Traditions

Today I made tamales with my family. I sat in a chair and for about three hours straight helped my mom spread the flour mixture on the wet corn husk leaves. Funny thing is that every year she says she will never make them again because it is too much hard work. But today while she and I sat there working diligently, she told me we were making them to keep with tradition. She said she remembered making tamales in Mexico when she was a little girl and told me how they had to pick their own leaves, instead of buying the bagged ones we did, and they had to grind their own flour.

That got me to thinking about traditions and how many we let slip away when we come to the US. I know there is a larger Latin community now then there ever was, especially that of Mexicans but sometimes I feel we are giving up our traditions to try to fit in with the people of this country. Sometimes I feel we try too hard and no matter what we do they still see us as those Mexicans that don't belong here.

So I just looked at my mother and kept on spreading the mixture on the corn leaves until my hands hurt from holding the leaves up and until my right middle finger hurt from holding the spoon and thought about sitting there one day with my niece and doing the exact same thing....