Meet Pancho Claus, Santa Of The Borderland Barrios

*I love a good Pancho Claus story. … only in the borderlands. VL

By Andrea Gompf, Remezcla

In 1956, Lalo Guerrero – otherwise known as “the father of Chicano music” – released ‘Pancho Claus,’ a funny little song parody of the classic ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Filled with playful lyrics like “Twas the Night before Christmas and all through the casa/ Mamá she was busy preparing the masa,” ‘Pancho Claus’ tells the story of Santa’s south of the border cousin, who wears a sombrero, and shows up to hand out gifts in a carreta pulled by donkeys instead of reindeer.

The song eventually became a cult Chicano Christmas classic, (one that waspretty hard to track down until it finally became available digitally in 2009), but it also left a more enduring legacy. Guerrero couldn’t have known it then, but his ‘Pancho Claus’ character would go on to inspire a real-life Tex-Mex Santa, one that has evolved into a uniquely Tejano Christmas staple more than 50 years after the song was released.

Click HERE to read the full story.