thumb|A tamalada or tamaliza in Mexico. A '''tamalada''' or '''tamaliza''' in Mexico and Mexican culture, and in some Central American countries, is any secular or religious celebration, festivity, party, gathering or meal, where tamales are served and are the main dish.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tamalada |url=https://dem.colmex.mx/ver/tamalada |website=Diccionario del Español de México |publisher=El Colegio de México |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gómez De Silva |first1=Guido |title=Tamalada |url=https://www.academia.org.mx/consultas/obras-de-consulta-en-linea/diccionario-breve-de-mexicanismos-de-guido-gomez-de-silva/item/tamalada |website=Academia Mexicana de la Lengua |publisher=Diccionario breve de mexicanismos de Guido Gómez de Silva |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tamalada |url=https://dle.rae.es/tamalada |website=Diccionario de la Lengua Española |publisher=RAE |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> Historically, it was any gathering, whether at home or outdoors in the country, where tamales were served, thus, it was also synonymous with picnic, an outing or occasion that involves taking a packed meal to be eaten outdoors as tamales are a portable food.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jaques |first1=Mary J. |title=Texan Ranch Life With Three Months Through Mexico in a "Prairie Schooner." |date=1894 |publisher=Horace Cox |location=London |page=278 |url=https://archive.org/details/texanranchlifewi00jaqurich/page/278/mode/2up?q=tamalada |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> It was also defined as a meal among family members or close, intimate friends.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramos y Duarte |first1=Felix |title=Diccionario de Mejicanismos |date=1895 |publisher=Eduardo Dublan |location=Mexico |page=470 |url=https://archive.org/details/diccionariodemej00ramouoft/page/470/mode/2up?q=Tamalada&view=theater |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> It is also known as a ''tamaliza''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tamalada |url=https://laroussecocina.mx/palabra/tamalada/ |website=Diccionario Gastronómico |publisher=Larousse Cocina |access-date=24 May 2025}}</ref>
In the United States, among Hispanics in the American Southwest, a “tamalada” is a “tamale making party”, a gathering of family and friends for making tamales, typically done during the Christmas and holiday season.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Valdez |first1=Andrea |title=How to Throw a Tamalada |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/how-to-throw-a-tamalada/#:~:text=The%20Party,to%20pre%2DColumbian%20times). |website=Texas Monthly |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref>
==History== Tamales are a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalized corn, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaves.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Tamales |last=Daniel |first=Hoyer |date=2008 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |isbn=9781423603191 |edition=1st |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |oclc=199465927}}</ref> The wrapping can either be discarded prior to eating or used as a plate. Tamales can be filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, herbs, chilies, or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.
As tamales are a favorite comfort food in Mexico, they are often eaten on special occasions, in any type of indoor or outdoor festivity, like a birthday party, as both lunch and dinner, and often accompanied by hot atole or champurrado or maize-based beverages of indigenous origin. A ''tamalada'' in Mexico and Mexican culture is, therefore, a “''fiesta casera o campestre'' ”, a home or an outdoor, countryside party or gathering where tamales are the “piece forte” or main dish,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gómez de Estavillo |first1=G. |title=A Book for Linguists |date=1951 |publisher=The Author |location=Mexico |page=329 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Book_for_Linguists/msNQAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Tamalada |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> or just a meal or lunch where tamales are served.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sánchez Somoano |first1=José |title=Modismos, locuciones y términos mexicanos |date=1892 |publisher=M. Minuesa de los Rios |location=Madrid |page=93 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Modismos_locuciones_y_términos_mexicano/IZ8AAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=ta%20malada%20 |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> Mexican philologist and linguist, Francisco J. Santamaría, had defined the term in his “Diccionario General de Americanismos” (1942), as: “''In Mexico, tamale lunch; a meal in which tamales are served, usually at a family gathering''.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Santamaría |first1=Francisco J. |title=Diccionario General de Americanismos |date=1942 |publisher=Editorial P. Robredo |location=Mexico |page=123 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.168412/page/n127/mode/2up?q=Tamalada&view=theater |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> thumb|A ''Día de Campo'' or ''Tamalada'', with refreshments, music and Jarabe dancing (ca. 1860). Because tamales are highly portable, they were often eaten outdoors; thus, ''tamalada'' was synonymous with picnic or “''dia de campo''”, an outdoor gathering or feast where a meal is taken outdoors (al fresco) as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The American Public Health Association |journal=The Sanitarian |date=December 1892 |volume=29 |issue=277 |pages=492 - 493 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Sanitarian/aogCAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Tamalada |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> Tamaladas often included traditional music and dancing, like Jarabe and, besides tamales and atole, it often included ''chongos'', sliced bread with piloncillo and cheese as dessert.