The holiday season is full of traditions –– like putting up lights or gathering around meals. And for many folks throughout Los Angeles, getting together to make and eat tamales is a celebrated tradition.
“What you get are tamaladas –– tamale-making sessions where you get members of families and friends and you spend the entire day making hundreds of tamales. It’s the epitome of a holiday banquet,” says LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano.
Tamales are an important part of many Latino communities, and different communities have little variations on the dish. In Mexico, tamales are typically wrapped in corn husks, whereas those in Central America are wrapped with banana leaves.
Every family also adds their distinct touch. Arellano says his family’s tamales are filled with pork and red chiles, though other families may make them with chicken or as sweet desserts.
Despite these differences, the tamale offers a sense of togetherness to families and friends during the holidays, particularly for descendants of Latino immigrants, even as people become assimilated into American culture, Arellano says.
For those who don’t have time to hand-make tamales, Arellano recommends two stores in Santa Ana to buy them. A restaurant, Las Brisas De Apatzingan, specializes in making a tamale regional to Tierra Caliente in Southern Mexico, and La Vegana makes a vegan tamale that doesn’t “almost taste like the real thing, because they are the real thing,” Arellano says.