We've lived in our neighborhood for well over a year now so as the time approached for our annual festival I let the committee chairman know he could count on me to participate. I can't work on the road crew repairing pot holes like my hubby but I could surely make tamals. How hard could it be?
Making tamals isn't hard work but it is tiring. Callista and I showed up on day two of the process. My first job was prepping the banana leaves after the men smoked them. I thought this was something I could handle and it kept me out of the way of those who knew what they were doing. I had no idea there is a certain way to do it. Yes, it matters. You have to pull just right to separate the leaf from the center making sure your pieces are a uniform size. I had to be reinstructed several times. Talk about feeling like an idiot! Others have since told me using a knife makes the task easier but that's not how I was taught.
I finally mastered the the leaf separation then moved on to cleaning and sorting. I don't think there is a banana leaf left in our town. Leaves are sorted and stack with a large piece on the bottom then a smaller one in the center. Tamals in Santiago are double leafed. Don't know if they are in other areas but ours were. I also learned that we were making mass production tamals. They apparently differ from the ones people make in their homes. The ones we made were filled with pork, rice and a sweet pepper surrounded by the masa. In their homes, the women add a carrot, raisens and other goodies. It all depends on how their mothers made them.
I ended up doing everything except tying the tamals. By the end of the day I don't think I could've lifted my arm to tie anything. Who would think making tamals was painful.
Callista and her friend bailed after a couple of hours. Bill picked me up at dusk. It was a very, long day. I gained a whole new respect for our neighbors both the men and women.
Recent Comments