SPECIAL EVENTS : Tex-Mex, Norteno Bands to Join Festival Lineup

Musical traditions from and influenced by Mexico--from mariachi and norteno to Tex-Mex--will be featured in the third annual Christmas Celebration starting Sunday at Santa Ana’s Fiesta Marketplace.

Accordion-driven norteno music, to be played by Juan Chapa y Su Conjunto, and Tex-Mex, which combines rock ‘n’ roll with Mexican instrumentation and will be played by Albert Ramon y Su Tierra Chicana, are new additions this year. Also scheduled for the Celebration, which continues each Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 22, are a quartet of singers from Opera Pacific, folkloric dancers, a play from Fullerton’s Teatro Cometa and local school choirs singing carols in Spanish.

A commercial center in downtown Santa Ana that caters to the county’s Latino community, Fiesta Marketplace hosts the Christmas festival in addition to an annual mariachi festival each May. This year’s mariachis drew 45,000 people, noted Florinda Mintz, the Marketplace project director. “Finally we can show there is a community, that they respond.”

This is a list of the Celebration’s major acts and when they will perform:

* Sunday: Opera Pacific quartet (2 p.m.); UCI Ballet Folklorico with Student Mariachi of UCI (4 p.m.); Mariachi Uclatan (5 p.m.).

* Dec. 15: Opera Pacific quartet (2 p.m.); Relampago del Cielo Ballet Folklorico (4 p.m.); Albert Ramon y Su Tierra Chicana (5 p.m.).

* Dec. 22: Opera Pacific quartet (2 p.m.); Teatro Cometa (4 p.m.); Juan Chapa y Su Conjunto (5 p.m.).

Other events include a Virgin of Guadalupe procession, Dec. 8 from 1 to 4 p.m.; and the arrival of a bilingual Santa Claus, Dec. 22 at 1 p.m. Admission to all events is free.

What: The Fiesta Marketplace Christmas Celebration.

When: Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 7 p.m., starting Sunday, Dec. 1 and continuing through Dec. 22.

Where: The Fiesta Marketplace, El Paseo Guadalupe (Spurgeon Street between 3rd and 4th streets), Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: From the Santa Ana Freeway, take 1st Street west to Spurgeon and turn right.

Wherewithal: Free.

Where to Call: (714) 558-6869.