I absolutely love Tamalada (1988) by Carmen Lomas Garza. When looking at this painting I really felt like this could be a scene on our families house. Everything about the image is reminiscent of the many times our family has spent together making tamales. Generally a multi day affair in which all of the family gathers together to make and assemble hundreds of tamales. All of us packed in great grandmas small kitchen, each of us at a different station using an assembly line type of production. Some of us are masa spreaders, some of us add the meats and sauce, some of us fold, and great grandma is always the one to inspect and add to the tamale pot to cook. This painting brings me joy, as some of my best times have been spent with family in the kitchen cooking, laughing, and preparing for the holidays. The kitchen in Lomas Garza’s painting very much reminds me of my great grandmothers - from the decorations on the wall to the table and table cloth and even the various pots and pans used to hold the husks, meat, masa and sauce. The children in the picture remind me of when my children were little and first learning how to spread masa and assemble each kind of tamale. It also makes me a little sad. As my children have become adults and are off to college, and considering the restrictions that covid has placed on family gatherings, I have missed getting together as a family to carry on this tradition. While this painting may seem like a simple glimpse into hispanic family life, it touches my soul as I see my own family represented in her art and it reminds me that family and tradition are so precious and valuable, especially today when the world seems to have gone mad.
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