Tag Archives: tamales

Nochebuena

Text:

“It’s a few nights before Christmas Eve — because we actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. I think that’s just a Mexican thing. But we’ll gather, like, my cousins and my aunt — and yeah, actually it’s mostly just the women. And we’ll make tamales. And it’s literally — tamale-making isn’t just baking tamales; you’re up for hours. It’s so much hard work. We do it every year, and it’s pretty miserable, honestly. But I like it because I would continue it with my kids, because I think it’s important. I don’t really see my extended family that much throughout the year.”

Context:


Nochebuena — Spanish for “Good Night” — is celebrated on December 24th and is deeply embedded in Mexican Catholic tradition, marking the end of Las Posadas, a nine-day celebration commemorating Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter before the birth of Jesus. For the informant’s family, Nochebuena is the primary Christmas celebration, and tamale-making is its central ritual activity. The labor-intensive process of making tamales — spreading masa, filling, folding, and steaming — typically takes an entire day and is performed collectively, almost exclusively by the women of the family.

Analysis:

The informant’s mixture of affection and mild complaint — “it’s pretty miserable, but I’d continue it with my kids” — is a remarkably honest articulation of how folk traditions sustain themselves even when they are demanding. The hardship is not incidental but parallels how heritage can become a gendered experience. The hours of shared labor are the means by which the women bond and provide sustenance for the rest of the family. This is characteristic of foodways rituals in which the process matters as much as the product: the tamales are not merely the end result but the occasion for the gathering itself. The gendered dimension encodes a specific vision of family structure and cultural transmission, one that the informant has absorbed and plans to carry forward.

Tamales as an Annual Christmas Tradition – Foodways

Leave a reply

Age – 28

Text: CB – “Every Christmas, my family come together to make tamales in a very specific way. Precise amounts of masa, sauce with potato, cheese, meat, and a green olive. This blend is very important to the tradition as it’s what was grown in the garden when my grandmother was little. They grew up very poor and tamales can keep for a very long time so they would all go over to my big Nana‘s house to make hundreds of tamales for everyone to enjoy throughout the year.”

Interviewer – “That’s really cool, is there a specific method to making them? Is it a whole team effort or is it just a few people?”

CB – “It’s that, a team effort. The whole family turns up and we divide into stations. Team one is unfolding the cornhusks. Team two is putting in the Masa and then every other team puts in a separate ingredient! It’s an assembly line to make that much, taking a whole day. This whole train is actively coordinated by my Nana. It’s a family effort, but her operation.”

Context: This annual holiday ritual around Chistmas food ways was shared by the informant, CB, during a discussion about their family, the holidays, and if any kinds of special events took place every year like clockwork. CB and their family are of Latino origin, with them and their family partaking in this massive production line for tamales each year on Christmas, though the tradition originally came from CB’s Nana and has since been passed down throughout their family.

Analysis: The act of making tamales is a food-based annually calendrical ritual during Christmas, marking its importance in the symbolism of the holiday itself, while also allowing the entire family tree to reflect back on their humble upbringings. CB’s Nana grew up where this ritual was out of necessity to ensure enough food was put on the table, and has since transformed into a craft to commune with their own family members and large extended family, recollecting the history they actively draw from, and as an immense gesture of care, love, and familial belonging as feasts are ritualistic in their own right. Being a force to bring people together, for discussion and intimacy, the art of constructing tamales en masse acts as the foundation or precursor, establishing the connection between each family member, their lineage, and the love they all share for one another, the holiday, and the food they make.

Tamales

Text:

RF: The making of the tamales was a big group activity. With everybody, you know, around the table, and the big pots of the masa, and all that stuff. Most of the time we were over at my [aunt]’s house, and my great grandmother was there, and my mom, and–it seems to me like there were so many aunts and uncles around. But, you know, we’d have the big pot with all the masa that they’d mixed, and they’d mixed it up with their hands. We would go to [store name] and get the masa for tortillas, and then we would hand-mix the lard in, and they would do it with their hands and I was always like, “that’s disgusting.”

