were eight years old again.

So what more could you want?

What's your favorite part of all the new things you've incorporated here?

What's your all right.

Well, you know, it started out the dancing trees.

That was my favorite.

But then the stars that are 70 feet up in the air, that is there's 30 of them.

That's pretty magnificent.

So I thought, OK, now that's my favorite.

But then I walk down Luminary Alley, and I saw the chandeliers, and I thought, well, maybe this is my favorite.

So it's really hard because each zone has its own look, feel emotion.

So it's all my favorite.

Well, thank you again and happy holidays.

Thank you.

Happy holidays.

To everyone.

Thanks, Michel.

Early this month, on December 12th, many two cities across the city celebrated the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

For over 50 years, the Santa Cruz Catholic Church has held a parade through South Tucson.

This become a beautiful and meaningful holiday tradition (cars humming) - [Narrator] The Santa Cruz Catholic Church and it's distinctive 90 foot bell tower dominate the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 22nd Street in Tucson, Arizona.

It's unlike anything else on the visual horizon.

(bells chiming) In 1916, when construction first began, this was the southern edge of Tucson city limits.

The location was chosen by Bishop Henry Granjon to serve the growing Mexican population on the south side, and because he reportedly liked to hunt rabbits in the area.

Over time the outskirts became the inner city, but the church seemingly unaffected by time, retains it's historic tranquility.

- Things are in flux.

Not in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz we have many generations, and that really adds to the culture, the connection.

You can go anywhere in Tucson, and somebody has a connection to Santa Cruz Church.

- [Narrator] The history of this building is deep and rich, as are the stories of the families who make up the congregation.

Many have been attending for generations.

- The existence of this parish of Santa Cruz as a community, as a cultural reality, religious reality has been very tolerant.

Tolerance to all sorts of people, because of the location that we are in.

We're at the border basically of South Tucson and Tucson.

We've been more connected to South Tucson.

(lively music) - [Narrator] The annual "Fiesta De La Familia" in May brings the community together around food, music, and some beer.

(Mexican music) The crowd is largely Hispanic and working class.

The men bring their own chairs to sit and people watch.

(Mexican music) People dance as the sun goes down.

It is a universal scene, and at the same time, uniquely Tucson.

(screaming) Adults and children are excited to be seen there.

(screaming) - I've been in a lot of places.

I've been in Rome.

I've been in Uganda, but I am very happy to be here.

When I see that tower coming down 22nd Street, it really gives me a great feeling.

You have something that links you to your wonderful past, and architecturally.

- [Narrator] The architect, Manuel Flores, built the structure that was designed by Bishop Henry Granjon.

It was heavily influenced by the churches Granjon saw in Southern Spain.

(cars humming) - Spain was conquered by the Muslim for 400 years or so.

There's some blending between the Arabs and the Spanish culture.

Where it really brings out the highlight of this architecture, it's in the bell tower.

- When World War I ended, the church had not officially opened yet, and the Bishop ran up there an rang that tower, to announce to the whole town the end of World War I.

And I still think that tower has a purpose for this town.

- [Narrator] Under the plaster and the arabic detailing, the tower is built of brick, but the rest of the structure is primarily adobe.

Bishop Granjon reportedly paid Native Americans $10 per load of 2,000 adobe bricks.

According to the 1996 application to the National Register of Historic Places, the church is the largest adobe structure built in Arizona, and is still in relatively good condition.

It even survived a politically motivated bombing in 1924.

(daunting music) Striking miners set off dynamite at the front of the church, blowing off the doors and shattering all the glass in the building.

No one was hurt and you get a sense that today's priests might have sided with the miners.

- And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

(laughs) - [Man] Oh God.

- [Narrator] The church's spiritual lineage dates back to Europe in the 1500s and the Order of Discalced Carmelites.

- We keep our vestments here.

That's the shield of the Order by the way.

This mount stands for Mount Carmel.

I feel very connected to the priests that went before me who wore those vestments.

We do harm to ourselves when we forget our ancestors.

And these are my spiritual ancestors.

- [Narrator] A group of Discalced Carmelite friars was sent from Spain to Mexico to do missionary work in the late 1800s.

In 1910 they fled the Mexican Revolution, and settled in many of the small mining towns across Southern Arizona.

- They were preaching to the people, teaching them their religion, helping them stay faithful to their Catholic faith.

- As a gift and standing for the friars, this church was built.

- [Narrator] On December 12, members of the Santa Cruz church meet at a small satellite location to celebrate the day of the "Virgin of Guadalupe".

