Tamales for Christmas

'Tis the season, when many of my Hispanic friends are busy making tamales for Christmas. Since tamales are such a labor-intensive favorite, they are usually made only for holidays and special occasions. Then, several people often get together to share the work and fun, before they share the fruit of their labor with their friends and families.

When I was growing up in the Hotel MaryEtta in Fairbury, I knew exactly one person of Mexican heritage. Tanya Aranda worked in the hotel as a dishwasher, and sometimes, as a maid. She was a short woman with gray hair, who lived with her husband, Pedro, (I think that was his name) in a little house under the viaduct. I know where she lived because Mom would sometimes provide transportation for her, to and from work, especially when the weather was too cold for her to comfortably walk the mile or so between her house and the hotel.

Tanya was a hard worker, and a loyal, reliable employee, who was willing to work anywhere she was needed. Besides her job at the hotel, it wasn't uncommon for Tanya to babysit for Dan and Laura and me, when Mom and Dad were gone overnight. She also watched Laura sometimes when Dan and I were in school. Whether Tanya walked with us to the park, or just sat with us while we watched TV together, we all enjoyed the time we spent with Tanya.

I think it must have been close to Christmas one year, when she proudly brought a foil wrapped packet of tamales for our family. Mom seemed a bit skeptical about the gift, but she was determined to try them, since Tanya had been kind enough to bring them for us. 

At that time, no one in my family had ever eaten Mexican food of any kind. Mexican restaurants were totally non-existent in our part of the country. We didn't even know what a taco was, let alone a tamale, except that we had heard the phrase "hot tamale," and expected tamales to be way too spicy for our uninitiated palates.

However, Mom carefully heated up the foil packet in the oven for a few minutes, just as Tanya had told her to do. Then, she put the hot tamales on our plates for lunch.

Later, when Tanya asked Mom how we liked the tamales, I'm sure that Mom said something like, "Thanks so much for bringing the tamales. They were a little spicier than we are used to, but we were really excited to try them."

In recent years, several of my Hispanic friends and coworkers have brought savory tamales to share with us gringos at Christmas time. I've learned to enjoy eating them. And, I've also learned one important thing about tamales: 

They taste much better when you do not eat the corn husk wrappers.