Interviwer: [laughs]

RF: And then they would have to soak the hojas in water, and you’d have to clean them because there would be like, the strings from the corn, right? And you would have to make sure there were no bugs in there. And then there would be this big spread out on the table and everyone would have a seat, and there would be… the cheese, the grated cheese with the Ortega chilis. And then there would usually be the pork, like shredded red pork. And sometimes there would be the sweet ones, which I didn’t care for–they would put pineapple and cinnamon or raisins, or something, and they would dye the masa different colors. You know, it was just a big deal, very familial. Everyone had the spoons, and spreading out the masa, and then lay the cheese very carefully, and then roll it and tist it and fold it and prop it up, and–it was a big deal. I don’t think it was hours, but it seemed like it did go on all day.

Interviewer: Yeah.

RF: And then they would fill the big pot. And uh, we’d wait and wait for these things to cook, and then we’d have, you know–we’d have dinner the night before, of tamales, and then we would make enough tamales for the party, and then everybody would take home tamales as well.

Context: RF is a woman of mixed Mexican heritage in her mid 50s. She mentions this food being made in her family during Christmastime, and the making and preparation of the tamales being a big event in advance of a large family Christmas party that happened annually. She was born and raised in Southern California, and mentioned the event of going to a very specific store to search for the ingredients for the tamales with her great-grandmother.

Analysis: I think this ritual of food preparation before a big Christmas celebration is a common one, though one as communal and joyous as it is here is not always the case. I think this is a celebration of family, community, and culture, and a way of expressing care for the people around you. This is especially evident in the point made to allow every family member to bring tamales home with them after the event–a show of care and excess made possible only by a festival atmosphere, a way to take care of every member of the family.

Posada Parade-The Inns: Mexican Festival/Holiday

Text: 

Me: “Do you have any festivals that you participate in?”

CC: “Yes, this is like a mix between a festival and a holiday, it’s called Las Posadas. In my Mexican culture, we celebrate from December 16 through Christmas Eve. Every day, a different household hosts and we usually eat tamales and hot chocolate. This 9 day celebration is seen as a traditional religious celebration that honors the birth of baby Jesus. My family dresses up in costumes that signify Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph. We parade around the neighborhood while singing Catholic songs, saying prayers, and basically re-telling the story of how Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to stay.”

Me: “Can you explain the costumes you guys wear?”

CC: “Sure, since there are only three main characters, the younger kids in my family are usually the ones that portray Mary, Jesus, and Joseph. The rest of us dress up as angels or simply just carry a candle as we walk during night time. My grandma actually hand sewed these costumes and they are used every year, I actually don’t know how old these costumes are. As we parade around the neighborhood, it’s a good reminder of what Mary went through and it’s a time where my family and I can appreciate the comfort of a warm home to go to at night.”

Context (informant’s relationship to the piece, where they heard it, how they interpret it):

-CC’s relationship with this festival/holiday stems from her traditional Catholic Mexican household and childhood. Given that this 9 day long festival is celebrated every year, CC has been able to appreciate this practice differently all her life considering it is uniquely performed by her family; as seen within the custom made costumes and the comfort of each household. CC heard about this festival/holiday from her dad’s side of the family, considering they are the only ones that celebrate these daily festivities despite the fact that CC’s mom is also of Mexican descent. CC grew up being exposed to Las Posadas only from her dad’s side of the family as they tend to be more religious and are adamant about continuing the festival/holiday. CC interprets this holiday/festival as a religious experience that can bring one’s community closer together as it’s a reminder of the importance of family, stability, having a roof over your head, and faith during the holiday season.

Analysis(what kind of personal, cultural, or historical values might be expressed) YOUR interpretation:

-The cultural values within Las Posadas stems from a sense of community and lifestyle values that are implemented within a typical Catholic Mexican household. Not to mention, this festival/holiday can also be seen celebrated in Honduras, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and other Latin American countries. The personal values that are expressed within this 9 day long festival celebration is exemplified by the religious and spiritual beliefs of an individual and within one’s household. Considering this holiday is slowly disappearing as it is not celebrated as much, it takes a strong religious household to carry on this tradition and to evoke the importance of re-telling the story of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. I interpret this festival/holiday as a unique story-telling practice that evokes awareness, community, and faith. I see the concept of Las Posadas as a way to teach the younger generation about the story of the birth of Jesus and as a way to increase spiritual faith within a family. Considering I only celebrate this holiday/festival with my great-grandmother (from my dad’s side of the family), I have learned to appreciate the idea that older, more religious individuals are trying to carry on such a unique festivity that is filled with love, food, family, and valuable life stories. The concept of a potloch can be seen within Las Posadas since it is typical to see each family cater to the community/household by bringing different food items and drinks to enjoy throughout the parade. A similar holiday that can be seen in correlation to Las Posadas is Easter Sunday within American culture. The idea of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus during a storytelling church service indicates the similar qualities of Los Posadas given the religious, community, and spiritual values that are evident within both holidays. 