- Just after I was born, we moved to Tucson from Nogales, and we've always been in the Santa Cruz area.

And as I got older, my parents moved, but we still kept coming to Santa Cruz.

So that's 60 years.

I got married there, and my children were baptized there.

I went to school there.

My children went to school there.

My grandson goes to school there.

- God is everything for me, and I feel like I'm blessing.

I'm living near to the church.

I can't live without God.

The church is beautiful, and the people too.

It's almost 100 years, and it's so beautiful church.

- I got baptized in nine months here at Santa Cruz Church.

I got confirmed.

Made my Holy First Communion.

All my relatives, my mother, my father, my brother, my grandparents, all that have passed away, we have had the funeral masses at Santa Cruz.

It just means a lot to me that, I feel their presence sometimes here at Santa Cruz.

(chanting in foreign language) (praying in foreign language) - [Narrator] The group will walk one mile back to Santa Cruz singing and praying along the way on the same route they've been traveling for over 50 years.

(singing in foreign language) While the route has stayed the same, the neighborhood has started to change in recent years.

- The people who are settling, and they're coming from across 22nd, from the cathedral down, it's that gentrification.

They're the ones who are taking an interest in starting something in this neighborhood.

That's why I'm somewhat torn, because I like vitality, life, people doing things and living.

At the same time, I wanna to protect the families that are here and who have a stake in this place, and not to have a whole cultural shift.

And yet, it happens.

It happens all over the country.

(praying in foreign language) - There's a balance between, you could say, the old and the new.

Even we see that in scriptures.

You don't toss away the old.

You don't disregard the new, but you make 'em work together.

- [Priest] We're not going to get fanatical about it, but we've done a pretty good job, and this neighborhood is pretty remarkable in retaining the traditions that go back three, four generations.

(bell tolls) (singing in foreign language) - We always think of history in such big terms, but the real history is the way people live every day.

(Mexican music) (speaking in foreign language) - How many feet have gone through the front door of this church?

How many of those people that have gone through have suffered through the Depression of the 1920s?

How many have lost sons and daughters in the first World War, second World War, Vietnam, the Gulf War?

Walking out of the this church brand new, because they now started a new life married.

Expected mothers, for the first time, they're waiting for their baby to be baptized.

Every single pair of feet that walk through that door and sit in these old pews have a story to say.

There's another holiday tradition upon us Kwanza and there's a two sonand who's dedicated her life to helping others understand and celebrate this holiday, including their African heritage.

(Barbea) one of the things that Maulana Karenga, the founder of Kwanzaa, taught us, he said, if you want to live for eternity, you have to build for eternity.

And we're that's what we're doing and rebuilding and reconnecting with our culture and our people Kwanzaa is a way of knowing.

Again, a way of knowing about myself when you hear like even like the Lion King, her grandma.

And you don't understand and you don't know why, because it's just that that that a Google, it's that spirit that Google is like that ancestral spirit that connects us to who we are.

And you hear it and it gives you this elation and this feeling about power and strength and empowering yourselves as African people.

My name is Barbara Williams, and I'm the artistic director and co-founder of the Barbara Williams performing company.

And so I started celebrating Kwanzaa in 1967.

This was the year after Kwanzaa had been initiated.

We were definitely on the south side of Chicago and which is just so rich in activism and culture and people and leaders.

We arrived in Tucson June the 12th 1972.

We it was pretty much a culture shock for us.

There was no, no really talk or concept of Kwanzaa.

So as a family, we started celebrating it here.

We just continued our celebration and we just started pulling in families and people that were interested again and beginning to know about who we are as people of African descent.

My name is Roland Benson, produced by wife Angela is my daughter.

Her daughter took dance with Barbie.

And we just became enamored with her.

Contributions to the community, and so we began to kind of follow Barbara and and her family and we that's how we learned about Kwanzaa.

All right, you have yours.

So I would invite.

All right.

What's going on here?

My name is Beah Williams and Barbie Williams is my mother.

I have been celebrating Kwanzaa all my life.

I didn't understand Kwanzaa until I got into my twenties when I found the value behind why we were brought up celebrating Kwanzaa and the value of passing that on to my son as well.

(Barbea) I feel like I have devoted my life to that.

That calling that sense of being chosen because we didn't know we had that disconnect.

Known beyond how badly I.

Every year that we've celebrated, it's been a learning experience, and I love the way that we share.

The principles and the ideas, I just really like that everybody is involved and everybody plays a part.

Each family member typically gets a principal and they're in charge of that day, so they do the presentation.

