Looking through the book Carmen Lomas Garza by Constance Cortez I noticed a similar theme of remembrance throughout a lot of Lomas Garza's pieces. Her overall objective is to show the everyday lives and the special occasions of Mexican-Americans through her experiences she had in South Texas. Not only does her art attract Mexican Americans because they are images that most can immediately identify with but they also illustrate the culture to the “outside” community. The piece titled Tamalada also follows this theme of remembrance. The work features Lomas Garza's family making tamales together in her childhood home. This activity is not just for the immediate family, but it is for all extended families as well, everyone is participating at some station in the tamale-making process. Because it features many generations from Lomas Garza's grandparents to Lomas Garza herself when she was young it highlights the need to pass things down to future generations in order for this activity to live on throughout the family. This one act has the power to gather the family together to participate in a kind of assembly line activity that in the end makes something that the whole family can enjoy.
While I admire a lot of the pieces that were featured in the book, I was really drawn to this piece because it was one of the main things I have always wanted to experience growing up and even now. As far as I can remember I was never able to vividly live this same experience, however, there is a faint memory that I can go back to. With a slight lack of maintained tradition in my life, this image makes me happy as it provides a visual for what making tamales is like but also sad that I did not get to do this myself.
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