Tamales Christmas Tradition

Nationality: United Sates of America
Age: 23
Occupation: Musician
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text:

“This one is definitely a traditionally Hispanic cultural thing, which I’m not, I’m white, but on my other side of my family so my dad’s side, my grandma remarried and her husband had kids coming into that marriage so my uncle Bobby, my dad’s stepbrother married my aunt Hilda and they actually got divorced so they’re not together anymore which I’ll talk about more in a second, but when they were together um every Christmas we would make tamales and you know that’s a particularly common thing to do in a group and tamales especially are a very Christmas time kind of thing. Um but you kind of build them in an assembly line kind of thing, so the whole family was in the kitchen and my family was like completely white, and the people who—my grandpa who married by grandma was white, it was just my aunt Hilda, but she was kind of sharing that culture with us. We would all be like one step at a time, you know fill the tamale, wrap it in the corn husk, you know the whole process, and when that was happening, I was too young the be in the kitchen actually helping, but I would still see my mum and my dad and my aunts and uncles all kind of in the kitchen making food together, talking and smiling. Um and yeah again, even though it wasn’t like my culture I still grew up around it and it meant a lot to my childhood and was a central part of the holiday experience. They did divorce, I don’t know how long ago, I was probably 8 when they split up, but I’m still um my aunt Hilda um I still call her aunt Hilda even though she isn’t technically my aunt anymore, but she had two children with my uncle and I guess my uncle isn’t my blood uncle anyway my dad grew up with him, but anyway but we’re still on good terms with her and I’m pretty close with my cousins still um my cousin Tory and Ariana, two sisters. Even though I don’t see them as much anymore at least my aunt and uncle, I see my cousins semi-regularly still, but um every Christmas she still drops off tamales or like a soup, and even though we’re not making it like we used to in the kitchen in an assembly line kind of thing there’s still a part of that tradition that carries over even though the family has kind of fractured. Um so yeah I don’t know it’s still kind of nice to have a piece of that tradition still intact. Also, Ariana the younger of my cousins is a vegan so I get vegan tamales at Christmas which is nice. I really, I don’t know it was a very important part of my Christmas. I’m sad it’s not the same as it was but you know my aunt still drops them off and it’s sweet to stay in touch.

 I think seeing everyone in the same room all together working on something together and then we get to make it all together and eat it all together it’s just a really good community thing. I think it brought everyone physically close. Making food I think is pretty important to that kind of thing, making it and eating it. Like building relationships—and there’s some relationships pre-built in and I don’t know I think those are the time where you get to really feel close and it’s not just biological and with this group, I wasn’t biologically related to most of them, but they were my family. I feel like it really helped me get close and made my cousins and aunt more than just family I appreciated it, the community that it created, and I’m glad that my aunt shared that part of her culture and upbringing with us.”

Context: The informant has experienced this tradition since they were born until their aunt and uncle divorced. The primary reasoning as to the purpose of the tradition is to bring family closer together through the sharing of activities. and another’s culture. Ultimately, the informant believes that their aunt just wanted to bring the family closer to her by sharing a part of her upbringing with the rest of the family.

Analysis: The informant’s tradition primarily serves as a way for a family to bond and strengthen their relationships. Furthermore, the fact that tamales are being prepared is significant because the informant’s aunt is sharing her culture and a part of her upbringing with her new family. Sharing part of one’s own culture can help foster intimacy and allow people to get to know each other on a deeper level. The use of tamales as a method of sharing culture is particularly useful because it is a communal cooking process and further encourages family bonding. The fact that the informant’s aunt continues to bring food to the family despite being somewhat distanced since her divorce only further shows how the use of food is used to create connections and send the message of love.