{"id":468357,"date":"2025-12-24T06:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468357\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T06:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T06:43:13","slug":"unwrapping-tamaladas-one-san-antonio-familys-holiday-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468357\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwrapping tamaladas: One San Antonio family’s holiday tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

Across holiday party tables there are tamales \u2014 masa or corn-dough pockets, filled with cooked pork or beans or even chicken, wrapped in corn husks. <\/p>\n

More importantly, each tamal is filled with stories. That\u2019s because they\u2019re made during family celebrations known as tamaladas \u2014 a party where you can get wrist-deep in generational traditions.<\/p>\n

In a North Side San Antonio kitchen, Anna Fossum grabs a bottle of champagne. With the pop of the cork, it\u2019s time to make some tamales.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s the official start,\u201d she said to her primas and t\u00edas, (or cousins and aunts.)<\/p>\n

You can think of a tamalada as a labor-intensive party. This is a tradition for Hispanic families in which everyone is put to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it’s a reunion and it’s a reconnection with my family history,\u201d said Anna.<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/p>\n

Anna pours a glass of sparkling wine to get the tamalada started.<\/p>\n

She said she experienced tamaladas organized by her mother when she was younger. Her mom died in 2008, and her grandmother died during COVID. She said the tamalada is about reconnecting with loved ones from all branches of the family tree.<\/p>\n

“That’s what the tamalada means to me. Yes, we’re making tamales, but we’re also making new memories,\u201d Anna added.<\/p>\n

The group convened for this gathering in the kitchen of Anna\u2019s cousin, Jessica Brunatti. Their grandmothers were sisters.<\/p>\n

The goal on this December Saturday morning was to make 27 dozen tamales. That sounds like a lot, but they’ve made more than that in the past. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I don’t know. … We hadn’t counted \u2026 50 dozen,\u201d Jessica estimated.<\/p>\n

Jessica\u2019s mother, Lydia Cedillo chimed in.<\/p>\n

\u201c50 [dozen] was the most that we’ve made at one time, and we were dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are four generations of the Riojas family here.<\/p>\n

Among them are Lydia\u2019s sisters, Irma and Sylvia, and their mother \u2014 85-year-old Mary Alice Garcia. <\/p>\n

Irma and Mary Alice are wrist-deep in cooked, shredded pork when suddenly the doorbell rings.<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/2_Family_TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-0.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Clockwise from bottom left: Bella Young, and her mother Jessica Brunatti, and her mother Lydia Cedillo, and her mother Mary Alice Riojas Garcia<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-16.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Jessica scoops out masa from a bowl and places it on to plates for easier distribution.<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

\n 3 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-1.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Irma and her mother Mary Alice mixing pork for the tamales<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Jessica\u2019s daughter Bella who just drove in from Austin. She\u2019s recently married and arrives with husband Cooper Young in tow.<\/p>\n

\u201cCooper is from Indiana. He\u2019s new to the traditions,\u201d Jessica said.<\/p>\n

Bella wants to pass down this tradition to her future children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it’s very important for me to learn these things because my great grandma, she’s not getting any younger, and she has all these stories and these memories that I don’t really get to hear other than around this time,\u201d Bella said.<\/p>\n

This is an all-hands-on-deck process. They\u2019re wearing Christmas aprons and buttons that say “Las Tamaleras,” or the tamal makers. <\/p>\n

Music rings through the house \u2014 from Christmas carols to iconic Mexican classics like “La Chona,” made famous by the norte\u00f1o band, Los Tucanes de Tijuana. Fun fact: “Chona” was the nickname of Mary Alice\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-11.jpg\n <\/p>\n

The Riojas family (although almost everyone in this photo has a different last time now)<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-4.jpg\n <\/p>\n

The tamale making process can take upwards of 12 hours depending on how many you plan to make<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 3 of 3
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-13.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Tamales <\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

The tamalada is a carefully choreographed operation. The family sits around a large table in the living room with each person spreading the prepared masa onto corn husks, then stuffing them with refried beans or shredded, cooked pork that is the deep red color of chili.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more ingredient: shared family stories. <\/p>\n

It turns out there’s a secret in Mary Alice\u2019s hand. It\u2019s the silver spoon that belonged to her mother. It’s even inscribed with her mom\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

She demonstrates the ease of using it to Anna.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can just go ahead and spread it,\u201d Mary Alice said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! It does spread easily,\u201d Anna replied.<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 2
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-17.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Anna talks with her Great Aunt Mary Alice<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 2
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-9.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Lydia and Mary Alice unwrap the first finished tamales.<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

Mary Alice, the matriarch of this family, was born in Lockhart, Texas in 1940. She said that for her family, tamal-making goes back much further than that. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother was saying … that it came as a tradition from way back from her mother. They were from the Valley, from the Rio Grande,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The fact that the tamalada happens around Christmas is by design \u2014 to get the family together and pass on this tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I leave this world, they can just go ahead and continue, because I know that they already had that in them of being together, keeping the family together, and that’s more, I’d say, more important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 5
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-20.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Jessica’s husband Jason removes the first finished tamales from the pot.<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 5
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-21.jpg\n <\/p>\n

The finished tamales<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 3 of 5
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-22.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Anna and husband Mark take a bite of some of the first batch of cooked tamales.<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 4 of 5
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-8.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Mary Alice tastes a tamal.<\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR<\/p>\n

\n 5 of 5
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tamales\/TAMALADA_PALACIOS_121625-14.jpg\n <\/p>\n

A small strip of husk tied around the tamales indicate that they are filled with beans. <\/p>\n

Joey Palacios \/ TPR <\/p>\n

As the first 80 or so tamales are stuffed and wrapped, they\u2019re put into a big steaming pot.<\/p>\n

This first batch is done about two hours later. The first taste-test is delicious. It’s full of their hard work and decades of tradition.<\/p>\n

Now there are only about twenty dozen to go.<\/p>\n

TPR intern Ivanna Bass Caldera contributed to the production of this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,44679,7035,11090,30120,7202,7203,212939,168430,358,142213,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-468357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-hispanic","11":"tag-holiday","12":"tag-npr","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-tamalada","16":"tag-tamales","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-traditions","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115773192110786529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}