When you’re Mexican American, you tend to mix cultures. El Dia de Accion de Gracia (Thanksgiving Day) is a day where everyone gets together with their family, eats their own weight in food, and gives thanks to all the good and bad things that the year had given them. But have you ever thought of a Thanksgiving without turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all of the other things that make “Thanksgiving dinner”? My family tried to do the whole traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but it just didn’t work out. It was one of the saddest thanksgivings ever. We realized that we all hated Turkey and we also weren’t fans of cranberry sauce or stuffing. It was then that we all decided to keep our dishes very traditional to our Mexican side. This means tamales, pozole, tacos, buñuelos. All things that you probably wouldn’t think to have on Thanksgiving, or any day at all.
In my household, you know if it is a holiday when you wake up in the morning to the smell of champurrado and pan dulce. This is always accompanied by Spanish music. Spanish music is an indication that cleaning and cooking are going to go down after a sweet breakfast. Everyone is given a task, the younger ones like me clean the house for hours just so that our family members can comment about how our wooden floors are so shiny that they see their own reflection when they walk in. The oldest of the family are the ones who do all the cooking. The men just sit back and relax and taste the food while it’s being prepared. Everyone has their own role during Thanksgiving and it’s always a blessing to be able to be a part of the cooking. The dish that actually takes a whole crew is tamales. One can prepare them alone, but when it’s Thanksgiving it turns into a huge project, that only a select few are included in it. Tamales are masa (corn dough) filled with different varieties of fillings, with one of the most popular being a blend of green chiles, cheese and some kind of meat. They are usually easy to identify because of their wrapping, which is made of corn husks or banana leaves. They date back to the Aztec times, and they continue to be a staple in Mexican dishes. I remember the first time my mom and sister asked me to be a part of the tamale making circle. I was so excited and could not believe it was my time to shine. Even though all I did was put cheese on the masa mixture, I still took the job very seriously. It’s one of the most prestigious circles one can be a part of. Going from being the one who puts the dishes in the dishwasher to actually making the food everyone will eat is like being sent to represent your country in the Olympics. You cannot let your teammates down, which in this case are your elders. Too much cheese or too little cheese can ruin an entire batch of tamales.
Besides tamales, everyone else picks something they want to bring whether it’s the freshly made tortillas, meat, side salads, or the pozole. Because there’s always at least 4 woman making different dishes, there’s always leftovers for days. You will have tamales on Thanksgiving day that last until the week before Christmas day and bam, you’re hit with another batch of tamales. I never complain because one can never have too many tamales in her life. One thing is for sure; we all give thanks, enjoy our favorite meals a little too much, get food comas then go out shopping to exercise some of the food off and go back to eating the leftovers the next day.