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Mexican culture has many different traditions celebrated throughout the year. One tradition my family carries out is gathering to make tamales on Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house. There are many different traditions in Mexico, each Mexican American family may continue with different traditions each year with certain traditional holidays. My family continues to make tamales through this we are able to keep our culture and faith in our family.

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Making tamales is Labor intensive, tamales aren’t something you don’t make alone. It brings our family together. My grandma hosts the tradition at her house, the tamale preparations usually start a couple days prior before the whole family comes over. As kids we stuffed the tamales with meat, which only requires scooping. The older family makes the mesa and put the mesa on the cornhusk, which can require skill and experience. The children help grandma wash the cornhusk. Each step of making the tamale is equally important. As the years go on each family member will have went through many jobs until they one day can lead the young.

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Tamale making symbolizes a family, celebration and unity together we can accomplish great things together while making memories. The tradition of making tamales came from my grandparent’s ancestor’s whom lived in Mexico. My grandparents taught us tamales were made each year because many less fortunate families didn’t have a present to unwrap on Christmas day. Tamales are a symbolic of faith through food. Tamales also symbol the Virgin Mary, carrying in her baby Jesus or a mother carrying a future life

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Tamales can be traced back to as early as 7000 B.C in Pre-Columbian history, when the Aztec woman were taken along in battle as cooks for the army. Tamales were the easiest food to transport during the War because they were wrapped and pre-made already. The mesa and meat was heavy foods so it would fill up people faster. The Aztec woman found new methods for cooking the tamales. They would steam the tamales in a pot underground Aztecs believed that the tamales sticking to the bottom of the pot was a sign of good luck, and would protect them of the dangers on the battleground