Camila Cabello on her “really special” White House performance and her favorite Christmas tradition

Cable Risdon

Camila Cabello, The Jonas Brothers and Pentatonix are among the artists appearing on In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season, which debuts tonight, Tuesday, on PBS at 8 p.m. ET.  For Camila, her performance is especially meaningful, because in some ways, it shows that her family is living the American Dream.

At the White House, Camila performs a mariachi arrangement of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” with her mom and dad there for the occasion.  Camila’s mom is a Cuban immigrant, while her dad is a Mexican immigrant who recently became a citizen.

“The fact that I’m able to kind of pay tribute to my heritage and represent Latinos and also have my dad be sharing this moment with me, it’s kind of like a crazy moment,” Camila notes. “You know, the fact that, we’re an immigrant family and we’re at the White House is really special and really cool.”

Speaking of family and heritage, Camila says her favorite Christmas tradition is all about that.

“Latinos celebrate Christmas, the 24th, and it’s something that we call Nochebuena,” she explains. “And that’s when we have kind of like our party, and there’s, like, rice and beans and I guess like the traditional food from the countries.”

“And it’s also my grandma’s birthday is the 24th and my mom’s birthday is the 25th!” Camila adds. “So it’s a lot happening in those two days, so we celebrate their birthdays, too.

Tonight’s In Performance at the White House also features President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, as well as Norah Jones, Billy Porter, Jennifer Garner, Andrea Bocelli and country star Eric Church.  Check your local listings.

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