WHY TAMALES AND WHY TAMALADAS?

Tamale comes from the Nahuatl word tamalli, and originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 BC. Tamales are foundational to the spirit and life of Indigenous and African descended people across the cultures of Abya Yala/Turtle Island.

In her chapter, “An Afro-Mestizo Tamal: Remembering a Sensory and Sacred Encounter” in the book Dialogues across Diasporas: Women Writers, Scholars, and Activists of Africana and Latina Descent in Conversation (2012), Meredith Abarca shares the history of the tamal, and explores ‘the cultural and symbolic connections between descendants of Indigenous people of the Americas and people of African heritage via the production and consumption of tamales’. Abarca shares that maize and the tamal are so widespread and intertwined with the land, that during the Porfiriato in Mexico at the turn of the 19th century, people who ate tamales (maize based cultures) were labeled as immoral, backwards, and driven to criminal behavior. (p 167) These social Darwinist claims were made by Mexican scientist Francisco Bulnes in his 1899 book El porvenir de las naciones Hispano-Americanas ante las conquistas recientes de Europa y los Estados Unidos where he declares ‘three races’ - the race of wheat, of corn, and of rice. Basing his arguments on pseudo-scientific historical narratives, he defines the ‘race of corn’ as weak, pacified, and uncivilized. This forms part of the general history of blanqueamineto, in this case under a veil of modernity/scientism during the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship.

There are also lesser known and more recent tamale trails, such as the network of immigrants from Afghanistan who sold tamales in the United States between 1900 and 1920. As Kathryn Schulz recounts in her richly detailed history on Zarif Khan - Hot Tamale Louie, “In the first two decades of the twentieth century, tamale-selling Afghan Khans could be found in Deadwood and Fargo and Reno; in Seattle and Spokane and Wenatchee, Washington; in Butte, Montana, which boasted eighteen such tamale men by 1913, and all over the rest of the state as well.”

Magaly Silva, La Mejor Tamalera de Peru - 4a generacion de tamaleras quien vende entre 5,000 - 5,500 tamales de una variedad increible, cada semana. [Magaly Silva, The Best Tamalera of Peru - 4th generation tamalera who now sells between 5,000-5,500 tamales, of incredible varieties, every week.]

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