Healing (verb): Re-creating identity after loss. Re-building connections in your mind, body, spirit, and community. Healing is a process that does not need to reach completion as scars can reflect both pain and rejuvenation. Healing doesn't mean going back to the beginning but the capability to continue.
- Ana and Rosa Gutierrez
Tamalada
Many Mexican and Mexican-American women participate in Tamaladas or tamale-making gatherings. It’s a tradition passed down from grandmothers to mothers and granddaughters. Before special holidays like Christmas all of the women in the family gather to make tamales together to serve at the fiesta; then families get to take home the leftovers. During the tamaladas stories are shared, wine or hot chocolate and botanas or snacks might be served, and the women spend hours in each other’s company. In our family, this happened only once a year but I can’t remember when I wasn’t part of it and I looked forward to it every year.
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This year we didn't have my grandma to tell us what to do. We felt isolated as we couldn't come together and crack open a bottle of wine and make tamales together.
But as 2020 has redefined so much of our society we adapted again. We opened our first virtual tamalada with a toast to grandma. It was slightly chaotic, but that is how it always was. We joked about how much my grandma would be laughing at us for putting in too much water with the chiles or not kneading the masa for long enough.
By the end, my cousin said, "Wow, smells like grandma's house". Through the screen, we all took a whiff of our kitchens as we attempted to share in the savory scents of the tamales.
Everyone's gotta cook
What I love about cooking is the collaboration. In my family, everyone gets involved. If you are gonna eat, you better help cook. Or else "you can go jump in the lake", as my grandma would say.
My mother is Puerto Rican but for over 25 years she has spent every Christmas with my grandma making the tamales. Foods like these aren't directly her cultural foods, but either way, she connected with them and loves them. She was a huge help in this project since as she too has been practicing the recipes. Sometimes she adds her own twist and we end up with Chicken and Mole (Mexican) with Tostones (Puerto Rican). Growing up with more than one culture, I love fusion and innovation, as it recognizes all of me.
While the kitchen may have been a space for women, my brother and father are actually some of our best cooks. This year my dad joined us to make our tamales and slathered on a thick spread of masa and meat.
My father doesn't always identify with being Mexican since he grew up in the U.S, but boy does he make the world's best ceviche. He created this recipe himself after tinkering in the kitchen for years.
