Lisa Klor (right) makes tamales filled with mild peppers, Oaxacan cheese and smoked corn.
Tamales are an important part of holiday traditions for many Southern Arizonans. And a recent event at Las Milpitas Community Farm sought to help others get into the tradition by teaching them to make the dish.
Monica Velasco led the class, teaching in Spanish, with Grace Saavedra translating for non-Spanish speakers.
"Remember what I told you about tamales that it was the essence of what?" Velasco translated. "The tamale is the essence of people, of the person who's making it because they're making it to their taste to the taste of their home."
After some instruction, the attendees get a bowlful of masa and begin kneading, filling and wrapping their work in corn husks or plantain leaves.
"I tried two weeks ago to make some not knowing all the instructions so I when I heard about this I figured I'm going to learn from an expert." said Lisa Klor. "I wanted to make them and all my questions have been answered here. So my family will be very happy now that I know how to make these."
Sam Chia got his hands dirty as he took a first crack at making tamales.
"I've never made them before so I thought maybe I'll try making them. And I'm not a very good cook so I figured I should do a class and not try to just randomly make it from like a YouTube video or something like that."
He's a transplant to Tucson. Saavedra said that culture exchange is a great part of the event.
"I think the loveliest part about it is food is such language, right? It's a language where we convey our love to whoever we're feeding. And so to see community members be able to come together, and, even if it's not their culture, learn how to appreciate it."
Chia is a little worried about how his first batch will turn out, so he said he'll be eating them himself before sharing with others.
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