Border Crossings

With its mix of mariachi music and Mexican folk dance, Nati Cano’s annual holiday show, “Fiesta Navidad,” is fast becoming as traditional as “The Nutcracker.”

And like its balletic counterpart, the evening begins with a party: Family and friends gather in a lamp-lit courtyard to celebrate La Posada, which retells the story of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodgings as they make their pilgrimage to Bethlehem.

La Posada traditionally takes place between Dec. 16 and 24. This year, however, it’s starting Tuesday night, when the Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents Cano’s renowned musical ensemble Mariachi Los Camperos, with Ballet Folklorico Ollin, under the artistic direction of Virginia Diediker.

Both troupes return for the seventh consecutive year to perform “Fiesta Navidad” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Segerstrom Hall.

“The different dances we perform touch on the beauty and vast diversity of Mexico’s regional culture. . . . We could dance on and on--there are so many of them,” said Diediker, a former dancer.

Though she’s not Latino, Diediker became fascinated with Mexican folk dance in college, eventually earning a degree in history and Chicano studies from Cal State Northridge.

She formed Ballet Folklorico Ollin in 1972 to preserve the arts and history of the culture she had come to love.

Along with its commemoration of La Posada, this year’s concert will honor the Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness of Mexico, whose feast is celebrated Dec. 12.

The legend is told and retold at this time of year. According to the faithful, she appeared in 1531 to an Indian named Juan Diego in Tepeyec, northeast of Mexico City. As proof of her visitation, the Virgin caused a rosebush to bloom on a rocky hilltop in the dead of winter. Diego gathered the blossoms in his cloak. When he presented them to Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga, the Virgin’s image was miraculously imprinted on his garment.

For the performance Tuesday night, the Virgin of Guadalupe’s portrait (already a part of the backdrop) will be lighted, Mariachi Los Camperos will play songs traditional to her feast day, and the dancers of Ballet Folklorico Ollin will form a procession bearing flowers and an Aztec headpiece--a symbolic reminder of the blending of the Aztec civilization and the Catholic faith.

But the show isn’t all ceremony. Cano narrates the performance like a jolly, bilingual St. Nick, and Diediker’s dancers swirl across the stage in bright colors, skirts twirling and snapping, heels and toes tapping.

“The wonderful thing, to me, about a cultural program like ‘Fiesta Navidad’ is that you don’t need that background to enjoy it,” she says. “Music, dance and art can transcend all language barriers, whatever culture you belong to.”

Together, the rhythms of Los Angeles-based Mariachi Los Camperos--founded by Cano in 1969--and the spirited dancing of San Fernando’s Ballet Folklorico Ollin take audiences on a cultural journey through Mexico.

“Fiesta Navidad” includes a mosaic of familiar songs and folk dances, such as Jalisco’s “El Jarabe Tapatio” to the exuberant Veracruz folk tune on which “La Bamba” was based. There’s even a finale of Christmas carols including “Noche de Paz” (“Silent Night”) and “Campanitas” (“Jingle Bells”).

Diediker says the audience’s enthusiasm never fails to amaze her when she joins the others on stage for the sing-along.

“I’m hearing people singing the same songs in Spanish, English, Armenian and Japanese,” she said. “When people come together like this, that’s when they begin to understand another culture. It’s the start of them living in harmony.”

SHOW TIME

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano and Ballet Folklorico Ollin in “Fiesta Navidad,” sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Tuesday. $18 to $38. (714) 556-2787.