“Tamales tamales. Tamales tamales,” yells a street vendor.
Groggily, I come to my senses and smile when I remember that I am back in Mexico.
The familiar sounds and smells awake me.
My sense of time is thrown off by the international travels
and a red-eye bus ride from Mexico City airport to Xalapa. Shortly after
dawn, I arrive at Suites Jazmin, where the owner Miguel Luis Gonzáles greets me
in his bathrobe and slippers. He leads me through the central courtyard of
orange trees, roses, banana trees, and a fountain to the three-story apartment
complex. From my apartment balcony, I look out to a sea of hanging laundry,
brightly colored houses with potted plants, and dogs wandering through the
neighborhood. This is Mexico, I think to myself.
After showing me around the apartment and explaining a large
set of skeleton keys, Miguel extends a typical gesture of Mexican hospitality: “¿Te gusta la comida mexicana?” (Do you like Mexican
cuisine?). He happens to have extra tamales from yesterday’s celebrations
of el Día de los Muertos. During this
festival of the dead, families gather to share pan de muertos (a sweet bread), hot chocolate, tamales, and other
regional foods. Families decorate altars with flowers and offerings of food to
invite their ancestors to symbolically share the meal and take part in the
celebrations. Despite arriving the day after el Día de los Muertos and missing most of the celebration, I am
still able to taste one of the traditional festival foods: tamales.
That night I as crawl into bed, I hear a familiar call from
the street: “Tamales tamales.”
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| Altar decorated with flowers for el Día de los Muertos |
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| Traditional altar foods: sweet bread, tamales, and fruit |
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| Día de los Muertos decorations |
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| Riding "el piojito," a street car that gives historical tours of Xalapa. |
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