Niño Lindo, a Venezuelan traditional aguinaldo, a Christmas carol.
When my wife’s family lived in Venezuela, we spent every Christmas there, and I had the joy of celebrating with hallacas, aguinaldos, pan de jamón, and lots of other traditions. The first Venezuelan Christmas music I heard, including this song, was probably Morella Muñoz y Quinteto Contrapunto, who continue to amaze me, most likely at my wife’s Italian grandmother’s apartment, while we made hallacas the first Christmas I spent there, which turned out to be in the middle of a general strike, and trouble at the not-yet-nationalized oil company. It was a fun trip. We always mixed languages and cultures, with Italian and Spanish — well, mostly Sicily and the Canary Islands — taking senior roles, while Venezuela made up the balance, and the occasional surprise latkes when holidays overlapped.
Going to mass in Venezuela, by default, is a thing. We went to a larger church at times, on Sundays and Christmas Eve, but for a couple years right after we got married, my in-laws attended a smaller, neighborhood church, where I heard and danced and sang aguinaldos at the crack of dawn for days leading up to Christmas Eve, midnight mass. I know we all have “It’s not Christmas until…” boxes we like to check, and “It’s not Christmas until we sing Niño Lindo at midnight mass on Nochebuena” was my thing in those years.