Ramon Ayala's posada is moved to Dodge Arena
HIDALGO -- The city's posada will be at the Dodge Arena today, said City Manager Joe Vera.
"It's just too wet," Vera said Wednesday morning.
The charity event, hosted by Grammy-winning norteño icon Ramon Ayala, traditionally begins with a Mass and a re-enactment of the Nativity in front of Hidalgo City Hall, 704 Texano Dr. Throngs of Valley families then line up outside the Ayala residence, 727 Texano Drive, for toy giveaways. Ayala caps the night with a free musical performance.
The posada coincides with the city’s Festival of Lights, an annual display of Christmas lights throughout the city. Organizers say the display, which features more than 2 million lights, is the largest of its kind in South Texas.
Hidalgo City Manager Joe Vera said the city received much rain last night, so officials decided to move the event to the arena, 2600 State Highway 336, which will begin at 4 p.m. A posada is a Christmas festival celebrated in Latin America that dramatizes Joseph and Mary’s search for lodging in anticipation of the birth of Jesus.
The 10th annual posada is scheduled to take place just days after Ayala performed at a party purportedly hosted by the Beltrán Leyva cartel in Tepoztlán, Mor.
A spokesman for the federal Attorney General’s Office told The Associated Press that Ayala was released after being questioned Saturday following a military operation that is part of the government’s campaign to crack down on drug gangs. Authorities found no grounds for charging him with a crime, the spokesman said.