There's usually some sort of activity or game to get everybody involved, as well as they're in charge of choosing the meal for that day.

So it's probably the only time of year that we see each other every day for seven days.

So it's kind of nice.

(Beah) Kwanzaa, let's go back is an African-American celebration So it's a non-religious holiday that was started in 1966 by Maulana Carina from the US organization.

He saw what was going on with the Watts riots and how it was tearing our communities apart.

He developed this seven day principals with symbolizing of the seven days which have a significance to how we rebuild our communities are black communities, the English names of the seven principals of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

My name is Tariq Rasool.

And I'm the inventor of the Songhai Drummers I decided to start playing African drums about 34 years ago when I met Miss Barbea Williams in her performing company.

And she had access to African drummers.

And you can't talk about Mother Africa unless you talk about the traditional drum, because the drum is the heartbeat of civilization.

I mean, that's what it does.

It helps to celebrate Kwanzaa, the dance and the drum thing, Goma, which they say they connect.

There's no separation.

The dance of the drum, they work together, right?

Well, one of the principles is creativity.

We have created a way to reconnect our our culture.

in this next segment, from our archives to some legend, Big Jim Griffith looks at the Tucson tradition of Nascimento or Nativity scenes I'm standing in La Casa Cordova next to the Museum of Art, and I'm standing in front of an absolutely remarkable assemblage of figures.

This is a Nascimento, a Mexican style nativity scene that's erected every year by a woman named Maria Luisa Taymor, who does it in memory of her mother, whom she says used to make a really big one in Guadalajara.

In the old days, this is a Mexican adaptation of a European custom that probably started in the Middle Ages and in Mexico.

It took root and flowered in a particularly wonderful way because not only do we have what you'd expect in a nativity scene, you know, the manger, the Holy Family, the shepherds, the wise men, but you have the wise men arriving, you have the wise men leaving home.

You have a castle with King David to show that that Mary and Joseph were the line of David.

You have the annunciation.

You have all these different scenes from the Old and New Testament.

It is an opportunity to be intensely creative.

So many families have their own specific Nascimento or nativity scene tradition now.

I grew up in such a family, and my mother, when I was first married and moved away from home, she called me up and said, Well, did you put up an activity scene?

Yes, mother did.

You put Rosemary?

Rosemary.

Well, haven't you noticed?

We always have Rosemary in the activity scene, and so we always did.

Except I never noticed because according to her, Rosemary grew in the original stable in Bethlehem.

And you have to have Rosemary in the nativity scene.

So individual families have their own traditions.

And this was a time when of year in the Christian world at least, where families come can come closer together emulating the Holy Family and remembering the events of so long ago with this really beautiful costume that Maria Luisa, Tina has made public for all of us and which exists all over our community in many different forms.

The Nascimento this next song is one of our favorites this time of year.

Here is a talented Brian Lopez with his original song, Old Pueblo Christmas Christmas time is here in the 5-2-0 with my baby near the neon lights up our eyes like an old motel and down in the barrio The cactus dancin to and fro While the painted hills in the west ring out the year and the coyotes howl I think they figured it out It's Christmas in the Old Pueblo now Christmas has finally come and in Armory Park Yeah, we're having some fun.

Agave soaked to the bone, just to deck the halls and outside the children laugh from the rattlesnake bridge to the underpass.

These Desert Rat, yeah.

They thirst for some Christmas cheer.

So break those trumpets out and play that music out loud.

It's Christmas in the Old Pueblo now it's Christmas Day once again in the 619 residence my baby puts on some coffee to wake the day And let's see what Santa brought flow I see a fuzzy gift under the mistletoe Could this be the companion?

She's been waiting for I think it is.

It's Lionel so look at us now So much love all around It's Christmas in the Old Pueblo, Christmas in the Old Pueblo, Christmas in the Old Pueblo now Pueblo, now merry Christmas.

Before we go, here's a sneak peek at a few stories we're working on.

And using the word guilt, it was for me, it was flipping it because Gilded Age is associated with families that were wealthy during that time.

I'm using the word gilded to say privileged or wealthy, but as a black person.

So privileged to be black, wealthy to be black.

Blessed to be black.

Organ pipe, cactus or stent.

A serious Thurber II is a really great garden plant for a number of reasons.

One, it's incredibly drought tolerant and incredibly heat tolerant.

So it will thrive in really tough locations where other plants might not be able to make it.

Additionally, when it blooms, the flowers are really beautiful.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we'll be back on January 8th with more episodes of all new stories.