One of My Favorite Cultural Traditions: Making Tamales

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Every year around Christmas time my parent's home is filled with the smell of cinammon, mais, and butter, ah yes the time has come to make our yearly tamales!

Growing up in a Mexican-American household brought a long a lot of challenges being that my parents immigrated to the United States only a few years before my brother and I were born. However it also brought so many wonderful traditions that I now really cherish, am proud of, and would like to pass on to my future children. Making tamales for Christmas is definitely one of them. "Tradición" as my Ma proudly states of our yearly hours long intense cooking session.

The making of tamales communicates a strong message in Mexican culture, one of valuing family, nourishment, and collectiveness as Gustavo Arrelano, the writer of the widely popular syndicated column “¡Ask a Mexican!” states. I'm so thankful that my family always made holidays about what they should be about - family and food! Here are some pictures from our tamale cooking fest, take a look if you'd like!

What cultural traditions does your family practice that mean a lot to you now or growing up? 

* A great NY Times article, Where Christmas Means Tamales.

* Tamales' origin and recipe.