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jaques |first1=Mary J. |title=Texan Ranch Life With Three Months Through Mexico in a "Prairie Schooner." |date=1894 |publisher=Horace Cox |location=London |page=280 |url=https://archive.org/details/texanranchlifewi00jaqurich/page/280/mode/2up?q=tamalada |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> In her book “Face to Face with the Mexicans” (1887), American writer, Fanny Chambers Gooch, recounts:
{{quote|“The tamalada is an outdoor diversion somewhat corresponding to our picnics. It usually occurs in the afternoon, in some quiet wood or beautiful garden, and begins with dancing, which is kept up throughout the afternoon and evening. The refreshments are tamales, after which the entertainment is named-atole de leche and chougas [sic pro chongos]. The latter is simply sliced bread with piloncilla (syrup made from brown sugar) and grated cheese thickly spread over each piece, the whole arranged in pyramid form, and is a most delicious dish. A dia de campo (day in the country) with a gay tamalada party, is a most agreeable recreation.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chambers Gooch Iglehar |first1=Fanny |title=Face to Face with the Mexicans The Domestic Life, Educational, Social, and Business Ways, Statesmanship and Literature, Legendary and General History of the Mexican People, as Seen and Studied by an American Woman During Seven Years of Intercourse with Them |date=1887 |publisher=Fords, Howard, Hulbert |location=New York |page=291 |url=https://archive.org/details/facetofacewithm00iglegoog/page/290/mode/2up?q=Tamalada&view=theater |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref>}}
In Mexico, one traditional tamalada or tamaliza is done during El Día de la Candelaria or Candlemas. On Epiphany or “Three Kings Day”, Mexican families commemorate the date by eating a Rosca de reyes cake. Inside the cake are hidden small figurines representing the Christ Child. Traditionally, whoever finds the figurine must make the tamales and host a tamalada on Candlemas.<ref>{{cite web |title=Día de la Candelaria, su origen y relación con los tamales y el atole |url=https://laroussecocina.mx/blog/dia-de-la-candelaria-su-origen-y-relacion-con-los-tamales-y-el-atole/ |website=Larousse Cocina |access-date=24 May 2025}}</ref>
===In the United States=== In the United States, in Tejano culture, Chicano culture, and other Hispanics in the American Southwest, a tamalada is different, for them it is a tamale-making party, a social event or gathering of family and friends for making tamales, typically around the Christmas and holiday season. It is not a festivity, picnic, or meal where tamales are served and are the main dish as in Mexican culture, but rather a communal effort where everyone, family and friends, women, men, and children, participates in making tamales from scratch, often with the leadership of a matriarch, a grandmother or mother.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shaw |first1=Monica |title=HOW TO HOST A TAMALADA (MEXICAN TAMALE-MAKING PARTY) |url=https://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/news/entertaining/how-to-host-a-tamalada-mexican-tamale-making-party/ |website=Fiona Beckett Matching Food & Wine |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Keep Your Traditions Safe at Your Next Tamalada |url=https://www.fsis.usda.gov/news-events/news-press-releases/keep-your-traditions-safe-your-next-tamalada# |website=Food Safety and Inspection Service |publisher=USDA |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> Because everyone pitches in, the Hispanic-American “tamalada” often involves a sort of assembly line where different people are assigned tasks,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Aguilar |first1=Scarleth |title=How to Host a Tamalada With Assembly-line Precision (and Lots of Margaritas) “You should account for at least four tamales of each variety per person.” |url=https://nymag.com/strategist/2021/11/how-to-host-an-all-day-tamalada-with-assembly-line-precision.html |website=New York Magazine |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> like one would prepare the masa or fillings, another one will be spreading the masa on the corn husks, the other person will add the meat filling and so on, down the line.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tamaladas! A Mexican Tradition |url=https://chefrosie.com/tamaladas-mexican-tradition/ |website=Chef Rosie |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref> Many families often have specific recipes and techniques passed down through multiple generations.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marquez |first1=Yvette |title=The Ultimate Guide to Hosting a Tamalada (Tamal-Making Party) |url=https://muybuenoblog.com/how-to-host-a-tamalada/ |website=Muy Bueno Blog |access-date=23 May 2025}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|food}} * Mexican cuisine * Salvadoran cuisine * Honduran cuisine * Guatemalan cuisine
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Central American cuisine