The Brief

Nearly every pop music holiday song written in the past 80 years owes at least some of its DNA to one Christmas tune in particular: "White Christmas," written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby, which he first recorded in 1942.

It's reportedly still one of the best-selling songs of all time in any genre, though chart data from decades ago is unreliable. Even given that murkiness, the Guinness Book of World Records named it as the best-selling physical single of all time in 2012.

"White Christmas" wrote the formula for modern secular holiday songs — despite its complex and troubling history.

Songwriter Irving Berlin wasn't destined to be a Yuletide magic maker. He was born Israel Baline in Siberia to an Orthodox Jewish family; his father was a cantor turned kosher butcher. But Berlin embraced assimilation — he married an Irish Catholic woman and had Christmas trees in his house. Even so, for Berlin, Christmas was a holiday shadowed by personal tragedy.

"On Christmas Day, 1928, his only son died. He always told members of his family that he disliked Christmas for this reason, that he could never, never get past the sadness that he experienced on Christmas Day," said author and New York Times contributing writer Jody Rosen, who wrote a book called White Christmas: The Story of an American Song.

The infant Irving Berlin Jr. died suddenly, less than a month after he was born. And at its heart, "White Christmas" is a deeply melancholic song.

Most Christmas carols and pop songs were unabashedly joyful. Berlin's song represented a turn, Rosen said: "It was strange to have a song that was all about this nose-pressed-up-to-the-glass feeling."

It also set a certain standard for Christmas songs that are about nostalgia, about some lost Christmas past. (Think, for example, of another enduring hit that came shortly after Berlin's smash: "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," which Judy Garland sang in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, and which was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.)

But there's other stuff going on too. Irving Berlin was a hit machine as a Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songwriter. As a New Yorker and an immigrant himself, he was intimately familiar with a particular genre of songs, Rosen said: "That tradition of so-called 'home songs,' you know, songs that pine for a lost place, a lost ideal. These songs are so huge because we have an immigrant population, lots of people who've done a lot of moving. So there were songs about Irish people longing for Ireland and Italians longing for the old country there."

He said Berlin took that genre and flipped it into a Christmas song.

That's especially true of a largely forgotten, tongue-in-cheek introductory verse Berlin originally wrote for "White Christmas." The narrator is a New Yorker stuck in California (as Berlin frequently was, churning out songs for Hollywood): "The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway ... but it's December the 24th, and I am longing to be up north!" the protagonist sings.

Rosen said most people listening to "White Christmas" are missing additional subtext. He said that much of that nostalgic vibe in "White Christmas" — all that longing for a pristine, innocent Christmas of yore — is a reference to explicitly racist minstrel songs like Stephen Foster's "Old Kentucky Home," sung by Al Jolson and others — music that was still a staple in Berlin's day.

Foster was inspired by the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and the song, hailed by Frederick Douglass and Paul Robeson, was meant to be empathetic to the abolitionist cause — the narrator is longing to be reunited with his wife and children, but their family has been torn apart by slaveholders. It later became a popular tune at minstrel shows, with its saddest lines omitted and its meaning twisted.

In "Old Kentucky Home," Rosen said, "You have, grotesquely, the freed Black man longing for life back below the Mason-Dixon line, back on the plantation. Here, instead of a Black man in the north longing for the sultry south, we have a well-to-do white person longing for the wintry north."

But the racial dynamics of "White Christmas" aren't just a matter of subtle references to older songs. Irving Berlin had great commercial expectations for "White Christmas." He built a whole movie around it: 1942's Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

Holiday Inn is stuffed with racist stereotypes and an entire blackface number. (That scene is usually excised from TV broadcasts today, but the whole film is available to stream online.) As Crosby and his love interest, played by Marjorie Reynolds, prepare to perform a song about Abraham Lincoln, Crosby spreads greasepaint on her face, as the orchestra plays "White Christmas" underneath. Not only is "White Christmas" the movie's biggest hit, it's also the film's romantic theme.

Blackface on stage and on screen was very much a recent memory for 1940s audiences, said scholar Brynn Shiovitz. She's the author of the book Behind the Screen: Tap Dance, Race, and Invisibility During Hollywood's Golden Age.

In Holiday Inn, Shiovitz said, "We get a pairing of nostalgia for Christmas, but also nostalgia for blackface, because so many of the people that were watching Holiday Inn when it premiered in the theaters grew up watching vaudeville, grew up watching their parents maybe even perform in blackface."

Audiences loved the song "White Christmas" and its spotlight in Holiday Inn — and American GIs stationed abroad during World War II clamored for the Armed Forces Radio Service to play the song. "White Christmas" was so sturdily successful that Hollywood made another movie centering the song in 1954 — also called White Christmas — this time starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

Since then, legions of musicians have recorded their own versions of "White Christmas" — including The Drifters, Elvis Presley, Iggy Pop and Sabrina Carpenter. And of course, each generation adds new layers of meaning to the song as it is stitched into our holiday season each year, said Shiovitz.

"With all of these other memories that people have of Christmas, whether it's being piped in while you're shopping, or it's playing on the radio in the car as you're driving to visit family — it's easy to kind of separate it from its history. People develop new memories with it. People have their own ideas of what the song represents, so it's just incredibly complex," Shiovitz said.

Today's audiences and artists don't necessarily hear or even know about the song's racist history, Shiovitz said — but that doesn't mean it's not there.
This story was edited for radio and digital by Jennifer Vanasco.
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MEXICO CITY — The Mexican army killed the leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho, " in an operation Sunday, a federal official said.

The official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said it happened during a military operation in the western state of Jalisco.

