Another successful tamalada is in the books. Says Carmen: "It was the desire of the original cousins to keep the family tradition of tamales at Christmas alive. We never imagined it would go on for 45 years or span [so many] generations. The 'platinum' cousins know what a good tamale is supposed to look like and taste like. We now have the privilege and responsibility of making sure we don’t let Grandma down."
Photography by Knoxy Knox
Back in 1972, four cousins gathered together the weekend after Thanksgiving to try to reconstruct the special Christmas Eve tamales made by their grandmother, Gonzala Ruiz, who had passed away the year before. An excellent cook, she had left behind no written recipe—only her oldest daughter, Esther Ruiz Ancira (Tia Tela)—knew how to make the beloved tamales. So they gathered the ingredients and let Tía Tela carefully taste each step of the way as they wrote down every detail and measurement. Nothing was left to chance or memory.
That first tamalada in Carmen Salas Tyler’s Austin kitchen is now an annual two-day tradition (it moved eight years ago to Laura Teran’s Cedar Park home). It has expanded to include 22 family members from across Texas as well as Maryland, North Carolina, and New York. “After 45 years, the female family fellowship is as important as the tamales,” Tyler says.
This year, over a weekend of laughter-filled assembly lines, family memories, and lots of prepping and cooking, the women made 225 dozen tamales filled with either stewed pork loin or black beans, jalapeños, and cheese and surrounded by their flavorful masa and corn husk wrappings. Not everyone involved got to take tamales home, though. Like all good rituals, there is a hierarchy and system that has stood the test of time, much like the tamale, which dates back to the Mayans and Aztecs. Now spanning four generations, the Ruiz family tamalada shows no signs of slowing down.
A bowl of stewed pork loin is ready for its place in the assembly line. In 1972, cousin Esther Ruiz Stern wrote down the original recipe on a small notepad, and each year, the women added comments about who came to visit, the weather, the winner of the post-Thanksgiving UT football game, and how many tamales they made. At the first tamalada, the women produced ten dozen. Their "world record" is 305 dozen.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
The fresh, flavorful masa is the key to their tamales, of course. One year the recipe fell into a pot of either broth or lard and was almost lost. Cousin Ruth Ancira Madonna, Tia Tela’s oldest daughter, took the notes and started an official tamalada scrapbook. It now fills two binders, and the recipes for the masa preparation and pork filling are typed out and kept in plastic sheet protectors.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
The women have shared family joys and heartbreaks in the kitchen over the years. Since the tamalada began, seven children were born to the founding cousins and one, Sonia Ruiz, has died. While she was being treated for leukemia, "she wanted to be able to lie on the couch, listen to all the conversations, and give her opinion about the tamales," Carmen Tyler recalls.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
Although the women make plenty of tamales, not everyone gets a share. It's all part of the initiation process. A relative who wants to join can start when she has a "platinum" sponsor and can commit to coming to Cedar Park for two days. These rookies, called "foils," must participate for three years before they can get a share of the tamales—they do receive gifts from the other members, though. Carmen says the ranking system started partly as a joke, but it was needed to help maintain commitment to the tradition.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
One of the founding cousins, Carmen Salas Tyler is one of four "platinum" members, the highest ranking. After "foil," comes the ranking of "lead" and half a share of the tamales. After three more years "bronze" members get a whole share. Then comes "silver." Says Carmen: "Once you have twenty years .. you are a 'gold' and will remain a gold until all the platinum members have gone to the tamalada in heaven."
Photography by Knoxy Knox
In addition to teaching the proper tamale techniques, the tamalada offers a chance for younger relatives to learn more about their history. "Most of our parents are gone, but the younger cousins come to know more about them and the special relationships that were/ are a part of the Ruiz family," Carmen says.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
The women surround the four "platinum" cousins who founded the tamalada 45 years ago: (starting L-R third from left) Yolanda Ramirez Ruiz, Esther Ruiz Stern, Carmen Salas Tyler, and Ruth Ancira Madonna.
Photography by Knoxy Knox
Another successful tamalada is in the books. Says Carmen: "It was the desire of the original cousins to keep the family tradition of tamales at Christmas alive. We never imagined it would go on for 45 years or span [so many] generations. The 'platinum' cousins know what a good tamale is supposed to look like and taste like. We now have the privilege and responsibility of making sure we don’t let Grandma down."
