Tamale Traditions

I believe in the traditions that bring families together, which is what tamales have become for many families and cultures. The word tamale comes from the Aztec word “tamalii” which means wrapped food. They can be traced back in history, to 5000 B.C and were served to Aztec, Mayan, And Incan warriors because of their ability to travel easily and the nutrition in them. Now in days, tamales are eaten mainly during the fall because of their warmth and spiciness. In many Hispanic communities, the tamales are mainly used at for social gatherings, or events. I wanted to know the history and background of tamales. I found that initially women were taken along in battle as cooks for the army to make the masa for the tortillas, and the meats, caldos,

A need grew to have more portable nutritious food. Tamales could be pre-made ahead of time and packed, the cooked as needed. They were steamed, grilled on the comal over the fire, directly on coal to warm, or they would eaten them cold. While searching for information, I did not find any record of which culture actually created the tamale but they believe that the domino effect started where one tribe or culture started the culture and the others soon followed after and so on.The tamale caught on very fast and eventually grew in variety and diversity continuing to todays culture. There were plain tamales, tamales with red, green, yellow, black chile, and tamales with chocolate. There’s a lot of varieties and inventive ways of preparing and making tamales. Everything depends on the persona and how they want to make them, the size, colors and shapes carried almost as much as fillings. The wrappings are made of corn husks, banana

Until that times comes around the sound of laughter, love, and excitement rings through out every corner of the walls. While everyone is catching up with the latest gossip and catches up with each family member the smell of the tamales cooking fills up the entire house. My grandma then makes her warm atole and cold salsa to go with the warm delicious tamales. All the parents talk, the younger kids play and we await the sweet four word sentence when my grandmother screams out “Ya estan los tamales!!” As soon as everyone hears that, everyone rushes to the kitchen to grab a plate trying to be the first one their to grab the biggest tamale possible. As soon as we sit down bless the food, the load house of Mexicans soon enough becomes very quiet and all you can hear is the chewing of everyones tamale. I truly believe that tamales unite us all and remind us the importance of god, family, and love. We might not see each other a lot through out the year but everyone anxiously awaits christmas to celebrate family and