la tamalada serna

my family, like just about every other latino family, gets together every holiday season for a tamalada. for as long as i can remember, my grandmother along with her children, have spent a weekend in december making tamales. my aunts and uncles would produce up to 40+ dozen in one afternoon. eveyone would take their share home and the rest would be eaten christmas eve.

well, things were a little different this year, the grandkids decided to run point on the tradition. my grandmother has 18 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. between 30 of us we should come out on top, right.....piece of cake. i really wanted two things to come out of "our" tamlada: for our family to enjoy the tamales we made and to find out how long my grandmother has been making tamales.

christmas eve came and went, and we didn't hear any complaints on the tamales. just saw a lot of empty ojas piled up in the trash can...check.

now on to my second pursuit...

so...my grandmother and i had a conversation while stuffing and rolling the tamales. i found out that she's been making tamales and has been part of a tamalada for 59 years straight. she explained that the tradition began a few years after marrying my grandfather. my grandfather's folks would host a neighborhood wide tamalada and it all started over a promesa to la virgen de guadalupe. long story short: great uncle diagnosed with cancer, great grandmother prays to the virgen, great uncle is cured and bam...la tamalada serna is born. my great grandmother now has to host a tamalada, her promesa, every year that she is alive. my grandmother further explained that this wasn't just a gathering to make tamales...it was a neighborhood block party. my great grandparents lived in the projects, or "courts" as they're called in san antonio, on the westside of downtown. they would shut down their block in the hood and host family and friends from all over town. music, food, friends and family is what their tamalada was about. the gathering started small and grew as the years went by. good times!

my grandfather and great grandparents have since left us, god rest their souls, and my grandmother is getting up in age and no longer has the stamina to deliver mounds of tamales. that being said, i believe it's time for her to sit back and enjoy the foundation that she laid for us.

grandma, thank you for carrying on the tamalada tradition. thank you for all your wisdom and sharing your knowledge with us. your love and devotion will continue through us.

a few snaps from our tamalada