Posted on 12/05/2004 4:28:37 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
One family's tamalada marks its 32nd year.
By Suzannah Gonzales
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, December 05, 2004
The aproned women crowded around a square table in the kitchen of the Balcones home Friday night, their hands busy and eyes focused on the work in front of them.
Piles of masa-covered ojas (corn husks), bowls of masa (corn dough) and containers of pork roast obscured the tabletop. With paint scrapers, some of the dozen or so women spread a thin layer of masa on the shucks. Others put a few spoonfuls of meat in a thin column on each masa-covered oja, rolled them and folded them.
While they worked, the women talked about school programs, pregnancy and what utensil spreads masa best.
For the descendants of Gonzala Ruiz, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving weekend mean family and tradition — and tamales.
The family's tamalada— a gathering to make tamales, a Mexican American Christmastime staple — has come a long way since the first one in 1972.
Ruiz, originally from Tamaulipas, had died the year before, and four of her granddaughters didn't want to see her tamale recipe lost.
During that first gathering, Ruiz's eldest daughter, Esther Ancira, better known as Tía Tela among family members, passed down her mother's tamale recipe to her daughter, Ruth Madonna, and three of Madonna's cousins, Esther Stern, Yoli Ruiz and Carmen Tyler.
"Teach us what Grandma taught you," Tyler, 56, recalled them saying that day.
"They knew nothing," said Ancira, now 85. "They only knew how to eat (a tamale). But they were writing."
On a small piece of paper, the women scribbled a list of proportions of the ingredients Tía Tela never measured. The note has yellowed with age and is now kept in an album alongside photos and typed and handwritten notes from tamaladas past.
"Dec. 1972. 1. 8 1/2 lbs of pork roast 2. 1 hog's head 3. 53 lbs. of masa," the note reads. In 1996, "We won the National Championship. We beat Nebraska."
In 1997, guidelines — attendance rules, eligibility and an ad hoc hierarchy — for tamalada participants were established. In 1999, they welcomed 6-pound, 1-ounce, 20-inch-long Baby RJ. In 2002, they celebrated the tamalada's 30th anniversary and what had been a record output: 233 dozen tamales.
By Saturday evening 2004, there were 238 dozen and counting. On the grocery list were 20 pounds of ojas and 150 pounds of pork roast but no hog's head. The group switched to pork roast after one decade and after Madonna's heart surgery.
The women, descending on Austin from points as distant as North Carolina and as close as Round Rock, began about 9 a.m. Friday. They went until 11:30 that night but stayed at Tyler's house for an hour more, talking, counting and bagging tamales.
They started again about the same time Saturday and expected another late night.
Some tamales will be set aside for the big family gathering on Christmas Eve. The rest will be divided among tamalada participants.
The group waits to share big announcements until the tamalada each year. This year's news included four babies on the way and two engagements. The participants laugh, catch up and talk as if they see each other every month.
The tamalada is not to be missed and has never been canceled, persevering through a dozen births, four deaths, five weddings, three divorces and surgery.
Three generations sit around the table now. Kids who once played with their cousins during tamaladas are adults now and are part of the tamale-making process.
For Carmen Stern, Esther Stern's 25-year-old daughter, this year's tamalada was her first official one as a newly appointed "foil star member."
The foil star group is the bottom tier of the tamalada hierarchy, under the bronze and silver star members.
The "gold star" group has the four original students: Madonna, the elder Stern, Tyler and Yoli Ruiz. Their teacher, Ancira, is an "honorary platinum member."
Each group has its designated duties. The gold star members put meat on the masa-covered ojas. The younger Stern cleaned ojas, went to the store and was told to fetch lunch.
Being an official member of the tamalada is a lifelong commitment, the younger Stern explained.
"I'll come every year for the rest of my life for two days," she said. "Someday, when I have daughters, I'd like for them to join."
How long will the tamalada go on?
"Forever; I don't know," Madonna said. "I can't imagine not coming and making tamales."
We are getting some from a neighbor this year. Normallly, I have some people at work who have this same family tradition and get 1 or 2 dozen from them as well. You just can't beat a good homemade tamale.
LOL... That they are, kind of like when my neighbor & I BBQ. That takes a minimum of 6 - 8 hours over the pit.
I remembered some politician doing that. Thanks for reminding me.
LOL!!!!
We now make them as a family project. While hubby is stringing lights next weekend our daughter and I will be starting them.
I make them all year long, but make mega-amounts at this time of the year.
I'm a strong proponent of an orderly and well-enforced immigration policy, and am tired of the "wink-and-a-nod" policy we currently have. But posts like yours make me wonder about the true motivations of some people.
We are getting fresh tamales from our neighbor this year. She (I had no idea she was even Hispanic) and her sisters did this as kids and still do as a family project.
Family traditions are wonderful.
and now I'm heading out to participate in the familly tradition of a friend at her seafood market - Santa is there today!
It's been fun, hope to FReep with you later.
Lard is probably more 'healthful' than margarine, for instance, trans fats and all that. Both my 'Baba's' (one Russian, one Slovak) used lard for all their cooking. Butter was just too 'dear', unaffordable and reserved for special occasions like feasts at Christmas and Easter. My grandfather's favorite sandwich - no kidding, a thick slice of 'black' bread with a 1/2 inch thick layer of lard. It was one of his favorite things to take with him to work in the coal mines. He died at 92 when a new doctor failed to diagnose his recurring (black lung issues) pneumonia.
I was told they are reminiscent of a swaddled Baby Jesus. Nothing better than authentic, hand made tamales. Recently, we were able, here in rural NW PA, to find a truly authentic Mexican restaurant (SW PA) that proudly serves handmade tamales. Yu-um! I'm hooked! I didn't care for them in the past, I'd never had a good one. Those 'tamales' served to us in school out of a can wrapped in waxpaper to keep their shape, sadly deficient, really put me off them, until now...
My next door neighbor used to make absolutely wonderful tamales.
She made pork, chicken and bean varieties. While the basic ingredients are always the same, the spicing is critical, as is the skill of the maker.
For her grandson's fifth birthday she made three coolers' worth of tamales. As a guest I stuffed myself.
There's virtually no relationship between homemade tamales and the grocery store variety.
That does it.
No tamales for you.
Good tamales and beer know no race - at least not on the consuming end !
Bump
Your indeed uncharitable take is dead wrong.
Luckily we have a "Fiesta" store in town that stocks all you need.
Unless you know where to shop. My wife and I winter in the Rio Grande valley and the local panderia has an icebox which sometimes has local made tamales. We serve them with fried egg, as a little running yoke goes well with the natural tamale taste. (I usually have them at breakfast, but per instructions on this post will serve them with beer.
I think lard is healthy --- maybe not for every day but for certain foods if you're going to eat them, you should eat them right. Something --- like eating popcorn without butter -- aren't really worth it. I just had three tamales --- real ones --- made with tons of lard. Delicious!
Mmmm. I have to agree. Our country has relied on margarine like fats and corn syrup in so many foods for over 30 years and then these same folks say Americans are getting too fat and getting many diseases previously seen in 'old' people. Hmmm. Lard does actually taste better in certain foods, no doubt. I remember my grandmother's baked chicken dinner, with lard used in the bottom of the pan to keep the potatoes and carrots and veggies from sticking and chickens she raised herself. There was nothing comparable.
I've never cooked with lard, and am not sure I would even know where to find it in the supermarket.
But considering all the supermarkets around here stock all of the necessities (large mexican population) I guess I could break down and ask - and make my next batch with it and not the Crisco I usually use.
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