Alma’s Way: Alma’s Nochebuena; Three Kings Day Do-Over

We have a cute holiday episode for you today! We watched the PBS cartoon Alma's Way, about a Puerto Rican family living in the Bronx. In this episode we learned about Christmas Eve and Three Kings Day traditions, as well as how to navigate disappointment and family relationships. This is a good one to add to your Christmas-viewing list!

¡Hoy tenemos un lindo episodio de Navidad para ti! Vimos la serie de dibujos animados Alma's Way de PBS, sobre una familia puertorriqueña que vive en el Bronx. En este episodio, aprendimos sobre las tradiciones de la Nochebuena y el Día de los Reyes Magos, así como sobre cómo afrontar la decepción y las relaciones familiares. ¡Es un buen episodio para agregar a tu lista de programas para ver en Navidad!

https://www.wvia.org/shows/almas-way/episodes/almas-noche-buenathree-kings-day-do-over-agtrrt

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Big thanks to Santos Cornier for composing our intro and outro music. Check out his music here: / Muchas gracias a Santos Cornier por componer nuestra música de intro and outro. Escuche su musica aqui:

https://www.reverbnation.com/santoscornier?fbclid=IwAR1_flS4Dy8i9t6JFhrCkzW220URLKJMVPfndmi0wl7idlA82ECx6Q-wW2Q

Thanks also to the following sites for music and sound effects:
https://freepd.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://freesound.org/
https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/

Transcript

NANCY
Welcome to the BoricuameRican podcast, where we talk about all kinds of things related to Puerto Rico, from true crime to celebrities to personal stories and traditions! You can find us on Instagram at Boricuamerican underscore podcast, and on Facebook at Boricuamerican (we have a group and a Facebook page). I’m your host, Nancy Pinto, and I’m here with my husband and cohost, Chris.
 
CHRIS
Alma’s Way is a cartoon on PBS which was created in 2021 by Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on Sesame Street. This adorable show is about a Puerto Rican family living in the Bronx. The main character is Alma, who is 6, her little brother Junior, their parents, and their dog, Chacho. Chacho is one of the many nicknames for boys in Puerto Rico. It’s short for muchacho. 
  
 NANCY
 I usually watch all the American cartoons at Christmas, like Charlie Brown, Rudolph, and the Grinch, and it occurred to me that I never look for anything Puerto Rican. So I googled and found this, which is done in English but still teaches things about Puerto Rican culture. 

CHRIS
 The episode we watched was a two-parter. The first part was about Christmas Eve, which we call Noche Buena, which literally translates to “the Good Night.” In Puerto Rico, Noche Buena is a bigger deal than Christmas Day! Families typically gather for a traditional dinner, open presents, go to parrandas, and attend Midnight Mass. Puerto Ricans living in the US try to keep up as many traditions as they can. The hardest thing is probably the parrandas. They’re not as common in the US because it’s not that easy to arrange a caravan of 20 cars to drive from house to house, stopping to get out, play music and sing, do a little partying, and move on to the next house. On the island you don’t have to worry about snow or parking! The other traditions are much easier to keep alive. 

NANCY
 But back to our show. In the first segment, it’s Christmas Eve, and Alma is looking forward to her three main annual traditions: 1. Making ornaments with her little brother 2. Singing her favorite aguinaldo (aguinaldo means Christmas carol), and 3. Seeing her dad plug in and light up the outdoor decorations. But everything goes wrong. The dog sets off a chain of events that ends in their homemade tree topper getting squished. The relative – a cousin I guess? – who’s supposed to play her favorite aguinaldo suffers a broken guitar string for which he has no replacement. And last but not least, her dad’s plugs don’t reach and he doesn’t have an extension cord. 

CHRIS
 At first, Alma is upset because her traditions appear to be ruined. But the family quickly figures out how to make the best of it. The squished ornament still fits on top of the tree. Her cousin picks up a toy guitar and her father starts a silly new aguinaldo, and gets the family singing and dancing. And the whole extended Family goes door to door, singing and asking neighbors if they have an extension cord they could borrow. A bunch of them say no, but they offer food instead, and they have a great time. They started a parranda and hadn’t even meant to! In the end, someone does have an extension cord and the decorations light up the block, to everyone’s delight. 

NANCY
 After the evening turned out to be fun, Alma thinks about it and learns that you can improvise and keep the traditions going, even if they don’t look exactly the same. Her family made the best out of the situations that were handed to them, and ended up having a great time together after all. 
 
 CHRIS
 The second segment took place on Three Kings Day, but it wasn’t religious. It was about Alma’s relationship with her little brother. It starts with Alma noticing that Jr hadn’t opened the gift she had given him for Christmas. She just assumed he must not have liked it. It was a set of 2 or 3 little cars. Like Matchbox cars.  She sets out to get him something better. First she tries to buy something but can’t find anything good enough, so she makes an art project instead. She makes their dog out of construction paper. In the process, she blows off her brother, who keeps asking her to play with him, but she says she’s too busy on an important mission. Of course, he didn’t know her mission was for him. He didn’t understand why she wasn’t playing with him and his feelings got hurt.

NANCY
 Soon the family had to head out to a Three Kings Parade. Alma tried to play with her brother then, but he wouldn’t speak to her. She thought about it and replayed the day in her head and realized she had blown him off several times. She apologized and explained that she was trying to get him a makeup gift since he obviously didn’t like her xmas gift. He explained that he actually loved his gift and that the only reason he had not opened it yet was because he was saving it to play with her! And so Alma realized that the most important thing about Three Kings Day was family. (Sorry Jesus. But they did show the Three Kings and the nativity scene and camels, so it’s all good.). 

CHRIS
 I think overall the show did a good job of explaining some important values without being preachy or boring. It was really well done and should be easy for kids to understand. I also like how they presented the moral of each story, in the first one that you should think rationally when things don’t go as planned, rather than pouting or overreacting, and in the second one that you need to be mindful of your relationships and careful not to hurt people’s feelings even as you’re trying to do something nice. It’s good preparation for life. 
 
 NANCY
 As for the Puerto Rican cultural aspects, I think they did a good job of introducing some interesting and fun traditions. The background music was aguinaldos which was lovely and unusual to hear on PBS. Just not used to it. They also interacted with kids from other cultures, which was really nice and considerate. For example, they had a Jewish neighbor who wished them a Happy Hannukah. 
 This is the only episode of Alma’s Way that I’ve seen, but if the others are like this one, then I definitely recommend the show. It was super cute and creative. At least, this one was a nice one to add to the Christmas rotation.