Summary Of Too Many Tamales By Gary Soto

The book I chose is called Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. The plot of the book is based on a Latin family of three celebrating Christmas. We know that it is Christmas due to the weather outside, the presents the relatives bring to the dinner, the names of the characters, but mostly because of the food that the mother and daughter are preparing; tamales. A Christmas tradition in many Latin homes. The young daughter (Maria) and mother are preparing the tamales by adding and kneading the mesa (a flour-like mixture) portion of the tamales. The mother goes to answer the phone and Maria sees her mother’s ring on the table and puts it on. The mom comes back and Maria forgets about the ring. The father is called and together, as a family of three, they finish the twenty-four tamales and steam them.

After a while, the daughter remembers the ring and the kids all rush down to the kitchen. The hot tamales are on the kitchen table and Maria gives one to each of the other three children and, they begin to eat and eat and eat. As the last one is eaten, the ring is not found. The youngest child, the boy, complains about feeling sick upon eating too many tamales and that his stomach hurts. The daughter realizes that it is time to confess and goes to where the adults are. Seeing the ring on her mom finger, she explains what happen. The mom and aunt are understanding and the whole family laughs and go make more tamales. A tear falls from Maria’s eyes unto her hand inside the dough, and her Aunt Rosa’s tells her that a second batch of tamales always tastes better upon hearing this, her three stuffed children groan providing a comic relief and Maria laughing notices her tear has