It followed several hours of roadblocks with burning vehicles in Jalisco and other states. Such tactics are commonly used by the cartels to block military operations.

Videos circulating social media showed plumes of smoke billowing over the city of Puerto Vallarta, a major city in Jalisco, and sprinting through the airport of the state's capital in panic. On Sunday afternoon, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to Puerto Vallarta "due to an ongoing security situation" and advised customers not to go to their airport.

The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, is one of the most powerful and fasted growing criminal organizations in Mexico and was born in 2009.

In February, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.

It has been one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military—including helicopters—and a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination attempt with grenades and high-powered rifles in the heart of Mexico City against the then head of the capital's police force and now head of federal security.

The DEA considers this cartel to be as powerful as the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico's most infamous criminal groups, with a presence in all 50 U.S. states where it distributes tons of drugs. It is one of the main suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. market and, like the Sinaloa cartel, earns billions from the production of fentanyl and methamphetamines.

Since 2017, Oseguera Cervantes has been indicted several times in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The most recent superseding indictment, filed on April 5, 2022, charges Oseguera Cervantes with conspiracy and distribution of controlled substances (methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl) for the purpose of illegal importation into the United States and use of firearms during and in connection with drug trafficking offenses. Oseguera Cervantes is also charged under the Drug Kingpin Enforcement Act for directing a continuing criminal enterprise.
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Hermon — Some shoppers heading into Fresco Market were lost in their phones, but when they momentarily looked up, they were greeted by a flap of brilliant green feathers and a cheery squawk. Phones were put away.

“Pepe! Hey Pepe! So good to see you!”

Perched on the shoulder of T.J. Gonzalez, Pepe the Parrot was in full greeter mode. Wide-eyed and seeming to almost smile as he surveyed the parking lot and his approaching public, Pepe did what he naturally does: make people happy.

A common sight at the Hermon market, near where they live, Gonzalez and Pepe can also be found at community centers, farmers’ markets and local events. They often take the Metro into downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and other locations.

There’s no money asked, stressed Gonzalez, adding that Pepe simply adores the attention. “People want to see and talk with him more than me,” he joked as he cracked a nut and placed it in his mouth. On cue, the bird reached around Gonzalez’s mouth to retrieve it.

Michael Eagle-Hall of El Sereno is delighted to meet Pepe outside of the Fresco Market in Hermon.

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Brenda Rees

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The Eastsider

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A mail carrier for 37 years before he retired, Gonzalez found Pepe, a red-crowned Amazon (flocks are often seen in Northeast L.A.) in July 2021. The chick had fallen out of a nest and was flailing on a busy street in San Marino. “He was like roadkill,” said Gonzalez, who watched cars drive over (without striking) the bird.

Gonzalez retrieved the parrot and looked for help, but wildlife rehabbers said they’d euthanize the bird since it had a broken wing. Gonzalez instead brought him to a vet and christened him Pepe.

Since Pepe could not fly, Gonzalez started walking him around the neighborhood. He soon discovered how kids and adults enjoyed interacting with the parrot. Pepe is also a social media darling, with more than 8,600 followers on Instagram.

Pepe is more of a squawker than a talker, but Gonzalez has learned how to art-direct photos of people and the bird, instructing them on how to hold their hands and arms best. “We just want that smile because that’s all that Pepe wants from you,” said Gonzalez.

Crews have now recovered the bodies of all nine backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Northern California earlier this week. It marks an end to what authorities on Saturday described as an agonizing five-day search and recovery operation complicated by intense winter storms northwest of Lake Tahoe.

"While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home," said Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon during a Saturday news conference.

Until Saturday, authorities had not confirmed the death of a ninth victim, a skier who had been missing and presumed dead. Officials say their body was found near the eight other victims that have now been recovered. Authorities said avalanche hazards and weather conditions were too dangerous most of the week to search for the remaining victim or recover the bodies.

Four of the bodies were recovered on Friday, and the rest of the bodies were recovered on Saturday, all in the Castle Peak area where the avalanche – one of the deadliest in California history — struck. Six people from the group of 15 skiers survived Tuesday's disaster, the last day of a three-day backcountry ski trip. One guide and five travelers were among the survivors.

Helicopters with the California National Guard as well as the California Highway Patrol were used to hoist the remaining bodies from the mountain, officials said at the press conference.

On Friday, officials were able to use specialized techniques with the help of Pacific Gas & Electric to reduce the avalanche risk.

The ski trip was organized by Blackbird Mountain Guides, an outdoor tour company based in Truckee, Calif. Moon confirmed the identities of the victims. Three guides were killed: Andrew Alissandratos, 34, from Verdi, Nev.; Michael Henry, 30, from Soda Springs, Calif.; and Nicole Choo, 42, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The other victims, who had signed up for the group trip, are: Carrie Atkin, 46, of Soda Springs; Lizabeth Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho; Danielle Keatley, 44, of Soda Springs and Larkspur, Calif.; Kate Morse, 45, of Soda Springs and Tiburon, Calif.; Caroline Sekar, 45, of Soda Springs and San Francisco; and Katherine Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae, Calif.

The Sierra Avalanche Center classified the avalanche between a D2 and D3 on the avalanche danger scale.

"A D2 would take down a person. A D3 would take down a house, so it was right in between those. It was described by them as a football field length of a path of the avalanche," Sheriff Moon said on Saturday.

Multiple agencies are investigating.

"We are investigating the incident to determine if there were any factors that would be considered criminal negligence," Ashley Quadros with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office said in an email to NPR on Sunday. "It is a standard investigation. It is too early to know if criminal charges will be applicable, as the investigation is preliminary and remains active and ongoing."

The area will be closed to visitors for several weeks.
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